I cannot believe it - a text message, accompanied by the little “beep” and “vibrate.” Just enough to distract me if I had been driving.
Am I gonna start getting 10 junk messages a day, turning a convenience into an annoyance?
Jerks.
Of course! Did you think comporations would let this vast network of easily interfaced devices sit idle for long? I just got a message from my carrier yesterday. Pretty soon, you’ll be getting ads via SMS all the time. You’ll probably be able to block them somehow, but it’ll be a PITA anyways. Isn’t life grand?
That’s just a hint of things to come, my friend. Just think, soon they’ll be able to send location-specific signals, either using GPS technology or just a local transmitter, spamming you with stuff based on where you are! Every time you pass a Wal-Mart, you’ll be paged with today’s sales! Every time you drive to a new town, they’ll page you with directions to the nearest Tastee-Freeze! Every time you enter your own home, Owens-Corning will helpfully remind you that you need more insulation!!
OH JOY, the age of advertising is upon us!!!
Max is right. It’s a technology that’s already been pitched to me.
I haven’t bitten because I’m not really marketing a consumer product. But it’s coming. Ten bucks says soon you’ll have to pay to avoid been spammed on all of your gear.
I hate these people. I don’t even have text messaging activated on my phone, and I’ve started getting SPAM TEXT MESSAGES!!!
The other day I got a call on my cell phone, the one that ONLY MY WIFE HAS THE NUMBER TO AND IS INSTRUCTED TO ONLY CALL IN AN EMERGENCY! I was driving, fumbled for the phone (inside my jacket on the passenger seat, convinced that someone was on the way to the hospital, only to hear an AT&T rep asking if I wanted to change my fucking calling plan!!!
Bastards.
Most folks in the interactive ad industry understand the difference between someone’s cell phone and the mailbox at the end of their driveway. But then again, there’s always the bottom-feeding scumbags of the industry that don’t care how they make their sale. If spamming 100,000 cell phone users gets them a single sale, they’ll do it in a second. Because scumbag bottom-feeding Direct Response assholes need to make money NOW, NOW, NOW and damn the consequences.
Dunno if you’re interested, but here are a couple of cautionary articles I wrote about wireless advertising a while back…
“Wireless Is Its Own Animal” from June, 2001.
Wireless Ads: Are They Spamlike? from November, 2000.
I wrote the second article after meeting with a bunch of technology vendors that were approaching wireless advertising like spammers approach e-mail marketing. They were looking for pilot advertisers willing to take a risk to exploit the new medium. I told them they were insane and that none of my clients were going to expose their brands to the backlash that would result from spamming people’s cell phones.
Since those meetings, the schmucks who believe in broadcast wireless advertising have distributed press releases that showcase several bits of “research” that come to the conclusion that people like wireless ads. Of course, if you ask about the research methodology, you’ll find that one of the studies was conducted with a small group of college-age kids, and that the wireless company funding the study completely skewed the results by paying a good portion of these kids’ wireless bills. Of course they’re going to say “Yes, I like wireless ads” when the company asking the question is giving them a free ride on their cell phone bills.
It’s enough to make you wanna smack someone. Where’s Smashy when I need him?
They tell me that you get spammers when you text a competition or company. They tell me that you get spammers when you text a lot.
The times I’ve used text in my life can be counted on the fingers of one hand. They were all to friends and family. I still get tons o’ spam.
Bastards.
pan
Hey, it’s the wave of the future. I see no means (other than violence) to stop it. If it works, marketers will do it.
Question: Would you accept a deal in which you got free long distance in return for hearing a 15 second ad every 5 minutes while you spoke? Bear in mind both you and your listener would hear it.
"And let me tell you about Aunt Louise, Marge. Turns out she and…
“CRUNCHY FLAKES! SO GOOD YOUR TUMMY WILL ACHE!”
etc…
How about it?
Excuse my ignorance, but doesn’t it cost the text-spammers money to send a text (I suppose in many cases this would be small compared to the revenue generated if hapless phone-user bought their product).
I haven’t had any of this (apart from one text from my phone company - Vodaphone - telling me about new rates etc). I’m not looking forward to it.
JC, not only no but HELL no!
I can’t stand being interrupted while I’m on the phone. It’s my last bastion of privacy. What I say on the phone is intended only for the person listening on the other end.
If they can put ads on, they can listen in.
Also, when they send a message to you, do you have to pay for the airtime? That was my impression. Thus, they cost you money.
I’m generally OK with standard telemarketing, although it is annoying, but this is just bizarre. This is akin to actual harassment. They call you at work trying to sell you something, or, like was already stated, you think it’s an emergency and you fall all over yourself trying to find out what the problem is.
As far as I’m concerned the telemarketing business is getting out of hand.
I ask because I read about just such an experiment in Europe about 10 years ago or so. I believe it was in Sweden but I could be wrong.
I also don’t know anything about the success…just that it was attempted.
But it’s an interesting question. Telephone service on a television model.
Sorry to break the news, but they can already listen-in. The only thing that stops them from doing so is the law, and that doesn’t always apply. Folks with scanners have been doing it for years, mostly to steal your number for illegal use.
Echelon and similar technologies do it wholesale, looking for key words and phrases.
Privacy is only yours so long as laws and forbearance make it so. If the Gov’t wants to listen-in, they will. If industry wants to listen-in, they can, so long as they don’t get caught.
Believe it or not, they’ve spam you in China. At least a couple times a week I get some text message spam on my phone. I never text message, never get text messages and delete the little bastards as soon as they appear. Argh.
I got spammed on my phone the other day - and it was a spam from AT&T telling me about how great text messaging was.
I called them right away and told them that I never, ever, ever, ever wanted to get another ad sent to my phone ever again.
They supposedly put me on a do not spam list, but I’m not sure if that’s going to do anything.
I’ve been waiting for you guys to finish paying for the infrastructure by the minute before I got a cellphone, but if this pays for it sooner, okay.
Then I’ll get one and have endless fun finding out how Alberta Company XXXYYY got my number and making irate phone calls to my service provider, threatening to change to Sprint or whatever if it goes on.
The wave of the future? Hints of things to come? That future’s already here for some of us. My phone gets spammped daily. Of course Japan’s phone network is a bit ahead of ya’ll in the US.