Tuesday, November 25, 2008

In times of economic gloom, consumers turn to whoopee cushions

Internet audience measurement service comScore came out with its October data the other day and it showed that one of the fastest gaining Web properties was Spencer Gifts. That's right. The same Spencer Gifts that you see selling tacky gag gifts at the mall.
The top gainer by percentage change in unique visitors was TheStreet.com, the financial news Web site. That's not surprising given the state of the stock market and the economy. The number of visitors to TheStreet.com rose 155% from September to October, reaching 10.6 million visitors.
No. 2 was Spencer Gifts. Its audience rose 144% to 5.1 million unique visitors in October from the previous month. It even beat out BarackObama.com, which grew just 59% to 8.5 million visitors during Sen. Obama's historic victory in the presidential election.
Looking for clues to the surge in interest in Spencer Gifts, I checked out its Web site.
I can only surmise that it was some hot gifts that drove the increase in online visitors. Perhaps it was the Insulting Parrot for $14.99. The motion-activated toy bird squawks insults and rude comments to anyone who comes near it. Among the classy quotes: "Polly Want A F*ckin Cracker," "Hey Baby, Show Us Your T*T's!" and "Go F*ck Yourself."
Or maybe it was the Sex Alert Door Hanger for $9.99 or the Beerpong Table for $69.99.
Nah, it was definitely the Insulting Parrot. That's a must-have.

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