When CDs Ruled the Mail - Pt 2: The AOL Commodities Collection
Category: Advertising...
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 08:41 AM [GMT-6]

In the first installment of When CDs Ruled the Mail, some of you commented about the ubiquity of America Online's floppy disks. I suspect I still have a couple of AOL floppies in an unpacked box; like you, I erased the original content and used them for other things. However, we're focusing here on the higher steps of the evolutionary ladder.

I don't know if AOL was the ISP who pioneered the use of mailed digital media to promote its product, but the company certainly seemed to corner the market when it came to sending us CDs.

When you're sending out about a billion disks a week, it's probably difficult for your ad department to provide some differentiation among them. But, bless their hearts, they gave it a good try. Here, for example, is AOL's "bling theme" collection, beginning with a classy gold lamé disk, suitable for framing on black velvet. Even at version 4.0, it's apparent that AOL was feeling some competition and/or disenchantment with its services (how else to explain the tagline, "Come back and see the difference"?).

The next step up was AOL Titanium, distinguished by its soothing stark blue background. However, the disk provides no clue as to what else might distinguish this edition from the myriad others provided by the company.

Finally, the pinnacle (we assume) of the AOL Precious Jewels collection: the Diamond edition, featuring "Cutting Edge Internet!" (as opposed to the other blunt object versions), 500 free hours, and seven (7) email addresses.

Wonder how many people stopped to do the math and realized that to take advantage of AOL's free hours, they'd have to tie up their phone line for 16 hours each day during that first month? That's a lot of time to spend in the "Teen Wiccan Bikers Who Macramé Cat Toys" chatroom.

Up next: AOL gets funky