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Birth of a Salesman
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This is a fictional story demonstrating the potential of advertising to make itself invisible on the Internet. Links allow people to advertise without the traditional clues that betrays that something is an advertisement. "Where do you want to go today?" asked Mike O. Soft of his friend, Willy Adman, as they were each downing a can of Budweiser beer. The two had been friends since they could remember. "Oh, I don't know, let's try Madison Avenue," replied Willy. They chucked their empty cans into a garbage bin and headed out. Willy is a bit older than his friend, and he was showing him the business. Mike had been down on his luck lately, with his business failure last year and the current divorce proceedings. Ironically, Willy had wanted to be like Mike when they were younger. Now, Mike wanted to be like him -- an ad salesman. "The point of advertising", explained Willy, "is to reach out and touch someone. The average person is like a rock. They won't get the message -- what you're trying to sell -- without you breaking through their thick skulls by using different tactics. They've become habituated to ads that 99.44% of the time they don't respond, so you have to use all sorts of ways to sell. You've got to get them to think differently." They were headed to Madison Avenue, the bulwark of advertisement-free businesses. Trying to sell an ad here was like trying to sell air -- no one would buy it. Willy wanted to expose Mike to the toughest sell so that he could learn the job properly. "When you sell an ad, nothing but net profits count" advised Willy. "Always try to sell a bigger ad. And always try to get a higher price." The car turned onto Madison Avenue and Willy quickly found a parking spot. As they got ready to pound the pavement, Willy gave one last reminder, "Just do it." |