Second Life “Avatar” Advertising Campaign?

It seems that not only has Linden Lab started doing some advertising for Second Life, but they’ve decided to take advantage of the hype over the highly popular movie “Avatar.”

Seen here and here on Flickr (special thanks to inacentaurdump and gogolita), the advertisement banners show a thinly-dressed blue lady with blue skin in front of a wilderness area with a moon rising in the sky behind her. The caption reads “Free AVATAR.”

The woman is not technically a Na’vi avatar. She isn’t wearing tribal clothes, and has no pointed ears or catlike features. But the connection to the movie is obvious.

Peter Linden has been asked about the ad, and had the following response:

"While we’re certainly fans of the Avatar film and of blue avatars (not to mention pink, green, yellow, and robot avatars), we do not want to cause any confusion between Second Life and the movie with this advertisement, and we plan to change it to avoid any misunderstanding."

The advertising campaign does seem to have made the desired results. After slowly declining for much of 2009, their “user concurrency” numbers suddenly rose. Tateru Nino of the “Dwell on it” blog had her own comment about Linden Lab’s ad campaign in comic form. The Lindens will probably want to take their time before removing the ad.

Linden Lab isn't alone in taking advantage of the "Avatar" bandwagon. Social network IMVU has also come out with their own banner, featuring a blue woman with the caption "Get Your AVATAR."

It is notable that a number of people have created various Na’vi avs up for sale in Second Life. While there are a few cheap and demo ones, most cost hundreds, even thousands of Lindens. Some Pandora roleplay areas have sprung up in some sims as well.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources: New World Notes , Massively

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CHRISTO ISLAND

When I landed on Christo Island, I had a quick look round to get my bearings.

I decided to go for a flying survey of the whole island, to look at the big picture, so to speak. I could immediately see that it is very beautifully designed. Somebody has a good eye for detail. In the north West corner, there is a smallholding with a wheat field and a small vineyard and a vegetable garden. I’ve got to say, it made feel really good inside. It had a very soothing effect on me! Behind it there was a mountainous island which only added to the atmosphere.

Find out more in the COMMUNITY SECTION with Kim Trefusis

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Offer for SL-newspaper readers

It's the time of year for giving and we at sl-newspaper are no different. For the month of December if you wish to become a sponsor, or renew your sponsorship with us, you could SAVE 10%

You can find our pricelist HERE

We advertise in a totally different way from most in that we actually provide you with webspace, a page for you to show your products and services, with links to any and all your inworld locations, plus press releases and articles when you have something new to promote.
Not only that remember our advertising packages are for 3 months!

Contact Dana Vanmoer or James T Juno for more information

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Jack Linden 'Clarifies' the new Ad farming policy:

In a blog post on the official Linden blog Jack Linden says:
"In this follow-up blog post on Ad Farming, I will be talking about the new rules. As with my previous post, I’d like to then move the discussion into this thread on the forums so that as many of you as possible can give us your opinion over the next few days.
A number of you have raised concerns over going the formal license route, and we too have come to the conclusion that this isn’t the best option. So instead we are going to cover ad farming activities (and the operating of network advertising businesses) under our Terms of Service, specifically as Harassment under clause 4.1. By Networked Advertising, we are specifically talking about the use of multiple parcels, on multiple regions, for the primary purpose of advertising, usually on behalf of other inworld or real world businesses.
What does this mean? if you operate any such networked advertising business on the Linden Mainland, that breaks any one of the following rules or restrictions, we will consider it to be a Terms of Service violation leading to disciplinary action that can include account suspension and loss of land."

Seen by many as Linden Lab backtracking on the previous policy and again giving in to the large Ad networks on the mainland the new policy raises a lot more questions than it answers as can be seen from the Forum discussion.
Many are disappointed and confused by the lack of a clear cut policy, although this would probably be impossible to achieve or enforce anyway. Not defining an exact policy allows LL as always the option to take action without having to stipulate the 'why'.
It is to be hoped that this will wipe out the ugly sights on the Linden mainland but it is now looking less and less likely:

"We will allow no more than 50 advertising locations owned by a single individual, whether personally owned or via groups in which you are a member, unless you have written permission from Linden Lab to exceed this limit.Use of Alt accounts/groups to circumvent this restriction will be considered a violation.
In addition to the cap, we will allow no more than 1 advertising placement by an individual in any single region."

50 ads spread over 50 regions - with Linden Lab unable to trace alts this seems easily circumvented.
The policy also does not address the land extortion that has been going on for a very long time it is to be hoped that eventually Linden Lab will do something about this too.
The fact of the policy being created at all gives hope - but when up against some of the biggest offenders I can see no way for LL to deal effectively with them. They as always will find ways around it.
Be sure to share your opinions in the Forum, its the only way we really have of getting questions answered when a Linden condescends to join the discussion - but at least there seems to be some ears open since the last forum on this subject.

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Lindens move on ad-farms

"In this blog post I will be talking about Ad Farming. As with my previous post, I’d like to then move the discussion into the forums so that as many of you as possible can give us your opinion.
Please keep in mind that this post is about the Linden Mainland, and does not apply to private islands where the estate owners choose how they wish to run their own estates.

The good news therefore, is that Network advertising (Ad Farming) will no longer be permitted on the Linden Mainland unless you have a written agreement with Linden Lab (essentially meaning a license to advertise). Anyone currently operating such a business inworld will need to remove their adverts by the 1st October 2008."

Read the full blog post HERE or join the forum debate HERE

"No more spinning, floating cubes, no more unsolicited notecard givers, no more improper use of ban lines."

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Action Movie

A good friend Adonis Action made this movie for us about the paper and I thought I would share it with you. I have known Adonis for a long time and he is always coming up with new ideas like AMI, the great loan system anyone can place in their mall allowing people immediate loans to spend in your mall, what a great idea for us shopaholics! Then these movies, who doesn't want to have a reminder of that special event - engagement, wedding, party, opening, a great build, your first sl home? This is a great way to keep those memories forever rather than just pictures which never seem to quite capture the moment. Give Adonis a shout if you would like him to record your moments or of course advertise - this movie is a great ad for our paper - (thanks Adonis) - he could do the same for all of your shops, clubs or events, lets see a few more sl related movies out there and maybe you will find it here one day too!Danahttp://www.slactiontv.com/index.html

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Introducing Mary Jane Shoes

Our first vendor draw winner is Infiniti Mirihi owner of Mary Jane Shoes.

I first met Infiniti after she ran a treasure hunt at the beginning of December and boy did i have fun finding them all :) but good shoes are always worth having even if it takes some time to find them.

Click the banner on the right > to teleport to Mary Jane Shoes and have a look at the huge range for yourself!

To be in with a chance to get your ad free for a month click this banner for details

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