Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

In the “Duh” column, a recent study shows that most readers of college newspapers are more attentive to simple text link ads than to other types of ad units. The study, based on a survey of 7,500 users of online college newspapers found that 52 percent of respondents say they pay attention to contextual text links, while just 8 percent say the same for game-based ads and only 5 percent report paying attention to pop-ups. Banner ads fared worse than text links but better than pop-ups, with non-animated banners outperforming animated ads and ads with video. The study also found that students are turning to the Web for national news. Almost half of the surveyed students--49 percent--visit CNN.com at least once a month, while 37 percent visit MSNBC.com at least once a month and 35 percent go to NYTimes.com at least that often. All I can say is, instead of doing a massive study, why didn’t someone just check out Google?

It's not exactly brain surgery!