5 ms·

This is so prevalent already. Brands disguised as users posting "content" that is mostly just an advert for their brand. It has got to the point where any time

This is so prevalent already. Brands disguised as users posting "content" that is mostly just an advert for their brand. It has got to the point where any time someone posts something that seems to too clearly show a brand name or speaks too highly of a product I suspect its the PR people at work and I downvote it.

applecrazy 7y ago
There’s a marketing term for it, too. It’s called “native advertising.”
- rhizome 7y ago
  "Native advertising" was originally ads that were served by the site itself, first-party. It's advertisers who have co-opted it (yet again), but that doesn't mean you have to go along with their preferences. Typing isn't hard and "sponcon" (sponsored content) is already perfectly cromulent jargon, as well as being shorter.
paggle 7y ago
The old way: tracking you as you look for snowboarding videos on the Web and advertising you a snowmobile wherever you go. The new way: making sure that 95% of the snowboarding videos you see are subliminally designed to sell you a snowboard (the guy riding the competitors snowboard goes slower and crashes... the guy riding your company’s snowboard wins the race and his girlfriend looks like a supermodel) I think eventually we will pine for the old way. Already you can’t get useful reviews anymore because all of the “comparison” searches are run by manufacturer mouthpieces.
- baroffoos 7y ago
  >I think eventually we will pine for the old way. Already you can’t get useful reviews anymore because all of the “comparison” searches are run by manufacturer mouthpieces. Absolutely. A lot of reviews these days from google results read like someone who has only ever read the feature list from the marketing page. There is a bit of a search engine hack where you just put "reddit" after any search and it brings up fairly real results for now.
  - paggle 7y ago
    If people are doing that, it’s fairly certain that there are marketers maintaining “humanoid” Reddit accounts which then chime in with opinions on Bluetooth headphones.
    - baroffoos 7y ago
      No doubt. So far the only defense against crap products is buying them from a physical store so you can test and easily return them and having a good warranty.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    I find reviews useful anyway. I simply ignore the "good" reviews and always look at the worst ones. There are three kinds of bad reviews - people who had random bad stuff happen (postal service broke it) that is irrelevant and think everyone should know - people with some sort of vendetta (possibly disgruntled employees, or competitors, or crazy customers) - and finally, people who actually had a bad experience that might be characteristic of the product's quality or design. If the third category can be used to construct a narrative about something that is a deal-breaker, then that's the information I'm looking for. Of course, it has to be taken in context of the competitors. My expectation is that the best products have some type (I) and type (II) bad reviews, but no type (III). Almost as good is something with type (III) that are about something that either doesn't matter to me or is actually a positive from my perspective.
  - rhizome 7y ago
    I'm pretty good at finding decent reviews. I'd never post my process on a public forum, but I apparently don't have as much trouble avoiding sponcon as a lot of others.

applecrazy 7y ago

There’s a marketing term for it, too. It’s called “native advertising.”

rhizome 7y ago
"Native advertising" was originally ads that were served by the site itself, first-party. It's advertisers who have co-opted it (yet again), but that doesn't mean you have to go along with their preferences. Typing isn't hard and "sponcon" (sponsored content) is already perfectly cromulent jargon, as well as being shorter.

paggle 7y ago

The old way: tracking you as you look for snowboarding videos on the Web and advertising you a snowmobile wherever you go. The new way: making sure that 95% of the snowboarding videos you see are subliminally designed to sell you a snowboard (the guy riding the competitors snowboard goes slower and crashes... the guy riding your company’s snowboard wins the race and his girlfriend looks like a supermodel) I think eventually we will pine for the old way. Already you can’t get useful reviews anymore because all of the “comparison” searches are run by manufacturer mouthpieces.

baroffoos 7y ago
>I think eventually we will pine for the old way. Already you can’t get useful reviews anymore because all of the “comparison” searches are run by manufacturer mouthpieces. Absolutely. A lot of reviews these days from google results read like someone who has only ever read the feature list from the marketing page. There is a bit of a search engine hack where you just put "reddit" after any search and it brings up fairly real results for now.
- paggle 7y ago
  If people are doing that, it’s fairly certain that there are marketers maintaining “humanoid” Reddit accounts which then chime in with opinions on Bluetooth headphones.
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    No doubt. So far the only defense against crap products is buying them from a physical store so you can test and easily return them and having a good warranty.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I find reviews useful anyway. I simply ignore the "good" reviews and always look at the worst ones. There are three kinds of bad reviews - people who had random bad stuff happen (postal service broke it) that is irrelevant and think everyone should know - people with some sort of vendetta (possibly disgruntled employees, or competitors, or crazy customers) - and finally, people who actually had a bad experience that might be characteristic of the product's quality or design. If the third category can be used to construct a narrative about something that is a deal-breaker, then that's the information I'm looking for. Of course, it has to be taken in context of the competitors. My expectation is that the best products have some type (I) and type (II) bad reviews, but no type (III). Almost as good is something with type (III) that are about something that either doesn't matter to me or is actually a positive from my perspective.
- rhizome 7y ago
  I'm pretty good at finding decent reviews. I'd never post my process on a public forum, but I apparently don't have as much trouble avoiding sponcon as a lot of others.