The Problem With Insertion Advertising

While we can applaud brands for trying new ways to engage digital and mobile customer they are still using the same broadcasting approach with everything they do. For example many brands advertise their retail locations on Waze. Waze goofs by putting a banner ad across a phone that you are using for GPS. If I were the one driving and this red banner stuck out in the corner of my eye on my phone, I might think it was an emergency and I could have an accident. It could distract me from driving or confuse me into making a wrong turn. However it doesn’t seem like Waze is discerning in its advertising strategy. While we can applaud McDonalds for pushing “just in time” content and advertising it’s still insertion advertising, a flawed approach. But this tactic is an example of mass messaging, one that I’m not buying and an example of interruptive and ill-timed, irrelevant advertising.

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