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Spoiled-brat advertising: does it work, Grisoft?

It's time to change anti-virus supplier at home, - either that, or abandon any hope of domestic harmony. AVG is behaving like a small child out shopping, who Wants Chocolate.

Most parents don't mind buying the odd choccie for the toddler. It's the sort of irritating behaviour that goes with being cute.

But you don't expect the marketing department of Grisoft to sit in the supermarket trolley, screaming: "I want you to buy an upgrade! I want you to buy an upgrade! I want you to buy an upgrade! I want you to buy an upgrade!" until you're tempted to park the shopping in the corner and run away.

We're at that stage with Mrs Maus. "Either you stop this thing putting this advert on my screen, or I stop using it," she informed me.

No, I don't resent an attempt to market a product. It's perfectly acceptable for someone to use a free product as a loss leader, and to advertise the virtues of a paid upgrade. But how often? Surely, it's a pragmatic issue, not a moral one?

"What works?"

Once a month, and I'll probably consider it seriously, and maybe, after a month or two, I might even buy the upgrade, if your advert is persuasive. Once a week, I might find acceptable. But every day?

For some people, it's a trivial matter to click the "close" button. And so it is, the first time, and maybe the second...

For others, it's a niggle which grows into an irritation, which after a while causes a gall which becomes something which is beyond toleration.

Are there other free AV solutions? Yes. Are they effective for a home user? Yes. So: stop the nagging already! If I am going to buy version 8.0 it will not be to stop the nagging; it will be because I considered the advantages, and decided it was worth $54.99.

If I don't think it's worth 55 bux today, will I really change my mind just because you irritate the crap out of me? I don't think so...