September 25, 2002
Ridiculous pop-up

Received this pop-up at work today while browsing some useless site mid phone-meeting. I'm actually kind of sorry I did not click on it to see who it was and what exactly they were selling (I'm guessing a firewall), but the ridiculousness of it struck me enough to take a screen shot.

It's funny.. however there is a dark undertone here. Essentially these companies are taking advantage of the lack of knowledge of the average computer user to push their products. Shame on them.

Imagine someone like my mom (as clueless as is humanly possible when it comes to the internet and computers). If she had seen that I'm quite sure she would be calling me screaming about an error message that came up with some horrible warning.

I hate marketing. Hate it, hate it, hate it. If a company needs to use deceptive practices like this to advertise their product they don't deserve my (and anyone elses that I can convince) patronage.. should have checked who it was, sigh.

Posted September 25, 2002 09:20 PM in Funnies
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Comments
On September 25, 2002 09:29 PM Dan de Isaacs added:

Heh. I love that one. My CEO's secretary came into my cube in a panic thinking her PC had been hacked. It pays to be a patient guy. :)

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On September 26, 2002 12:17 AM Techie2000 added:

LoL. Yeah I've seen that too. In Linux it looks stupid. My mom got tricked by it...

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On September 26, 2002 12:35 AM indi added:

Unfortunately to find out which company is doing such despicable things you need to click, and by clicking you are proving to them in a small way that the marketing is effective to at least get your attention.

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On September 26, 2002 02:32 AM Jeremy Zawodny added:

Have you read "Culture Jam"? Highly recommended.

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On September 26, 2002 08:59 AM kasia added:

No, I haven't.. looks interesting.. In my wish list now, thanks :)

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On September 26, 2002 02:13 PM jan added:

Culture jam is good. I'd also reccomend the more widely known "adbusters". They've been culture jamming for some time now and their stuff is pretty right on.

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On September 27, 2002 10:35 AM Jaden Jahner added:

I saw one similar in Earthlink's webmail, and had to post it in the Water Cooler. It is a shame what people will do to try to earn a buck on the Net (not that this is the worst ;-))

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On September 28, 2002 05:02 PM Jeff Winkler added:

I agree, this is a particularly hilarious example. Unfortunately, stuff like this works.

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