Yahoo, Adobe To Serve Ads In PDFs

Placid writes to alert us to a new channel opening up between advertisers and our eyeballs: PDFs with context-sensitive text ads. The service is called "Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo" and it goes into public beta today. The "ad-enabled" PDFs are served off of Adobe's servers. The article mentions viewing them in Acrobat or Reader but doesn't mention what happens when a non-Adobe PDF reader is used. The ads don't appear if the PDF is printed.

Comments

stupid consumer reflex arc

[epine]

And why don't we slap a consumer chastidy belt on the credit cards of the stupid people everywhere who buy stuff because they saw an image of it somewhere with some unobtainable hottie / stud-muffin posed arrogantly in the background?

I was reading the Globe and Mail yesterday. Corner page ad for some expensive diamond encrusted watch. Danica Patrick's steely gaze in the background, softened with lip gloss and moisture cream just enough so as not to scream out "I'm going to bite your balls off". No fine print to explain to men) "Danica not included" or to women) "You still won't be able to parallel park your Honda Accord".

It sickens me how easy it is to dupe people by visual association. As long as the reflex exists to reach for the credit card, this kind of crap is going to continue invading every media that impinges upon the visual cortex, and then some.

For that matter, why don't we just invent olfactory nanobots so that the messages can be wafted directly into the brain's neural tissue and thus institutionalize the CC reflex arc once and for all? That would be nice. If we consign the emotionally manipulation to another sensory channel, I could at least get my screen back again for useful work.