User Controlled Advertising...

...or what Jaffe would call Consumer Controlled Advertising.

Apparently, Matt Dickman of Techno/Marketer and I are on the same page. While consumers now get to customize almost every aspect of their internet journey (including blocking out the ads), why the hell are we running so far behind?

And, so speaks Matt...

"While the focus has been placed on the ads themselves, we're missing an opportunity to really engage users and create more loyal customers through User Controlled Advertising (UCA). I pitched this back in 2005 and the world wasn't ready for it, but now seems like the right time to put it out there again. UCA would allow publishers or advertising networks to serve up ads (created by ad professionals) to users and allow those users to decide what they want to see."

And, he couldn't be more right. Unfortunately, large publishers are generally slow to change, because to them, waste = bucks. Simple as that.

Fortunately, there's been some recent movement in this regard, as Bebo and Conde Nast's Flip offer their users some level of control over the ads they see.

It all just sounds like a no-brainer to me. But, then again, these things seem to take awhile before the deep pockets brigade catches up.