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I wonder if the real reason advertising companies are worried about millenials is that they just avoid advertising whenever they can. There is a growing awarene
by ImaCake 8y ago
I wonder if the real reason advertising companies are worried about millenials is that they just avoid advertising whenever they can. There is a growing awareness about the effects of advertising, and the popular trends are towards reuse and recycling, even if those trends are mostly bullshit.
In Australia we have a popular TV show called Gruen Transfer which does nothing but breakdown ads and explains how they do what they do.
Finally, a biased anecdote from a millenial: Myself and many of my friends avoid ads by using ad-blockers and subscription services and not leaving the TV on when there is nothing to watch. Whereas my parents (about 60) watched far more television and didn't use ad-blockers... although recently they have been turning the TV off and using their ipads instead.
- downer56 8y agoI’ve been holding to the opinion for a few years now, that ever since end of the 2nd term of George W. Bush, TV, print, movies and music have all suffered a nigh-catastrophic brain drain, and fewer and fewer nerds drift in the direction of such career paths. Because of this, the candidate pool is smaller, filled with weaker options and the ones that do land in the field are mostly mediocre and surrounded by the mediocre examples of the old guard that can’t (or won’t) retire. After that, the rest is deterministic. Bad decisions compound, nothing is good any more, and the shit that really sucks isn’t even laughable, it’s either confusing, tragic or repellant. I made the mistake of watching cable in a hotel room, and it was like grazing my eyes with a red-hot shrimp fork, while running an angle grinder right next to my ears, and telling me my parents were killed in a horrible accident. The things happening on that TV were decisions so awful, that I questioned whether those responsible even understood their own motivations for operating what doesn’t even seem to be a business anymore. Everything was a chum bucket. Everything was clickbait. Everything was dark patterns. To watch TV and feel that way, for every channel I tried, means that almost all of TV has been reduced to the lowest internet tabloid trash by default. I remember what it used to feel like when nothing was on, but this seemed beyond nothing being on. I don’t know how the story ends though. The only thing I do know, is that TV is still a different enough game, such that no tech company really represents a credible DIRECT threat to TV at large, except Netflix, and only Netflix distinguishes itself from other tech companies by producing original shows that people actually talk about.
- orloffm 8y agoWhat is the cause for this brain drain?
- downer56 8y agoThe internet changing the world, and all of the technology companies offering jobs that attract the best technical resources with better compensation packages, and unicorn dreams. Contrast this with what used to be the 20th century version of the tech industry’s unicorn narrative: becoming a super star on old media, appearing on TV, in movies, on the cover of magazines, or maybe making it big in music, or being a mogul thereof. These things still happen, but it’s obvious that fluffy celebrity stardom, or becoming the star maker, is shakier ground than it used to be, and technology-oriented success is an alternate path to fame and wealth. Because of the new things that have emerged over the past 20 years, the brain drain began some time ago, when alternate paths to success became evident, and old media suffered for it.
- tomhoward 8y agoI wonder if the real reason advertising companies are worried about millenials is that they just avoid advertising whenever they can I don't think advertising companies are worried about millennials; they can target them and measure results far more effectively with online advertising than they ever could via television, and thanks to smartphone addiction, screen time/ad exposure time is the highest it's ever been. Myself and many of my friends avoid ads by using ad-blockers and subscription services That may be true of sophisticated users like yourself and your peers, but I'm fairly sure you're in a small minority. Most people just use Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube and read news articles unfiltered, and outside of that, brands can insert their message directly into the content via sponsorships and product placements with online celebrities. Broadcast TV may be declining as millennials spend their time and dollars elsewhere, but the advertising industry has never been stronger.
- malka 8y agoidk about ad companies. But publisher are kinda worried about ad blockers :), I head numbers as high as 50% of users with ad blocks. normies use ad block now.