What’s wrong with style.com . . .
As I mentioned before, CondéNet got back to me to let me know that they were working on the problems at style.com. They even sent me a cookie to help me diagnose the problem. After opening the email, I was able to access the site with no problems and no annoying pop-up commercials.
Yeah, the content is still there and it’s still first-rate. But how long is it going to be before I’m annoyed by another barrage of pop-up advertisements that manage to get through my fortress of antiviral software and crash my browser again?
What style.com needs to realize is that they’re a magazine. People who read glossy fashion magazines ENJOY the ads. Fashion advertising is every bit as creative as fashion itself, and people like me know as much about the photographers and the models as they do about the clothes.
So why not break up the slideshows on style.com with print-style ads instead of commercials that turn my online magazine-reading into online television-watching? When I see a fashion magazine advertisement I like, I stop and I study it. I come back to it over and over again.
Take the photo posted above, for instance. Adrienne Butikofer is a Canadian designer who posted a comment on my blog. I just happened to look at her site afterward, and I thought I’d peruse her S/S ’09 collection. That’s where I saw this photo. It intrigued me. It almost looks like it was taken as an afterthought in the studio after the photoshoot was finished. Still, it made stop and study the image. I’ve now made a mental connection between the brand and the branding.
Isn’t that what advertising is supposed to do? So why try to annoy me with video when you could be courting my business with creativity? If I had to stop and look at an ad in between every runway shot I click on during a style.com slideshow, I wouldn’t be annoyed if the ads were the same ads I was looking at in the print version of Vogue. But instead I have to watch the same freaking Ralph Lauren commercial a hundred times over. All that’s made me do is pray for the day that Ralph Lauren goes belly-up.
Get a grip, style.com. I am your target demographic. I am your conspicuous consumer. Stop making me hate you so much.
I absolutely love that pho-to. I can’t articulate why, but it’s fascinating to me, and probably for many reasons.
lindseyquinn
January 18, 2009 at 1:25 am
You prove my point. A great photo resonates with the reader and sets the tone for the label it represents. It resonates with me far more than a bad commercial that slows down my computer and makes my online magazine reading a chore.
auntiefashion
January 18, 2009 at 5:39 am
I could not agree with you more. Worse yet is the unclosable bubbles that pop up over the text on some sites. I do think a major re-think is on its way dealing with the always tumultuous love triangle of magazine, advertising and profits.
serah-marie
January 23, 2009 at 4:50 am
Sarah,
I’m a mid-fourties guy doing research on the ad industry’s use of “sex sells” advertiseing and ran across the photo…I love it!
Keith Bates
December 14, 2009 at 6:39 pm