Fun with conventional wisdom

DoGood has been getting some great traction in the blogsphere and press this past couple of weeks. Dogood provides web surfers a way to see selective advertising that is tied to green causes. Half of its profits are funneled back to green, philanthropic, health and wellness related causes.

When Faisal Sethi kicked off the project, I had every belief his story would challenge conventional norms within the online advertising world. What advertisers are going to put up with plummeting click through rates? I suggested he could become a new poster boy for Rupert Murdoch, given his views about free content and today’s online advertising models.

I noted Dogood recently posted a special note to publishers which clearly states DoGood does not strip away or block ads from their sites.

So there you have it – no piracy here. He is simply giving people choice when it comes to advertisers they want to browse while they surf. Does this mean causes are now the central linchpin in advertising buys? Does one pitch placement to the likes of DoGood instead of a media broker? Time will tell – it all depends on the depth and reach of such a movement.

To that end, I thought it best we start designing the t-shirt that started a movement called cause driven online advertising. Here is one I shopped up over the weekend. It is ripe for CafePress