SEO Blog

I have to admit to being a bit confused by this advertisement which periodically appears at Yahoo News UK. Actually, I’m very confused by the ad.

The first thing that stands out is the tag line, “Yahoo! aren’t things brilliant”. Even though I am long used to ending the name Yahoo with an exclamation mark, it still looks as if the punctuation needs to be checked. Yahoo! is making a statement that looks like a question.

It’s probably good that they are not asking a question because if they were, the answer would probably be a resounding “NO!” Things are decidedly NOT brilliant, at least not in the purple land of the Yahooligans. I guess that’s the second thing that bothers me about the ad. Not only does it read wrong, it leads the observer to amusing but negative thoughts.

The third thing that bothers me is the name of the product. ymail. Why ymail? y-not? Gmail works for Google so why shouldn’t ymail work for Yahoo!? Because it looks wimpy, that’s Y.

Seriously! When your competitor eats your lunch so badly that you are forced to join forces with your them just to get a bit of their lunch, the last thing a self-respecting mega-corporation wants to be seen doing is further copying that competitor.

Copy = Fail

The last thing that bugs me is the short ad-copy itself. “Get the name you’ve always wanted @ymail.com” What if I already have the name I’ve always wanted but that name is taken by another user? Do I have to settle on the name I’ve always wanted second most? And what if that name is already taken? This won’t be a problem for people named Xavier or Winifred or Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (who could probably get the name he always wanted using other means anyway) but it is for folks with common names like Jim.

Arg… This ad has hurt my brain. These days, nearly everything Yahoo! hurts my brain. That’s because nothing is settled until at least August 1st when Yahoo! has their shareholders meeting.

Note to Yahoo!: Please stop trying to pretend that everything is brilliant. It’s not, at least not yet. We know its not. You do too. For the love of my poor battered brain, please stop.

Unless, of course, this is a vague attempt at irony. There are a lot of brilliant people still working at Yahoo! and perhaps one of them is having a laugh. If that is the case, I am no longer confused and appreciate the brilliance behind the ad.