Saturday, July 30, 2011

CAPTCHA Ads Create Zombies

Solve Media has created an advertising method that makes life easier--ads that actually save time as you view them. Remember those annoying CAPTCHA checks on the internet? You click to submit something, and out of nowhere there's a fuzzy mess of alphabet soup saying you must copy ALL the letters EXACTLY, to prove that you're a human being? Well, you're not the only one who has trouble with those. Solve Media thinks that web users would rather copy a brand logo instead of garbled text--and so far 650,000 clicks a day are proving them right.

These captcha ads can be completed twice as fast as the traditional captcha, and they're a lot less stressful. With corporate CAPTCHA, the days of squinting and puzzling through Salvadore Dali scrabble-puke are over!

So now, unlimited posting is only a few slogans away. To prove you're a real human, you'll ironically have to act like a consumer zombie. Mindlessly quote the corporate motto in front of you, and you'll be able to pass safety checks online. As an added bonus, you'll remember the logos without even trying! By requiring you to read and repeat their message, the CAPTCHA slogans implant themselves in your memory 12 times deeper than a regular banner ad. With interactive learning technology this strong, we could be teaching people all kinds of useful facts.

Instead, our information overload may cause the first real consumer zombies; sleepwalkers who stumble out of bed murmuring "There's nothing like a Dr.Pepper...RRRGH," while they roam the dark night, searching for a can of soda.



4 comments:

  1. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too? C'mon...everybody's doing it. Interesting concept. Scary even.

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  2. Mixed feelings doesn't begin to describe my reaction to these ads! I hate Captcha, fer sure. I've got one friend whose Captchas are so complex, I miss them the first time as a matter of course. Still, his is the blog I never, ever miss (can the Captcha vampires sense my addiction?).

    On the other hand, if this is an American invention, I can't grouse about it quite so much, because it's American invention and innovation that might save our butts.

    Oh, wait. I most certainly can grouse! These advertising mind-frickers are part of the root of our whole national debt issue. If the Mad Men hadn't gotten so dang clever selling us stuff we didn't need....well, you know where this goes.

    Color me confused.

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