Industry backlash against instrusive “urban spam”.
Courtesy of a gracious informant from Contagious Magazine 
(an advertising and marketing industry magazine).
It seems that even advertising industry insiders are growing sick and tired of the increasingly intrusive nature of advertising, and have dubbed the latest tactics “urban spam”. The pro-industry “trends and lifestyle” website psfk.com offers up some thoughts on the rise of “advertecture” and other intrusive and overwhelming advertising techniques, and even offers a “warning” in the form of this video (hosted by YouTube).
It’s fascinating to find that even advertisers and marketers feel that some tactics overstep the mark. Even some pro-industry publications and organisations are decrying “urban spam” practises. It would be very easy to caricature the people who create these campaigns as idiotic Nathan Barleys , since their determination to dream up ever-so-clever op-art in exchange for cash, in order to experiment with the public psyche, is seemingly both narcissistic and sociopathic. However that would be to offer them a way out. “You’re over-reacting!” they’d cry. “We’re just having a larf!” they’d wink. But it’s not just members of the public who are finding this guff increasingly irritating; it’s clearly becoming an embarrassment to the industry. Of course “extreme ad placement” garners praise from some quarters as well as criticism . Good lord. “Extreme ad placement”. How do these people sleep at night?
In fact, here’s a link to the blog of an advertising account planner called Russel Davis , since he’s blogging about how unsavoury he finds urban spam (although unsurprisingly he does tend to have a pro-advertising slant). Here’s a quick quote to tempt you over there:
We should all stop before someone invents a Dr Strangelovey interruptive marketing doomsday machine that we can’t turn off.
Hallelujah brother, although I think it may already have happened.