We have Facebook. Daily deal sites. Racks of computers learning our preferences and countless apps to connect us with our friends. And yet, the pinnacle of advertising appears to be the 21st-century equivalent of the Tupperware party. That’s right, decades of technology and the introduction of social networks so large Dunbar’s fabled number can’t even slow them down, and basically the message is, pitch your friends and get a discount (or product or cash). Now we can can track your successes even better!
The medium has changed, but the message is still the same. Don’t believe me? In the last 24 hours here are the following pitches I’ve seen.
From an email pitching a new site:
Consumers, or “deal scouts,” have the opportunity to earn extra cash and act as entrepreneurs by finding and creating deals with local merchants they visit regularly (restaurants, hair salons, gyms, bars, etc.). After the deal is verified by AllStar Deals, the deal scout is given a unique code which tracks sales of their deal. They are encouraged to post the deal on their Facebook and Twitter account as well as email it to their friends and they earn 20 percent of the net amount of each deal sold.
On my TV:
From an email associated with Klout:
This wouldn’t be so bad, except a little voice inside my head asks me, “For this? For this, Stacey, you are willing to give up your privacy?” It might be as lame as Time Warner Cable’s attempts to sell folks broadband capped at 5GB per month for a mere $ 5 off.
Tupperware image courtesy of Flickr user sun dazed.
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