Last week I read an article by Daniel Lyons about how some websites we all enjoy (Twitter, Facebook) ought not be free anymore.  Interesting idea, but his example of a site that was making money because of its subscription service, Paltalk, was one that I had never even heard of.  It’d be like saying, “Hey, this is Omar, the most popular team roper in all of Saudi Arabia” and the rest of...

The other day, my boss sent around the following ad with the simple request: “Please help me understand this ad.” What's the story? Admittedly, the ad isn’t great. It’s busy, small, and looks slightly cheap. I understand it’s for either a scanner or a shredder at first glance, but that’s about all I can decipher. Here’s how I responded: The message here is simple. Basically,...

There’s no time for introductions, class is in session. How often do you review your work? How thorough of a review process do you do? What do you do for usability testing? How do you find bugs? How many different browsers, comps, systems, monitors, etc. do you use? Do you re-read your copy aloud, do you pass it off to someone else? Nature Valley didn’t, and now they’re stuck with this: On...

I don’t know who to feel more sorry for… the people who created this ad banner or the people who have clicked it. UPDATE:  Here’s another advertising FAIL. I’ve only seen screen captures of this one, so I don’t know if it’s a real ad.