Navigation tabs are not an obvious source of comedy. But on ad network sites there are two tabs that tell a joke that is, well, a joke.
Pick a random ad network site and look for these tabs:
Publishers
Advertisers
Click the publisher tab and you read some version of:
We turbo-charge your eCPM! Premium advertisers paying premium prices… blah blah blah.
Click on the advertisers tab and you read some version of:
We will save you money! Efficiency. Optimization. Targeting. Or maybe the coded version of same: “We deliver ROI”.
In Kubrick’s outstanding contribution to the Vietnam War genre, Full Metal Jacket, Matthew Modine‘s character, Private Joker, is dressed down for having a peace symbol on his body armor and the words “Born To Kill” written on his helmet. “What’s that supposed to be, some kinda sick joke”? a colonel asks him.
Honestly, how can you represent both interests simultaneously?
The big holding company media agencies diversified so they could serve competing clients. So it is interesting this curious nexus of publisher and advertiser is not just tolerated, it is industry standard.
It leaves us asking the same question the colonel asks Private Joker, “Whose side are you on son”?
Well, it is a hardball world, maybe we all have to keep our heads till this ad network craze blows over.
