4 ms·

This is the future of advertising, imho. If we can target native advertising then people won't be able to tell the difference between content and ads. Consequen

This is the future of advertising, imho. If we can target native advertising then people won't be able to tell the difference between content and ads. Consequently, they won't be able to block them without blocking the content. Imagine an NYT text that's sort of personalized to you. Very cool concept.

draugadrotten 7y ago
Is it really the future? The very term soap opera was coined because soap advertising was done as sponsoring entire shows. It's 1950 advertising. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera
- reaperducer 7y ago
  People forget that most shows on radio or television were about the sponsor, and the content was secondary. What we're used to from the 70's through the 90's was a change toward more of a separation. We're now seeing the shift back. In old radio serials, sometimes the actors would break character right in the middle of a scene and do a commercial. TV news anchors actually wore sponsor patches on their suits, and the sponsor logos were on the set, in a very NASCAR fashion. If you're ever in Baton Rouge, the state museum there has an old preserved TV news set and you can see the sponsor logos on everything.
  - shadowgovt 7y ago
    And much of the separation wasn't voluntary; FCC rules changed.
  - crooked-v 7y ago
    > In old radio serials, sometimes the actors would break character right in the middle of a scene and do a commercial. Jimmy Kimmel does this occasionally, with a full-on commercial as a skit in the middle of the show (clearly marked as an ad for broadcast purposes). The humor value generally comes from his sidekick Guillermo always being featured and always being pretty bad at it.
b0rsuk 7y ago
Should we take advertising for granted? A few years ago Hacker News had this article which says 2x happier customers means 2x less money on marketing. https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/twice-as-happy-half-the-price https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/twice-as-happy-...
kardos 7y ago
> Imagine an NYT text that's sort of personalized to you. Very cool concept. That sounds like it would lead to a extra-potent filter bubble effect [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble
JohnFen 7y ago
> Imagine an NYT text that's sort of personalized to you. Very cool concept. That's not a cool concept at all. That's a horrifying one.
- goatlover 7y ago
  Followed by the Minority Report Ads that scan your retinas and the giant 3D ads from Blade Runner 2049. And then eventually just beam them into dreams like in Futurama. One of the great things about the Star Trek universe was the complete absence of advertising. That does sound rather Utopian.
techopoly 7y ago
Personally, I don't see how this could be anything other than scary and unsettling. First, we should be able to exist in a world where advertising isn't so pervasive we can't even figure out what is real anymore. We're already heading toward this Orwellian dystopia of a glossy marketing shine on everything (and that's another State Farm touchdown!). It's a problem because it dehumanizes the receiver as just another set of body organs to manipulate into spending money, and it seems to turn the receiver into an inattentive, quivering set of reflexes. I can't imagine most of us thinking that would be a desirable world to live in. Second, I feel that a writer should be able to write something once and it be done with. If I were writing an article for the NYT, I would push back as hard as I could if the publisher wanted to have some AI algorithm tailoring my message to sell a product. That is the opposite of respectable journalism, and perhaps with the exception of novel cases, the opposite of respectable writing in general. Third, I think we as a society should be able to read someone else's views and be able to exist with the tension of them being somewhat different than ours. I don't want everything personalized to me. Let me learn how other people see things. We as members of society should be able to see ourselves as contributing members of that society and not merely individuals. We need works of thought to parse and debate so we can participate in the Great Conversation that humanity has continued for millennia. If what you're saying is the direction we are going, I'm not a fan.

draugadrotten 7y ago

Is it really the future? The very term soap opera was coined because soap advertising was done as sponsoring entire shows. It's 1950 advertising. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera

reaperducer 7y ago
People forget that most shows on radio or television were about the sponsor, and the content was secondary. What we're used to from the 70's through the 90's was a change toward more of a separation. We're now seeing the shift back. In old radio serials, sometimes the actors would break character right in the middle of a scene and do a commercial. TV news anchors actually wore sponsor patches on their suits, and the sponsor logos were on the set, in a very NASCAR fashion. If you're ever in Baton Rouge, the state museum there has an old preserved TV news set and you can see the sponsor logos on everything.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  And much of the separation wasn't voluntary; FCC rules changed.
- crooked-v 7y ago
  > In old radio serials, sometimes the actors would break character right in the middle of a scene and do a commercial. Jimmy Kimmel does this occasionally, with a full-on commercial as a skit in the middle of the show (clearly marked as an ad for broadcast purposes). The humor value generally comes from his sidekick Guillermo always being featured and always being pretty bad at it.

b0rsuk 7y ago

Should we take advertising for granted? A few years ago Hacker News had this article which says 2x happier customers means 2x less money on marketing. https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/twice-as-happy-half-the-price https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/twice-as-happy-...

kardos 7y ago

> Imagine an NYT text that's sort of personalized to you. Very cool concept. That sounds like it would lead to a extra-potent filter bubble effect [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

JohnFen 7y ago

> Imagine an NYT text that's sort of personalized to you. Very cool concept. That's not a cool concept at all. That's a horrifying one.

goatlover 7y ago
Followed by the Minority Report Ads that scan your retinas and the giant 3D ads from Blade Runner 2049. And then eventually just beam them into dreams like in Futurama. One of the great things about the Star Trek universe was the complete absence of advertising. That does sound rather Utopian.

techopoly 7y ago

Personally, I don't see how this could be anything other than scary and unsettling. First, we should be able to exist in a world where advertising isn't so pervasive we can't even figure out what is real anymore. We're already heading toward this Orwellian dystopia of a glossy marketing shine on everything (and that's another State Farm touchdown!). It's a problem because it dehumanizes the receiver as just another set of body organs to manipulate into spending money, and it seems to turn the receiver into an inattentive, quivering set of reflexes. I can't imagine most of us thinking that would be a desirable world to live in. Second, I feel that a writer should be able to write something once and it be done with. If I were writing an article for the NYT, I would push back as hard as I could if the publisher wanted to have some AI algorithm tailoring my message to sell a product. That is the opposite of respectable journalism, and perhaps with the exception of novel cases, the opposite of respectable writing in general. Third, I think we as a society should be able to read someone else's views and be able to exist with the tension of them being somewhat different than ours. I don't want everything personalized to me. Let me learn how other people see things. We as members of society should be able to see ourselves as contributing members of that society and not merely individuals. We need works of thought to parse and debate so we can participate in the Great Conversation that humanity has continued for millennia. If what you're saying is the direction we are going, I'm not a fan.