Stop Lunatic Web Content Crazes!

Mark Simon is VP-industry relations for New York search-engine-marketing firm Didit. He also works closely with industry organizations such as the IAB, Shop.org and the DMA. He joined the company in 2004 as director of sales.

With that said, Mr. Simon showed his ignorance in this article in Advertising Age - CMO Strategy - Ditch the Lunatic Web Content Crazes

Here is his list of WCCs. Yes, he did write the titles below in all caps. I guess you learn to scream to be heard when you are this self-serving and WRONG about your chosen profession.

1. ANYTHING HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH VIRTUAL REALITY.

2. ANYTHING HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PHONY-RECOMMENDATION INDUSTRY.

3. "SMART ADS" THAT AREN'T SO SMART.

4. "SEARCHLESS" ADVERTISING.

5. AUDIO-RELIANT VIDEO PRE-ROLL SPOTS.

6. "HUMAN-POWERED" SEARCH ENGINES.

7. KNEE-JERK ALGORITHMIC MEDIA BUYING.

8. BEHAVIORAL TARGETING THAT GOES TOO FAR.

9. TWITTER AND ITS MICROBLOGGING ILK.

10. INTRUSIVE MOBILE MARKETING.

The only one I would probably agree with is number 6, human-powered search engines, like Mahalo.

The one that really makes me angry is number 2, phony recommendation industry:

Do marketers seriously believe consumers are going to be gullible enough to believe product recommendations from people who are being paid to recommend the products? Of course not. And yet a sneaky, stealthy form of word-of-mouth advertising called "pay per post" is based on exactly this proposition.

Wake up, Mr. Simon and realize that all the business as usual advertising methods you employed in the past have been replaced by word of mouth marketing, behavioral targeting that can tell if Mr. or Mrs. is on the computer, algorithms that rule your SEM world, virtual worlds that are worth more than your company, and Twitter! LOL

Tags: web crazes, Simon says, advertising ignorance