5 ms·

We all knew that as the cost and size of hardware decreases, in the future we would have computing and connectivity everywhere. What I never expected is that co

by cs702 14y ago

We all knew that as the cost and size of hardware decreases, in the future we would have computing and connectivity everywhere. What I never expected is that computing and connectivity would come hand-in-hand with advertising everywhere. Today it's a magazine ad with 15 days of sponsored WiFi. At the rate we're going, it's only a matter of time before we have Free Happy Meals with hallucinatory ad-sponsored connectivity delivered over the network straight to the visual cortex. -- Edit: corrected "15 minutes" to "15 days," which is what I actually meant to type. Thanks JimmaDaRustla!

ulyssesgrant 14y ago
The worst offender I've seen so far was on Hulu I think. You could either watch the 1 or 2 minute advertisement, or type the company's slogan into a text box. That really weirded me out...
- princess3000 14y ago
  Ticketmaster just changed their captchas to this format as well, you enter a captcha like "Who's coming with me" while viewing an ad about their social features. Until a few months ago it was a normal, unrelated captcha.
sageikosa 14y ago
Futurama: advertisements in your dreams
JimmaDaRustla 14y ago
FYI: 15 days, not minutes.
jdechko 14y ago
Have you seen the Happy Meal toys & some of the boxes lately? With all of the various movie tie-ins and whatnot, it's only a matter of time before Happy Meals are completely subsidized by the toys included.
- namwen 14y ago
  I'm sure they already are. They've been tied in that way for years and years.
  - sageikosa 14y ago
    When my kids were younger, it became a Disney tie-in vehicle. My all time favorite was one happy-meal toy line with each Disney character from an animated movie standing on a rollable (wheeled) video-cassette case for the movie.
- Retric 14y ago
  I suspect the movie makes money from the toy's vs paying for that advertising. Plenty of kids will beg for a happy meal because they want that cheap plastic, and the parents eat where the kids eat.
vijayr 14y ago
I bought a book from Amazon couple of months ago - The envelope had an ad for a movie (forgot which one). For a second I thought, it was the DVD for the movie - but no, it was my order alright, except it had an ad for the movie, right on the packaging. This is after I paid for the book. Advertising is everywhere :( This might work? (for outdoor ads) - http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Without_Ads.html http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Withou...
- tzs 14y ago
  There used to sometimes be ads in paperback books. In the middle of the book would be a thicker page, with a full color ad. I remember cigarette ads were common. Here's an article about this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Collins-t.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Collins-t.htm...
  - loceng 14y ago
    This would be a terrible trend if it returned - even in ebooks. I imagine there would be some software that you could run it through to strip all ads though.
  - salgernon 14y ago
    Terry Pratchett found that one of his publishers had actually changed the text of his books to insert Advertisements, something along the lines of "and at this time our heros enjoyed a hearty bowl of $SOUP" http://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and-the-maggi-soup-adverts/ http://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and-...
  - vijayr 14y ago
    If the ad is on a separate page (both sides) we can tear it off. If it is part of a page, then :( Internet has trained people not to pay for things, for more than a decade. Most people wouldn't think twice about dropping 5$ on a single cup of starbucks coffee, but would not spend the same 5$ for an email account (without ads). It's not going to be easy to change this behavior, especially on the net.
baby 14y ago
Imagine if drugs were legal and not bent by advertising laws. That would be a total nightmare, or a dream for some.
stephengillie 14y ago
On one side, I'm not sure how to feel about such disposable electronics. How will you feel when you throw out a quad-core processor and the birthday card it's powering? On the other side, I'm a little surprised nobody's developed a mini-quadcopter billboard yet. Think of an array of small flying devices, each hockey-puck sized device would hold a battery, 3-color LED, radio, and maybe a processor -- they would auto-arrange into a grid, and light up in patterns to make images when seen from afar. (This should be possible with current technology, and the business applications are undeniable.)
- stephengillie 14y ago
  I've fleshed out the details. It's not quite realistically feasible today, but this should be available in 10 years. The biggest hurdles to overcome are: -Creating the flight management software -Networking 260,000 devices with wifi technology -Getting 5-6 MWh into the air to charge these 260,000 devices each hour. -Battery life expectancy. http://gilgatech.tumblr.com/post/49231953391/quadcopter-billboard http://gilgatech.tumblr.com/post/49231953391/quadcopter-bill...

by cs702 14y ago

ulyssesgrant 14y ago

The worst offender I've seen so far was on Hulu I think. You could either watch the 1 or 2 minute advertisement, or type the company's slogan into a text box. That really weirded me out...

princess3000 14y ago
Ticketmaster just changed their captchas to this format as well, you enter a captcha like "Who's coming with me" while viewing an ad about their social features. Until a few months ago it was a normal, unrelated captcha.

sageikosa 14y ago

Futurama: advertisements in your dreams

JimmaDaRustla 14y ago

FYI: 15 days, not minutes.

jdechko 14y ago

Have you seen the Happy Meal toys & some of the boxes lately? With all of the various movie tie-ins and whatnot, it's only a matter of time before Happy Meals are completely subsidized by the toys included.

namwen 14y ago
I'm sure they already are. They've been tied in that way for years and years.
- sageikosa 14y ago
  When my kids were younger, it became a Disney tie-in vehicle. My all time favorite was one happy-meal toy line with each Disney character from an animated movie standing on a rollable (wheeled) video-cassette case for the movie.
Retric 14y ago
I suspect the movie makes money from the toy's vs paying for that advertising. Plenty of kids will beg for a happy meal because they want that cheap plastic, and the parents eat where the kids eat.

vijayr 14y ago

I bought a book from Amazon couple of months ago - The envelope had an ad for a movie (forgot which one). For a second I thought, it was the DVD for the movie - but no, it was my order alright, except it had an ad for the movie, right on the packaging. This is after I paid for the book. Advertising is everywhere :( This might work? (for outdoor ads) - http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Without_Ads.html http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Withou...

tzs 14y ago
There used to sometimes be ads in paperback books. In the middle of the book would be a thicker page, with a full color ad. I remember cigarette ads were common. Here's an article about this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Collins-t.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Collins-t.htm...
- loceng 14y ago
  This would be a terrible trend if it returned - even in ebooks. I imagine there would be some software that you could run it through to strip all ads though.
- salgernon 14y ago
  Terry Pratchett found that one of his publishers had actually changed the text of his books to insert Advertisements, something along the lines of "and at this time our heros enjoyed a hearty bowl of $SOUP" http://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and-the-maggi-soup-adverts/ http://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and-...
- vijayr 14y ago
  If the ad is on a separate page (both sides) we can tear it off. If it is part of a page, then :( Internet has trained people not to pay for things, for more than a decade. Most people wouldn't think twice about dropping 5$ on a single cup of starbucks coffee, but would not spend the same 5$ for an email account (without ads). It's not going to be easy to change this behavior, especially on the net.

baby 14y ago

Imagine if drugs were legal and not bent by advertising laws. That would be a total nightmare, or a dream for some.

stephengillie 14y ago

On one side, I'm not sure how to feel about such disposable electronics. How will you feel when you throw out a quad-core processor and the birthday card it's powering? On the other side, I'm a little surprised nobody's developed a mini-quadcopter billboard yet. Think of an array of small flying devices, each hockey-puck sized device would hold a battery, 3-color LED, radio, and maybe a processor -- they would auto-arrange into a grid, and light up in patterns to make images when seen from afar. (This should be possible with current technology, and the business applications are undeniable.)

stephengillie 14y ago
I've fleshed out the details. It's not quite realistically feasible today, but this should be available in 10 years. The biggest hurdles to overcome are: -Creating the flight management software -Networking 260,000 devices with wifi technology -Getting 5-6 MWh into the air to charge these 260,000 devices each hour. -Battery life expectancy. http://gilgatech.tumblr.com/post/49231953391/quadcopter-billboard http://gilgatech.tumblr.com/post/49231953391/quadcopter-bill...