Some funny "industry" humor

[davef]

Several times a month we get emails from companies looking to advertise on our website. Obviously, I always turn them down but this time I received a slightly more interesting one:

"Hello,

Would you consider placing a promotional link on your page: http://www.ascendacoustics.com/.

The link would be for a website which offers quality audio speakeres.

My budget isn't enormous, but I am hoping there is a reasonable price we could arrange since it's just a tiny piece of screen real estate I'm interested in.

Please let me know if you're open to this, and if not I appreciate your time and wish you the best of luck with your site.

Thank You!"

I played along out of curiosity -- what brand of "quality audio speakers" would want to advertise on our site?

Here is the response I got:

"Thank you for responding. I'm hopeful you'll review and consider the following proposed offer.

I would like to place a simple promotional text link on your page http://www.ascendacoustics.com/ to link to thespeakercompany.com
with the link text being "home theater speakers".

If possible I would really want to place that link within a sentence or two that I could write up so that it reads well (it won't be overly promotional or lengthy).

I can pay you 80 USD for the link, for the whole year paid upfront with the assumption that you'll leave it live on that page for at least 12 months, or longer if you prefer.

If that arrangement isn't agreeable perhaps we could come up with something different for a couple additional links or some way in which we both benefit more (you more money, me more opportunity to get visits), let me know and I will see what I can do.

Please get back to me if interested and include your paypal account ID (just your email of course) for payment. I look forward to your positive response.

Thanks!"

I couldn't believe what I read, that wasn't $80 for a day, week or month, they offered $80 for an entire YEAR to advertise a competitor's product on our site. Quite generous, dont you think

To be fair, this email did not come from TSC directly, it came from a marketing firm they hired.

Anyway, I found this quite humorous and it made me smile