Fake Ads to Track Conversions (or fun with a dash of fat hate!)

Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under Randomness

The Philly Inquirer ran an ad that directed you to www.flyderrie-air.com - while it looked real, it was not.  It was created "by Philadelphia Media Holdings to test the results of advertising in our print and online products and to stimulate discussion on a timely environmental topic of interest to all citizens."

You know, I was laughing for a good solid ten minutes before I even thought to look farther into the fake ad to see it was a carbon-neutral aircraft.

Then I scrolled down farther so I could be shown how entrenched fat-hatred (and the assumption that fat-discrimination is somehow normal and okay to use in advertising) has become in society. Because of course to be carbon neutral, the fatties need to pay more. I bet not one person raised a hand in the meeting to ask, “Isn’t this potentially offensive to fat people, whom we regularly belittle and put down as an industry as it is?” Of course not. Fat people were not meant to fly, and this ad just assumes everyone already understands those people are a problem when flying, so they pay more!

A few of my favorite FAQs:

How much will your tickets be?

It depends on how much you and your luggage weigh. These masses will be combined and then turned into a price with our "Sliding Scale". If you and your luggage have a combined weight of less than 200 pounds, the cost savings is considerable-as high as sixty percent for domestic flights!

What is the "Sliding Scale"?

The "Sliding Scale" comes from the notion that each of us is responsible for the energy we use. There’s nothing wrong with toting around a little extra mass-as long as you pay for it.

At least the disclaimer at the bottom of the page is a decent size.

I think it’s smart to track advertising. I think it’s sad they haven’t figured out Google has a fun program called Analytics that could help them with that and they don’t need to treat readers like fools. The problem with viral advertising is that it can be very, “fool me once, shame on you — fool me twice, shame on me!” Which means the next ad campaign…the real one…isn’t going to get as much attention because people will think, “Oh, you got me last time with that joke.”

Bad job Philadelphia Media Holdings. Bad job all around.

How does this relate to networking? It’s a very bad networking move to hate fat people or blame fat people for global warming, which has been done more than in just this funny ad (see here, I’m not kidding!) Ever since they tweaked what number on the BMI was technically overweight and many clinically fat people (and plus-size models) wear size 10. It is bad networking to potentially trigger someone’s eating disorder by not warning them that you’re going to make them feel terrible about themselves when they read about a pound system for an airline. It’s just bad form.

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