#244 – The Anti-Virus Virus

You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone: the love ballad turned Norton Anti-Virus story. You never even realize your anti-virus software does anything until your subscription is over; but the second it’s over, you know it’s *over*. The notification that the software has expired is more of a virus than anything you would get from clicking a pop-up ad asking you who the president of the United States is (Barack Obama or a carton of eggs? Stumped.) Norton has tapped into a whole new marketing strategy: advertising a service by doing exactly what it claims to be protecting against. Pure genius–and beyond annoying.