Writing in The New York Times, Louise Story takes a stab at what’s ahead for advertising:
Not surprisingly, many agencies are focusing on how the digital world will continue nudging the offline world in new directions, and consumer-generated content is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. But ad executives also say they think companies should pay attention to shoppers’ interest in knowing more about the products they buy and to their desire to turn their cellphones and BlackBerrys — gasp! — off sometimes.
Not much earth-shattering there, but then Story buys into the Second Life hype:
At least two Publicis Groupe agencies — Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Leo Burnett — have created virtual ad agencies in Second Life, a Web site that describes itself as “a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents,” and claims to be “inhabited by a total of 2,231,337 people from around the globe.”
If you look at the online story, the first thing you see is a SL screen shot with a caption that reads “Millions of people inhabit Second Life…” Even the New York Times likes to report the numbers unchecked.
