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The decline started with the .com boom, when everyone rushed to register www.yaho.com for their crazy internet start-up. It was ingenious: anyone stupid enough to forget even momentarily the address of their web-based e-mail would surely, upon discovery of their mistake, also think 'Yaho' sounded sufficiently like 'Hawaii' or 'kahuna' to continue shopping for garden furniture.
The sheer number of such sites meant that they represented the majority of the internet. The only way that these sites could possibly stay afloat was to accept a pittence to advertise whatever bone was thrown their way. Enter: the X-10 camera. The X-10 camera represented the new wave of the same style of internet company. The adverts took the form of a young woman deseesed in lingerie and handcuffs, with accompanying text reading, "Increase your home security. Record anything." The image background represented your house, handcuffs represented security, and the yound lingerie-clad woman represented the extent to which the internet has warped your mind.
Their decline and the associated media scaremongering would be so great that it would make it acceptable for even such companies as Yahoo! to boost the advertising on their site. Enter: Sara Freder.
Sara Freder is perhaps less common that the camera. I have not seen these adverts carried anywhere but yahoo, but I will still resist from reproducing them. They are easy enough to describe. The image displayed a woman from thigh to chin. The woman differed from picture to picture so as to increase the likelyhood that the viewer's taste was catered for. The only two factors common to each picture was that they all had hugely inflated breasts, and none of them was Sara Freder. This is Sara Freder:
Look at her: can you see the contempt that you clicked on the advert with the large breasts? You may be interested to learn that you can purchase from Sara a print of this beautiful photograph for low low price of $35 (reduced, especially for you, from the normal price of $118). The sourcecode does not display any notice of the price having changed especially for me. I can only presume the psychic link she promoses purchase will bring is already present.
Yahoo! Personals
I readily accept that I am probably not the target audience for this advert but I feel my comment is still valid. Without wishing to offend anyone, WHO IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS GOOD WOULD EVER FIND THAT PROSPECT APPEALING? This exemplifies exactly why these people are single and fails to realise what even Sara Freder considers obvious.
ChoiceShirts.com patriotic t-shirts
Although possibly still the perfect gift for your friends in Montana, I was the proud viewer of this advert on November 28th 2002, over a year since it was last relevant. This advert displays everything cheap and nasty about afterthought marketing. My favourite element is that this is such a desperate cash-in that the photograph of the World Trade Center towers was scalped from the internet complete with copyright watermark. I don't wish to appear heartless, I'm not: I listen to 'No woman, no cry' etc. but as a UK resident I have a slightly different perspective on this that anyone who considers themselves directly affected. Maybe I just shouldn't have bought those discount 'X-Files' videos.
Bloussant breast enhancement
With this advert comes the new dawn of targetted Yahoo! advertising. Thanks to the "this is a compulsory field" sign-up, this is is not an advert that has ever displayed in my mail. I am told that those who indicated that they were female recieve a number of varients upon this ad, primarily consisting of women forcing their shoulders back to give the impression that taking a herbal pill really can increase one's bust. Instead, I got offered the opportunity to display on my mobile phone humourous logos of body parts.
