Friday, December 02, 2005

Google Ads?

For those of you who’ve read the Manifesto of a Pantry Eater, you may be surprised to learn that I am very pro marketing, and that I have recently integrated Google Ads into the Pantry world. But man, everybody is pro marketing when you really think about it. Let me prove it. For a moment, imagine a caveman. He’s got a killer crush on a fine fine sexy cavelady. He doesn’t want to be just like one of the other hairy primitive cavemen, so driven by intuition and hormones—he pierces a decorative bone through his bottom lip to turn that fine cavelady on. Sounds crazy, but it works… We are all marketers.

What I am against is the power of lobbyists in our “free market” system. A perfect example would be the story of Stevia. If Neutra Sweet, Splenda, and Saccharine tasted all that fantastic and wonderful (taste like shit to me), then why would the industries behind these products need to lobbyize Stevia out of the market; a better tasting, healthy and natural competitor (that doesn’t give you cancer). Trouble is I guess, that it is hard to compete with ‘ma earth in terms of quality, so buying off the FDA to keep Stevia out of the grocery store is easier than synthesizing a safe & good tasting product. So you see, organized big money replaces the arbitrary practices of dictators and kings. Where is our “free market” system that we –market- to the world? And let’s not even get into the health effects of Sugar right now.

So the Google ads on Eat Your Pantry! serve the dual purpose of both revealing the money and attention that goes into influencing what you eat, as well as providing valuable Pantry information. I’m not going to get down on marketers doing their thing- more power to them, they are my brothers. In fact, I’m quite impressed with the ad offerings that Google has posted on the Pantry site. I get a rush at the thought of somebody reading one of these EYP Newsletters, clicking on an ad for cheap airline tickets, and then flying to Yakima to have their own Pantry tour. While in Yakima, they can reference the Google ads on Eat Your Pantry to check into a fine Yakima motel, enter the Pillsbury and Betty Crocker sweepstakes, learn tips how to make Snow Ice Cream, and perhaps even purchase real estate in the Yakima area. These ads lay out a Pantry roadmap that I never could have imagined!

So keep your eyes on the Google ads, they should change to fit the Pantry content as this site grows. Click on them, read them, scope out the marketing angle they are getting on you, and at the end of the day, EAT YOUR PANTRY, FOOL!

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