Gmail Ad Almost Got Me, and Subliminal Ads

by seosurvivor on June 24, 2008

Good morning fellow survivors!

As I was checking my Gmail this morning I noticed a clever little Gmail Ad that almost got me to click on it. Not because of the product offered, or because I was interested to see what was in the other site. I almost clicked on it because there are some elements that triggered some of my robotic behaviors in my computer. Here’s the ad:

Clever Gmail Ad

Can you tell what triggered my robotic behavior? Hahahaah, no no no, it wasn’t the text saying “Someone has a crush on you..”. It was the “(1) New Message” text. You see, those ads aren’t new, and I would never automatically click on something like that elsewhere on the web. The thing is I’m in my own trusted Gmail Inbox, and I see a perfect little link saying “(1) New Message”, I automatically put my mouse cursor on top of it. I had to pause, read the rest and think for .5 seconds in order not to click.

The concept of advertisers capitalising on people’s robotic behaviors isn’t anything new, it just feels weird when you realize they almost had you. Now think of this, for everytime you realize that they just had you, there have been at least 10 or more times that they got you and you still don’t know about it.

Watch this cool short video about something similar to what I’m talking about. It’s called “Subliminal Marketing”, scary and interesting stuff…

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{ 1 trackback }

What subliminal marketing can do to you
July 17, 2008 at 8:55 am

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Fumi Matsubara June 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm

I purchased a cabin rental for my snowboarding trip through ads displayed in Gmail.

my friends in Oregon was lagging and we were struggling finding the perfect spot and I was getting totally frustrated. The ad was triggered by the conversation between all of my friends that was on that trail of email conversation. Yeah, I know, that’s the whole point. But to me, coming from the SEM side of things, I was like woa, so that’s how it feels to be served up.

In any event, stop buying porn online Ricardo!

Search Engine Optimization Company July 8, 2008 at 11:22 am

well , i dont know whats the use of putting these ads on gmail? It will end up sending untargetted visitors.

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