I never click on banner ads. Seriously. Never.
But, today was different. I clicked on a banner ad. Some genius has created a viral campaign that I’m sure will take over the Internet soon.
Here’s the play-by-play for how someone got me to click a banner ad:
1) I was browsing RealClearPolitics a solid political site that I’ve been visiting a lot lately and I followed a story to the HuffingtonPost.
2) At the HuffingtonPost I got sidetracked by their entertainment section and ended up on a juicy article titled “Hasidic Actor Walks Off Natalie Portman Movie” (Sorry, I’m human).
3) One of the links in the Hasidic slash Natalie Portman article led me to a site called Just Jared. The banner ads on Just Jared were just too damn intriguing not to click.
HuffPost link:
Just Jared banners ads:
4) The intriguing banner ads lead me to a blog called I Hate Sarah Marshall. Here is the “About Me” for the blog:
“Me…me, about me. Well, I’m Peter Bretter; I’m 26…a television composer who has the world’s hottest girlfriend…Sarah Marshall from TV’s CRIME SCENE. We’ve been together for five years. I’m currently writing a musical about Dracula. Yeah, yeah, I know. But that’s for another blog entry.”
After reading the “About Me” I continued to skim down the rest of the posts. It appeared that the “television composer who has the world’s hottest girlfriend” was breaking up with his girl in a very public and vengeful way. That always make for an interesting late night read.
FYI: The first post was on Feb. 28, 2008. All the first posts gush with affection for Sarah Marshall, which makes the title of the blog “I Hate Sarah Marshall” even better.
5) At one point I clicked on link which led me to this site, which is home to the movie trailer for the upcoming “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” movie directed by Judd Apatow.
Pure genius.
I didn’t hear about the movie or the viral ad campaign before. It was all completely organic.
That’s how to get me to click a banner ad. And, blog about it. :)
