Come On!

I have to laugh when I see some of the advertisements offered up during my usual perusal of what's new on the Internets. Does every single banner ad have to show a picture of some pretty woman, just to get our attention?



These guys want more people to enroll in their school. Does the pretty coed come with the textbooks?












Here's another ad for another online degree-granting program:














What do women doing yoga have to do with a federal stimulus package for homeowner relief?

















Do they really expect me to believe this woman is any older than 22 or 23 years old? C'mon, she never had wrinkles to begin with!

















This woman appears to be handing off the keys to the Used Car of My Dreams. Too bad I can't see the car.











For some advertisers, naturally, it makes all the sense in the world to market the women that may or may not be available for dating.
















There's this example:


Thank goodness I don't need a credit card! I might get the wrong idea. Or it's a cash only transaction.











Here's one that is so close to porn, it might be NSFW:






This ad doesn't even pretend that the women in the ad might possibly be actual members of the dating service:
















What I also love are the specialty dating services:















Which, of course, is bookended by this one:
















I may not have an example, but the Christian online dating services have racy ads, too. I couldn't find an online ad for an Amish dating service, though...



Talk about knowing the target market. These guys were advertising their fantasy football draft kit, which is nothing more than stickers to put on a piece of cardboard. The picture really sells it, though, doesn't it?!

There seems to be no faster way of getting undersexed geeks' attention than through two babes in bikinis.
















And yet, I have to admit, there are advertisers who plod along with non-eye-catching ads like this one:


He's even marketing a dating service!













And then there's always the trustworthy talking lizard selling car insurance:














I had heard long ago that having a pretty girl bring in the customers was called a "come on" in marketing parlance, but doing a quick Google search turned up nothing along those lines. I'm beginning to think it may have had more to do with the old Carnival barkers, whose job it was to hustle people into parting with their hard-earned cash. They always had a pretty lady in skimpy clothing by their side to help close the deal, even if all they were selling tickets for was the freak show.

So, what does it say about society when the default ads being placed all over the Internet are typically for dating services or shady deals? They certainly aren't using a profile of me or my browsing habits. When a person never clicks on a single link, perhaps the ad engines don't really know what will catch a person's eye. It just makes me laugh.