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Sunday March 12, 2006
Lenders, Borrowers, and Weird Ads
Anybody who has surfed the web has seen advertisments for low rates on borrowed money. I've seen these rates represented as snowflakes, shingles, peacock feathers, scales on a giant snake, and (most recently) as the belly of a very frighteningly distorted black cat.
It's gotten to the point that when I see an animation that ripples or cascades in a particular way, regardless of what is being animated, I KNOW that it's coming from somebody who wants to loan me money.
Why?
What is it about lenders and borrowers that has advertisers building these wacky images? I can only assume that since I'm not looking to borrow money right now, I'm outside their target market, and therefore unlikely to click on a giant snake that has my home state listed on it somewhere. But if I DID want to borrow money, would the snake, the snowflakes, or the ugly cat speak to me in ways that a simple "borrow money from us" link would not?
I might click on a giant snake if it had representations of Copic marker refills on it. And with all those pretty colors, it would be a much better looking snake than the one with the 50 state abbreviations tattooed on it.