VIEWPOINT: Where will all of this end?

Even 'fine' Singapore cannot escape from the onslaught of intrusive marketing - the latest controversy to arise saw mobile telephone network provider M1 somehow manage to sneak an ad campaign onto rival SingTel's network. Basically, this meant that each time a SingTel customer used his or her phone, an M1 voice ad would play. Whether or not this was fair play, or even whether it was a good marketing tactic or not, is not the issue. The issue is this: is nothing sacred? Is there nowhere left untouched, nothing left unscathed by marketers desperate to reach their targets by fair means or foul? Yes, advertising makes the world go around. It makes possible things and services which would otherwise never exist. But what is becoming more and more clear is the mercenary cynicism behind every new ploy. You want to sell diapers? Fine. Sell diapers. But to sell diapers by coming up with a bogus marketing concept which plays off the emotional bond between a mother and her child? Come on. There are some things which should be sacrosanct - for example, AIDS victims should never be used to sell jumpers. Consumers should never have to endure advertising when it is unwelcome. Consumers should be given the choice - to turn off the TV, to flip to the next page in a magazine, to opt out of receiving ads on their mobile phones. Which brings us to the Internet. These days, you don't even need to click on half the banners on the site you're visiting - simply passing your cursor over the ad will automatically take you to the advertiser's site. Then there are those hugely annoying "pop-up" windows which squat on your PC screen like warts on a toad. And let's not start on those secret links which mean that even if you attempt to close the site you're on, another site automatically loads. Try to shut that one down, and boom! Up pops another one unbidden. No one objects to advertising as such. A lot of us actually enjoy it and appreciate its benefits. But no one wants to have their noses rubbed in it. So the next time someone suggests what they think is an incredibly clever, new marketing tactic, ask yourselves: "Would I like it as much if it was someone else doing it to me?" Chances are you'll say "no".

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