Networked greeks and banners creak

If you have a spare 20 mins check out this video by Alain de Botton about the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and how modern advertising taps into our Epicurean need for friends, freedom and thought. Early followers of this philosophy created a kind of advertising of their own to remind contemporaries of the rules for a happy life.

Add Art

I am sure that modern day Epicureans would throughly approve of the Add Art project from artist Steve Lambert who has developed a plug-in for Firefox Browsers that replaces banners advertising with art. With an evident lack of imagination in most current banners campaigns I think this could be a big hit. However, it poses the question: If no one is going to see the ads, who is going to pay for the content? No ads – no fee: no fee – no content. I wonder will anyone pay for content they currently consume for free? My guess is no, so before we reach an impasse we must begin to look at alternative ways of capturing audiences’ imaginations with methods that are more subtle, intriguing and more useful than those currently in use. A popular solution is the ‘Content is King’ approach: give consumers something they actually need and in return they will interact with your brand/products. There are already examples of this strategy beginning to work on the web – but not really with Banners.

As display advertising as a whole begins its inevitable path towards digital delivery and networked control we begin to encounter digital banners in the real world. These ads, if not fully interactive, will at least be re-active via mobile technology. Could it be that eventually traditional platforms such as ad shells and billboards will be forced to adapt and deliver to our Epicurean led sensibilities and if so what sort of content might they begin to deliver?