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Facebook recently bought Instagram for $1 billion. That’s quite a lot of money for a photo-sharing app that lacks a revenue stream. But if the Instagram purchase wasn’t enough to provoke concerns about a modern dot-com bubble, Facebook’s ensuing public stock offering -- an IPO “dud,” by at least one estimation -- only reminds us of the unchecked investment lunacy that occurred some 15 years ago.
Between 1995 and 2000, a slew of companies were either acquired or secured investment without turning a profit. That led to the big dot-com bust of 2001, and the subsequent auction of thousands of Herman Miller chairs.
But before everything went south, some of the ill-fated Internet companies used their investments to air TV commercials. In fact, a grand total of 17 Internet-related companies bought air time during Super Bowl XXXIV in the winter of 2000.
Commercials with sock puppets, celebrity endorsements and talking babies may have entertained viewers, but they failed to translate into enough revenue to keep most of the advertisers afloat. Some died a quick death, some staggered along, and some were gobbled up by larger companies.
Let the following commercial videos from yesteryear serve as cautionary tales. Your Kelvin, Hudson and Lo-fi Instagram filters may be a lot of fun, but you don’t have to invest in Facebook just to enjoy them.
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