[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

[Scott Elcomb]

On 5/24/07, Sy Ali <sy1234-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 5/24/07, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > I know there are commercials that have very succesfully put some
> > companies on a permanent ban in my mind, where I simply refuse to ever go
> > to one of their stores because their advertising campaigns are just so
> > amazingly stupid.  Maybe they are trying to attract a different type of
> > person, whoever that is. :)  So no I am not immune to advertising, but
> > it isn't always a possitive thing for the advertiser.
>
> For me, this applies to websites.
>
> For example, it *really* pained me to shop at www.cmdistro.com .. I
> ended up writing and rewriting a list of issues which I sent only
> after boring through the store enough to actually buy something.
>
> I look at some awful awful spam, emails, banners and websites and feel
> the same sort of horror as seeing a terrible non-ad on tv.

Ok, so to tie the original post back to Linux and it's adoption...

All advertising - by word of mouth, "strategic partners," radio and/or
television, the web, etc. - is risky.  Get it right and you make
money.  Get it wrong and you face loosing business.

I'll never be able to forget listening to Marcel Gagne at last year's
FSOSS Symposium (York University) where he mentioned a discussion he'd
had about renting billboards in Toronto for the purpose of raising
local awareness about Linux.

Apparently it's relatively inexpensive (as compared to other forms of
advertising).  Assuming that there are some marketing types around, it
sounds all well and good - but as Al Gore mentions in the excerpt from
"The Assault on Reason," individuals (and by extension non-profits)
face a difficult time 'advertising' their interests/concerns.

Are we capable of overcoming this?  (Just thinking out loud so-to-speak.)

-- 
Scott Elcomb

"Our Founders' faith in the viability of representative democracy
rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry,
their ingenious design for checks and balances, and their belief that
the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free people." - Al
Gore (The Assault on Reason, 2008)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  - Benjamin Franklin

'"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting
on its shoes."  - Mark Twain
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