Interesting statistic of the day...

[xthread]

From Bruce Schneier's article in Forbes about why we're stuck with spam so long as the underlying economics remain the same, the following interesting piece of information:

A 30-second prime-time television television ad costs 1.8 cents per adult viewer; a full-page color magazine ad about 0.9 cents per reader. A highway billboard costs 0.21 cents per car. Direct mail is the most expensive, at over 50 cents per third-class letter mailed... Typically, spammers charge less than a hundredth of a cent per recipient. And that number is what spamming houses charge their customers to deliver spam; if you're a clever hacker, you can build your own spam network for much less money.

Comments

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

I expect a lot fewer people have automatic filters to delete the billboard from their field of vision though :)

I suppose with TiVo and ReplayTV more people are acquiring the ability to filter on television...

[xthread.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that Tivo is already mucking both with ad content and ad rates, as a side effect of viewers being able to filter out television ads..

[toxgunn.livejournal.com]

Although entertainingly not for lack of attention - not sure what Dr. Mann has been up to lately, but recall seeing a paper about ho0w his 'shades autodetected billboards and replaced those images with something more pleasant.