Gina Trapani is someone who I’ve admired for a long time. Not only for her professional success and acumen, but her strong sense of ethics and fairness in all that she shares. I enjoyed her thoughts on paying for promotion and the state of visibility online.
“My feelings about advertising are fraught. I’ve worked for advertising-supported web businesses my entire career, so I mostly hate ads, even while they paid my salary.
Ads can compromise the user experience by splitting product makers’ loyalties. Is the advertiser or the user the customer? Ads are a way for monied brands to buy exposure for a product that’s often not as good as an alternative. Ads give companies a reason to collect data about you and sell it to advertisers for targeting purposes.”
We need more people like her in all industries – especially technology. We should be more reflective. Thinking about your work and the perception therein can be very rewarding.
P.S. You should try ThinkUp. It’s a lot of fun and makes you think about what you’re putting out there.