your demographic is showing

Salon was, and I guess still is, one of my favorite websites. But damn, the commerce noose is tightening. I dread going there now because before you can read a word you have to either pay up for PREMIUM CONTENT (milk coming out nose, high-speed), or get a free DAY PASS (welcome to prison!) by agreeing to watch/endure an ad for cell phones, or whatever, tricked out in the latest Flash finery. But the ads are all horrible and stupid. Please, for the loved of all that is holy, does anyone really watch one of these little annoyances and then go buy a cell phone? Uh-uh. No one ENGAGES with the ads. The consumers do not RESONATE with the BRANDING. Everyone just slides their brain into neutral and waits for them to finish. Do you think the people responsible for these optimized ad-unit-turds like them? Or is it all about the loft rent and iPod upgrade? Don't even answer. In a truly just society there would be three options when you visit Salon: 1) Pay up, 2) Watch ad, 3) Send a big ol' jolt of electricity to the jumper cable attached to the nether regions of the people responsible for option 2. That would be fair.