BS: Do popups actually work?

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 12:17 AM

I wouldn't know a virus if it broke my door down, slapped my across the face , and said 'Hey, i'm a virus!'...

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 09:28 PM

A famous advertising guru once said "It's true that only 50% of advertising works. Now if I only knew WHICH 50%..."



My little old pop-up doesn't always work as well these days at my age....

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 09:21 PM

In 6 years I have only encountered one virus. It nearly destroyed my computer. Cost me quite a few bob and an arm and a leg to get rid of it. (They got better)

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 05:07 PM

My NAV has caught many infected attachments coming in on e-mail over the years, but they were attachments I never would have opened anyway (except for one exception that had falsified the originating address as a friend of mine). I did get infected by a Trojan Horse once, while I was checking e-mail half-asleep (never drive or operate a computer while drowsy), but it was easily removed with a small download from Symantec.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 05:01 PM

Haven't seen one on my own PC since I installed Norton.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 04:57 PM

Me too, but you wouldn't try surfing/downloading or opening e-mail without an AV program, would you?

I used to go without a firewall back on dial-up too, but with the cable modem, the first thing I did was download and install ZoneAlarm.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 01:52 PM

I have been online since before there was an ONLINE, and I can count on one hand easily the number of times I've encountered a virus...

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:37 PM

I'd say they don't work just from the annoyance factor. Also somehow someone has decided to put me on a list containing pornographic pop-ups which the wife goes nuts over even though I can show her from the computer history that I don't visit those type of sites. I've got the pop-up blocker but sometimes they come thru anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:34 PM

I've heard that junk mail and telephone solicitation gets about a 4% response rate (i.e., 4% of those who receive the mail or get the phone call actually buy the product or service). That makes it worthwhile for them to keep doing it.

I have a good pop-up blocker and a very good firewall, but some stuff still gets through. It's a never-ending battle. These folks regard blockers and firewalls as a challenge to be overcome.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: GUEST,US
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:14 PM

I use the Firefox browser downloadable for free from mozilla.org

You can get viruses and spyware installed on your computer by clicking those close buttons on the popups.

And I have a Telezapper on my phone line which has eliminated allmost all telemarketing calls.

Uncle Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:52 AM

The new IE that came with XP's SP2 update has a pop-up stopper (finally!) that stops about 95% of the popups. It also interferes a bit with legitimate pop-up windows (yes, there are a few) that some sites use, but it allows you the choice to open those if you wish.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Peace
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:47 AM

Go to Mozilla Firefox. Also add Spybot. Both free downloads. Stopped popups completely.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: tarheel
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:40 AM

well,if making the adverage joe at home with a computer and very little knowledge about it,they work as far as making my life miserable!!

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Nerd
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:35 AM

Actually, one of the secrets of advertising is that no one knows for sure if it works. They cannot isolate a community enough from other brands and other forms of marketing to do a controlled experiment. Advertisers assume it works, because people in focus groups tell them that a certain ad would be likely to make them remember and buy a product. But to test if someone really does buy a product because of an ad is hard to do.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 12:05 AM

I've asked the same question about phone solicitation...

And the best answer I got was "If it didn't work, do ya think they'd keep doin' it?"

So I guess maybe it must eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 10:16 PM

They must work on some strange people in some rare occasions. But until they do, they don't cost the advertisers much so they are worth keeping going. Like with email spam, the perpetrators don't really give a rodent's rectum whether 99.9% of the people it is inflicted on either hate it or ignore it. There are no rules against it and the price is right so they'll keep it going. Get a pop-up stopper and a junk email filter and try not to let your blood pressure rise.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 10:11 PM

I keep a list of products that irritate me so that I never buy them. After a bit it becomes second nature. Of course, you may have to decide which one you hate the least.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:30 PM

Not on me they don't. I use a popup blocker so I don't have to mess with them anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:25 PM

Anyone else want to find out who makes these popups, go to their house and shout 'INSURANCE! VIAGRA! INTERNET DATING! HOLIDAYS!' at them? :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Peace
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:22 PM

For me, the ones I put in the toaster do. The others? No.

Subject: RE: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 08:19 PM

The psychology of advertisers is a weird thing. But it seems to work. The idea is not necessarily to present you with a glorious opportunity to dash out and purchase something that will immediately gladden your heart and make you eternally grateful. The idea is to elicit a strong emotional response, even if it is a negative one. This, they feel, makes the name of the product or service stick in your mind. Then, at some time in the future, when you may have a need for such a product or service, their name will pop into your mind.

Part of a broadcasting course I took back in the late Sixties consisted of writing commercial copy. One of the students ask the question, "Why are so many commercials so damned irritating, and why do they keep doing it?" The instructor gave the answer I gave above, then went on to say, "My mother absolutely detests the Anacin ads, with the 'Fast, FAST, FAST RELIEF!!!!' voice-over. She says that she hates those ads so much that she swears she'll never ever buy Anacin, not never, not EVER! But that's the only brand she ever buys. When she gets to the drug store, that's the only brand she can think of."

"It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack."

Don Firth

Subject: BS: Do popups actually work?
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 07:30 PM

Well, do they? Has anyone actually been encouraged to buy anything by them? I just think they're incredably irritating, an close them without even reading them...

If they don't work, then what's the point?