Print

[stands2reason]

The porn site Adam and Eve seems to be sponsoring everything they can these days. They even took out an ad in Brew Your Own Magazine!

Didn't you know this month you get a free gift and 3 adult dvds with every purchase over 20 dollars .

Oh good, something Jay can endorse.

[alex1066]

I think it is a good idea. If it helps the show in these tough economic times, then sure.....just remember STAY GOLD PONY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stargazer9915]

Quote from: stargazer9915 on February 26, 2010, 02:00:49 PMSteve's wife is the one doing the intro, right?  Love the voice.

I seem to recall that that was Jay's wife....now ex, I believe.

That's what I thought as well

At any rate, someone with an aussie or limey accent could do a spot or two.  Dr. Racheal(?) Dunlop perhaps

[2112]

Am I the only one who would find it enjoyable to have the SGU accept ads from anyone.

... And now a word from our sponsor, Kangen Water...

Later in the episode, "Now we are going to talk about why Kangen Water is bullshit."

[photonymous]

I would think that perhaps two shorter ads (10-sec), at roughly the 20 and 50 minute marks, would be better than one longer ad.... and please make them different each week, with a different panelist reading them!

I am concerned about the influence of advertisements shaping the message. This is one of the reasons I think mainstream media has degraded to its nearly worthless status. Their goal has become to harness ears/eyeballs, which can be sold to their sponsors.

Other ideas:
1) I think a better approach would be a limited plea for donations. Have a random panelist make an unscripted ~10 second plea, once during each podcast, at a random time, and provide a URL where we can go to send money.
2) A donation plan (one dollar per month, for instance) would be a painless thing to sign up for.
3) How about an SGU credit card, where 1% of all purchases (or a user-selectable percentage) go to fund the SGU? Make it cool looking, and it would make an easy way to proselytize the "good word" of SGU every time you make a purchase.
4) If you go with the credit card approach, perhaps different percentage (and accumulated contribution) levels could come with special benefits. I'll let you brainstorm on what would be cool benefits for different levels.

Ok, thats all I've got for now. Good luck!

[Chew]

You can donate to the NESS here:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/store.aspx

[RyanC]

... so no random voice...

I think the voice should be totally random.

[AlyssaMichaela]

No problem at all, especially if it is for some valuable products, like scientific or skeptical magazines - or chocolate...

I wonder if there's such a thing as skeptical beer...

There IS such a thing as skeptical beer!! When I was in high school I saw a big flash of green light on the horizon while driving, and it was a complete mystery to me, seemingly ripe with ufo potential, that I pretty much forgot about, until 6 years later, last summer when I was sipping a delicious craft beer and noticed the name of the brewery was Green Flash Brewery, with a logo of a green starburst on the horizon. I looked it up and found out it's a rare optical phenomenon occurring at sunrise or sunset due to the curvature of high frequency green/blue rays of light. See, beer leads to skepticism!!!!!!

Oh and the ads sound fine, as long as they're brief, I actually like to hear about other skeptical sources from podcasts I already listen to.

[jgoemat]

Sounds good to me.  Have you thought about audible?  TWIT does that and they probably get some money for people that sign up through audible.com/twit

[DevoutCatalyst]

Astronomy cast gets it out of the way at the beginning and it is no problem.

Being as I would tolerate almost anything just to hear Pamela's voice, the ad at the beginning is totally not a bother.

What are SGU's rates? Maybe we could all give it a go each week and try to purchase silence; if we can't pay the bill, the ad runs. But our monies accumulate, this way maybe we will silence every third podcast. Maybe we would soon put our money where are ears and silence every week's 'cast.

Something tells me this idea would not work.  Bah.

[daveexperiment]

I have no problem with this, for those of us who really cant afford to donate, if i can spend 30 seconds listening to something to get the NESS money, i will do it gladly.

[Batmaz]

Listening to the first ad was fine, but I think putting it right in the middle of the podcast confused me a little bit because I didn't realise it was an ad at first. I would probably prefer it all at the beginning before the news stories.

[DoctorOHM]

Go ahead, rather have a skeptics guide w/ ads than no skeptics guide at all!

[Wakefield]

Am I the only one who would find it enjoyable to have the SGU accept ads from anyone.

... And now a word from our sponsor, Kangen Water...

Later in the episode, "Now we are going to talk about why Kangen Water is bullshit."

I can see the e-mail now:

"That's an awfully nice quack remedy you have there. The SGU podcast is going to do an episode all about how your "product" doens't actually work. Wouldn't you like to have the chance to voice YOUR side of the issue?"

[Boss Burrill]

how about the old time radio style ad, "this hour brought to you by ovaltine, the chocklate drink that dosnt let hitler win" or something.  That way you take care of the ad right away dont have to break up the flow of the show with commercials.