Worst Advertising Trick Ever

I love MSNBC, and not just because Keith Olbermann is one the network's stars. I make it a point to visit the site every morning for intelligent writing and headlines from around the globe.

But MSNBC's site is chock-full of terrible, terrible advertising. It's generally easy to avoid- I'm not about to click a flash graphic advertising mortgage refinancing on the side column (or a "Free Government Grant from Obama").

But MSNBC has recently started a new advertising campaign utilizing keyword links that open pop-up advertisements. For instance, in an article about American Idol, a sentence reads, "The March 5th wild-card show is sure to save some of them," with the word "save" hyperlinked.

Like a fool, I clicked the hyperlink, thinking I'd read an article about how the wild-card round works. Nope. I got on ad for Dove Body wash. I like to think of myself as being pretty net-savvy, and I was tricked! For some reason, this made me irate enough that I had to blog about it. It just makes me wonder how many people actually get the Dove Body Wash link and think "oh sweet," then click through to the product's site. Obviously somebody is doing it, or it wouldn't be worth the company's money to buy the ad. Ugh.

All this advertising trickery makes me feel dirty. Perhaps I do need some creamy Dove body wash after all.