Notes

advertising and marketing in the digital age
this is not any expertise of mine from the advertisers angle but as a consumer I have ben poisoned and polluted by its oversaturation
it’s in our ears, it’s in our eyes, it’s mid-song, mid-show, mid-video
- podcast/music streaming ads having better audio quality than the content you’re trying to listen to
fast-moving high-budget attention-grabbing controversy-stirring marketing culture
let’s ban billboards
things that are well-advertised but bad for humanity vs poorly-advertised but genuinely helpful
often ads are genuine displays of craftsmanship and creativity, this could be put to better use (sharing the message or telling the story that the creatives are self-compelled to show rather than in service of an arbitrary company/product/service)
too often they are also not that. innovation for the sake of rebranding something that has outlived its usefulness? or innovating towards something better
notable exceptions eg clear PSAs useful, trailing other media content is often exciting, notice of events and other time-sensitive things often of genuine use and interest
plenty of sources of curated collections of ideas/products/services that are actually consensual and sought out rather than shoved down your throat whilst trying to enjoy other aspects of life
connecting ideas is totally different in the age of hyper-connectivity, cold-calling less of the norm
there may be something you ‘didn’t know you needed’ but that is a lot rarer than advertisers claim and often solved by melting-pot style curation eg ‘discover’ and ‘explore’ tabs online, charity shop and car boot in real life, booth-style conventions and networking events in real life. These all benefit from generalised targeting without too direct of an intrusion
direct mail still appears to be useful to older audiences. I can’t really see this being repopularised with younger audiences and digital natives though
shift away from pervasive blanket marketing to pervasive personal marketing
rise of sponsored content
some people genuinely find targeted advertising useful
others would like targeted adverts only with stringent controls of who sees what data but can’t fathom a way in which this could be seamless
it would almost certainly be possible to give advertisers the info on our interests without sacrificing all privacy if this was only more directly integrated into our interactions with whatever we consider ‘products’ or ‘interests’ or ‘services’ online
with special attention paid to ease and usability
France seems to have a culture of anti-advertisement more than anywhere else, a history of resistance particularly in Paris

Resources

paper on generational differences
[article on resistance in French cities](‘Advertising breaks your spirit’- the French cities trying to ban public adverts)
No Logo by Naomi Klein

stock content

Notes

stock photos really very rarely improve the experience of the web
good uses eg educational resource and communication support
bad use - pollution of brand/organisation websites/blog content
when is stock footage useful, when is it irritating
saturation of focus-grabbing side-by-side footage eg ‘subway surfers’ and minecraft gameplay is popular
- ‘it helps with my adhd!’ achievable with tools, or better tools needed. embedding within content muddies it further and bakes in extraneous info.
  - a less-often-occurring phenomeneon of ‘accessible for you is worse for everyone else’ - i must make it emphatically clear that almost always accessiblity measures have either a neutral or positive effect for those who didn’t expect to benefit from it - but this would be a good ‘exception that proves the rule’ candidate
stock images/footage in ads, even worse.
increasing variety through uptake of AI generated image - this doesn’t improve the experience of stock content but just makes it harder to spot - it is useful for the same use cases where stock content is already genuinely useful, and just as annoying in other contexts eg ads, and brings all the extra ethical issues of AI

Notes

Resources

Mentions

Resources

stock content

Notes