16March
Vodex mentions information-revolution.org, a site with a marketing budget big enough to smear itself over the Palace of Westminster, yet puny enough to fly completely under our radar. (No shocks there: our advertising blindness is such that we've bumped into the equivalent of mile-high travel towers before now.)
Who is this site? Or, to be precise, whois this site:
Domain ID: D139734652-LROR Domain Name: INFORMATION-REVOLUTION.ORG Created On: 16-Feb-2007 10: 44: 37 UTC Last Updated On: 16-Feb-2007 10: 44: 43 UTC Expiration Date: 16-Feb-2008 10: 44: 37 UTC Sponsoring Registrar: TotalRegistrations dba
Total Web Solutions (R79-LROR) Status: TRANSFER PROHIBITED Registrant ID: TWEB-0000065053 Registrant Name: Profero Ltd Registrant Organization: Profero Ltd Registrant Street1: Centro 3 Registrant Street2: Mandela Street Registrant Street3: Registrant City: Camden Registrant State/Province: London Registrant Postal Code: NW1 0DU Registrant Country: GB Registrant Phone: 44.02073872000 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email: domains@profero.com
Admin and Tech details are identical.
So, who are profreo.com? A digital marketing agency. Or, a bunch of soul-less shysters whose website is almost entirely written in Flash. We've known them for almost ten seconds, and already we hate their guts with a vengeance. Come friendly firebombs and fall on Mandela-street.[1]
Their news section does not include the work they're doing for an unknown client, but the company was responsible for the recent re-launch of ask.com. (There was a re-launch of ask.com?) Shows just what a good job they're doing, folks.
A quick tracert to www.information-revolution.org was revealing:
The site is running on a server called smokefreeengland.co.uk. That, in turn, is a government-funded propaganda campaign against tobacco use (one that we generally agree with, but it is still government-funded advertising on a matter of controversy), and another site that bears the sticky fingers of Profero. Readers who know what they're looking for may wish to compare the HTML structure of the two sites.
Readers who actually want to make life better may wish to purchase a large marker pen (change from a quid from all good stationers, or W. H. Smith) and scribble over the commercials when they see them.[2]
[1] For the particularly hard-of-thinking, this comment is sarcasm. We do not, at this time, condone the firebombing of premises. That said, nor do we condone advertising under false pretences, as the business in Mandela-street is doing here. If you had a shred of decency, you'd jack in your job and do something more useful, like school dinner-ladying. But you haven't, so you haven't. It's people like you who make the world a more cynical and a more evil place, and you and your ilk will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.[2]
[2] This is a moderately serious suggestion; each participant is encouraged to weigh it up against their own moral calculus.
