This is not a LOL

I found this creepy bastard on a blog called Post Advertising (Sounds trendy, is this how we advertise in pomo culture? (yes)) Anyway, it's so well targeted that I did actually pay attention to it, and am in fact blogging about it. I suppose it's a case in point of what Post Advertising really is. Apparently something that Story Worldwide will help you with.

So in my case this ad works, but the secondary question posed is "Is this an Ad?" Is it? Lets use our existing Pre Advertising (High Modernist Advertising?) tools.

Formal Analysis:

• No articulated call to action
• No articulated user benefit/benefit statement
• No clear description of product
• No articulated brand, although it's arguable that's is brand is described (by not describing it) through it's intentionally generic design.

Technical Analysis:

• IAB Compliant GIF (300x250, 7.1KB)
• Hard-coded (not ad served, so Ad Ops and/or an Account Coordinator were not likely involved in fucking up the trafficking of this "traffic driver").
  
• No exit link tracking - Even if it IS an ad and it "worked", you'll never know whether it was effective or not.