We get the Sunday newspaper. The only reason we subscribe is because my wife uses the coupons (we get four copies each week). It really seems like a big waste of a newspaper but it’s the only economical way for us to get these coupons. At least we help keep the recyclers in business.

I’ll often skim through the ads as well, but the ads that are on each of the pages of the newspaper are never paid attention to (if they are even seen).

My son loves to read the comics (okay, I read them too… I just still don’t get Doonesbury). At the beginning of the year, I noticed the comics were rearranged (made a little smaller and Dilbert was made vertical) so that there could be a big spot for a new ad.

Week after week this new ad spot sported messages like:

• Get noticed here!
• You’ll get more business by advertising!
• Call us to advertise!

The ads were creative. They had some spunk and pizazz. But, week after week, they wouldn’t sell any ads.

It was becoming comical (get the pun?) in our home that every week one of the kids would comment, “No sales this week!”

I was almost ready to start an official “ADWATCH” to indicate how many days they had gone without selling the ad spot. It must have been at least 30 weeks.

Well, you can see the picture in this post… they finally sold an ad. (This picture was the second week in a row for the same advertiser.

So, congratulations to the Idaho Statesman for selling the ad. I hope you got a decent amount for it.

I might suggest, by the way, that if you want to sell an ad in a new spot in your publication (online or offline) your perception of the value of that ad is greater if you don’t have to advertise very long it’s value. You should probably have one pre-sold and only show your “Buy and ad now” ad one or two times so that you can, “See, it worked for us!”

If anyone knows who paid for this ad from Stanley Steemer, will you ask them to leave a comment here to tell us if the ad was worth the money spent?

So, I know that the title of this is pretty opinionated. However, when a marketer doesn't think about what he or she is doing, then the money spent is wasted.

I was looking at a website today and found the banner ad at the top of the page very interesting. Bear in mind that we are currently in the middle of August. I know that the weather in Boise has been pretty mild this summer and the high today is only about 88 degrees but this probably isn't an effective way to conserve energy. 

This was a rotating ad and the three images represent each of the slides in the presenation. I suppose I could have set it up as a rotating image but I thought seeing them in order would be more valuable.

I thought this was pretty funny as a stand alone ad. My furniture won't know the difference but my pocket book and their revenue would certainly know. Maybe they are in Celsius... probably not - that would be pretty hot.

Then, I decided to click on the ad and see where it took me and I literally laughed out loud.

Talk about a wasted ad. Not only is the ad the wrong message for this time of year and doing what they would suggest would cost you a fortune, but then the ad links to a page not found.

Some people might blame the company showing the ad but I would suggest that the real issue is the purchaser of the ad because they provide the message and provide the link to the page on their own site.

Moral of this story: don't do what they did.