Hep me, I've been monetized
December 19, 2006
On a 40-minute US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Richmond last night, I experienced what may be a new low in the annals of craven marketeering.
After liftoff, the cabin video monitors descended, not to show the usual crappy inflight TV programming, but instead to subject us to a 30 minute stream of paid advertising, with the in-cabin loudspeakers turned all the way up (no headphones required, unless you were jacking up your iPod to drone out the info-noise). What ensued was a barrage of credit card come-ons, vacation package shpiels, sponsored infomercials and flat-out commercials that would have sent you reaching for the remote if you weren't strapped into a seat at 15,000 feet with one channel of videotainment blaring 20 inches from your face.
At the end of the video, a beleagured flight attendant had to sulk down the aisle profferring a fistful of credit card applications; she looked like a dejected hooker. It was the ugly triumph of marketing over user experience, and a sure sign of a company in trouble.
File under: User Experience
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