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Advertising agencies are furiously pumping out copy that incorporates bogus, self-referential URLs. The tactic spread so fast, as the dot-coms saturated old-media advertising in the 1999 holiday spending season, that as I predicted it's beginning to die out before the new millenium is three months gone. Ad agencies, which must monitor public tastes and trends in order to stay relevant, are saying of the self-referential URL, "That is just so last century."
- WWW ENJOY THE SHOW COM
- www.dont_get_it
- fastenyourseatbelt.com
- dot-dotcom.com
- fishbaitjobs.com
- www.wear your brand awareness on your sleeve.com
- www.heretodayheretomorrow.com
- www.saveawholelotofmoney.com
[2000-04-17]
Advertisement, theater marquee, natick, MA
Dan Kalikow <drdan at kalikow dot com>
On the marquee of Loew's theatre, Rt.9, Natick, MA USA: WWW ENJOY THE SHOW COM. (Guess their stick-on letters didn't include any dots.)
[2000-04-17]
Advertisement, WXIK radio, Lansing, MI
Gary Stock <gstock at aeneid dot com>
On the way to work this morning, I scanned into a radio advertisement, catching only the last half. The announcer owns a company that he had been discussing with his son. His son declared how important the Internet will be to every business, and warned him: "You www.dont_get_it, Dad! You www.gotta_be_there!" The announcer then described a written guide to creating your Web presence. If you'll send your address (didn't hear any price mentioned), he says "www.I'll_give_it_to_ya!"This was on FM 94.1, WXIK, Lansing / Jackson, MI. I'll admit that I just couldn't listen to country-western until the ad appeared again, so the details may be lost to history.
[2000-05-03] Stephen T. Sorenson wrote to supply details of this ad, or perhaps of its inspiration:
I believe the www.don't_get it.com meme is from a radio commercial for Oreck Vacuums. I first heard this one about 6-9 months ago in Phoenix.
[2000-04-17]
Advertisement, Philadelphia TV station
Brian Spangler <bspangler at earthlink dot net>
Recently a Philadelphia TV station started advertising that they were now syndicating the series Star Trek: Voyager. The tagline of the ad was "Think of it as fastenyourseatbelt.com." Apparently no one had done their homework; the name had been taken a year and a half before. (Warning: If you try to visit the site, turn off JavaScript first: there is a page with JavaScript code that tries to steal your e-mail address by automatically submitting a form.)
[2000-04-17]
TV commercial, Michelob Light
Bennett Haselton <bennett at peacefire dot org>
Michelob Light has a commercial showing the floor of some stock exchange, with company officials standing over an unfurled banner reading dot-dotcom.com, and investors frantically buying and shouting "What do they DO?!" "WHO CARES?! They drink Michelob Light!" (The name, grabbed on 22 February, is "parked" at the site of the domain-name registrar that signed it up.)
[1999-12-15]
Advertisement, Java Report (1999-12), p.77
Mike Totman <totty at powersurfr dot com>
Careercentral.com uses this nonexistent URL in an ad.
[1999-12-15]
Advertisement, Wired 8.01 (2000-01), p.151
A company called 4imprint.com will imprint a company's promotional items on almost anything. Did this ad help you to remember who they are? Didn't think so.
[1999-12-15]
Advertisement, Boston Globe (1999-12-15), p.C3
EMC Corporation, maker of storage systems, is launching an "EMC2 Proven" branding campaign modeled on "Intel Inside." EMC's ad agency clearly judges that in December 1999, splashing a bogus and self-referential Web address is a clever way to get readers' attention.
[1999-01-03]
Advertisement for buy.com in PC Week for January 4, 1999
The ad features the above bogus-sounding domain name alone on a page, at the center of a lime-green target. The URL is in fact reserved; it takes you to the home page of BuyComp LLC. The company also holds buycomp.com, buysoft.com, buybooks.com, buyvideos.com, and buygames.com. It's one strategy for countering amazon.com, I suppose.
Www.saveawholelotofmoney.com is included here because it sounds as if it should be a bogus Web site, but is in fact genuine. The lines continue to blur.
