Hello Flash community, Hello Adobe.
Just an observation this morning.
I have been perplexed for years at how successful Steve Jobs was in inflaming the public about Flash. I loved Flash. More importantly, I loved the community around it and have yet to find one better since it's heyday. It was painful to watch all of this blind, sheep-like hatred of something that meant a lot to me. I couldn't understand how unthinking and illogical the public was. I'm a little older now, presumably wiser and it's clear that the public, as a whole, is sadly quite capable of illogical mob behavior, but still, why Flash?
I think today I finally get it. People hate ads. They equated Flash with ads. Steve Jobs gave the public a name to pin their hatred on - it seemed to make sense to them - and the rest is unfortunately history. Now that Flash has been officially replaced by HTML5 for banner building, the hatred usually reserved for Flash seems to be finding a new home. Maybe a more appropriate home Ads. Ads. Ads.
I'm seeing so much controversy over blocking banner ads - Apple vs Google. The back-seat CEOs are eating it up. These are the people who fueled the revolution against Flash and now they're focus is ads. I wonder if the public - the angry mob - will soon follow? With Flash all but gone, where does the hatred now go?
I assume that without a lot of luck and a concerted effort by Adobe, Flash will NOT return to all it's former glory, but it's an interesting lesson in business history. It's possible though, that with ads being the focus of derision, Flash could rebuild some self-esteem. Adobe, why not try? Repackage it a bit maybe? Too late?
We all bitched about Adobe's PR being unable to manage the hatred. I can see now see why they were having so many difficutlies. The hatred was so skillfully misguided by Steve Jobs that all Adobe could do was fight shadows. If they could have identified the real culprit - the real source of the public's venom - banner ads, then maybe they could have taken more appropriate action. I won't get into what that might of been. It's just something interesting to consider.
So, if it's true that all that Flash hatred now has a new home (banner ads (Google?)) what happens next?
It's shaping up to be quite a car wreck.
What is a better way to fund content? Who's going to leverage the issue and make some bank? Yeah, a few guys are making a few $ hawking ad blockers, but what about the billions?
Corporate management of hatred. It's fascinating.
Anyway. Have a nice day.
Kurt
