When is advertising intrusive?

I received a call yesterday on my mobile phone from a Delhi number…. A familiar gruff voice said, namaskar, mein Atal Bihari Vajpayee bol raha hoon… I didn’t listen to it further but I am sooooo angry…. How dare the PM or anybody I do not know call me on my cell phone?

I think this is worse than SPAM….. With SPAM mail, I have the option of not even looking at the mail and deleting it straight…. With such phone calls, I am forced to pick up the phone in the middle of whatever I am doing…. India does not yet have a ‘telephone marketing’ culture, and I dread the thought of it….

Talk of intrusive advertising….. To think about it, all advertising is intrusive, because it is rarely welcome….. or sought by the customer…. unless he/she is in the ‘buying mode’ and is actively looking for information…. However, we have come to accept advertising almost as a way of life, and in most cases, do not bother too much…. As with television and print advertising which we know is a ‘necessary evil’….. At worst, television advertising is irritating, but rarely intrusive….. And print is even less so….

This very interesting research (link through adverblog) reports such findings and discusses another recent medium in detail, the internet. While consumers loath telemarketing and SPAM, they accept Web advertising nearly as much as they accept TV commercials and most welcome print advertisements.

I am sure by web advertising, the author refers to pop ups and banners, and NOT SPAM mails….. Thinking about it, pop ups are much like TV ads… Irritating and distracting….. But letting the choice of whether or not to view the ad rest with the viewer*…. And like I said, I believe that consmers are not averse to advertising that is subtle, unintrusive and interesting…..

Then, why do advertisers insist on forcing messages down the throats of consumers? How does it serve their purpose at all? I would think that on the contrary, customers would be completely put off by the advertisement and the advertiser….. Ask me how I feel about the BJP right now, for instance!

———————————————————————–
* As it happens, another qualitative study discussed by adverblog suggests that 50% of pop-up ads were closed even before loading was complete.