I wrote a little piece
over at the AdAge DigitalNext blog about how display advertising sucks. Those familiar with this site may remember some of the ideas from
"Random Thoughts on Online Advertising" (oh, and big thanks to those who commented on that post and helped me get some thoughts in order).
In my mind, this is the crux of the piece: "Without thinking about where the display is sitting, the creative is left focusing on a totally-out-of-context consumer. The big problem I have with this is it pretty much gives up the biggest advantage the web has over other media: the ability to target smaller groups affordably with discrete messages. As soon as we go with a single message across all these sites we're left with a glorified TV ad." Hope you enjoy.