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Seth Godin coined the term "Interruption Marketing" to refer to techniques such as roadside billboards, or for the Internet age, pop-up ads. In other words, advertisements that cannot be easily avoided. Ireland and Nash discuss this term as well as Godin's other, preferrable, technique, "Permission Marketing," in Chapter 14 of their book.

Godin lauds Permission marketing as a much more effective technique because it attracts a websurfer to a message that they want to hear as opposed to placing a random message right in front of their face. In the age of Tivo and pop up blockers, permission marketing is a way to get your message heard by an increasingly busy and Internet savvy audience.

Campaigns which collect e-mail addresses by asking visitors to their website to sign up for e-mail updates can pinpoint who wants to receive their message. By asking a few questions, such as the person's zipcode, the candidate can send a personalized e-mail giving the voter the information most applicable to his or her life.

Commercial websites use the same techniques to show you ads that match your interests. Often when I visit yahoo.com I see a T-mobile ad. I always see it and wonder how yahoo could know that I use T-mobile. Is it because I used my yahoo e-mail account when I signed up for my contract?

More importantly, am I ok with the fact that by just entering a few pieces of data, the Internet paints a portrait of who you are as a consumer or a voter?