‘A Seismic Shock’: Jittery Companies Pull Back on Ads During Pandemic

Without an audience to steal attention from, advertising goes dark. 

VIA: The NY Times

Blank billboards and canceled online ads signal an industry in crisis as the coronavirus spreads. “There are things happening that we’ve never seen before,” one marketing executive said. More [HERE]

The Humble Phone Call Has Made a Comeback

VIA: The NY Times

Alyssa MacKenzie, 32, rarely used her smartphone to make phone calls, apart from the occasional conversation for her work as a disability rights advocate. More [HERE]

You Are Now Remotely Controlled

VIA: The NY Times

The debate on privacy and law at the Federal Trade Commission was unusually heated that day. Tech industry executives “argued that they were capable of regulating themselves and that government intervention would be costly and counterproductive.” Civil libertarians warned that the companies’ data capabilities posed “an unprecedented threat to individual freedom.” One observed, “We have to decide what human beings are in the electronic age. Are we just going to be chattel for commerce?” A commissioner asked, ‘‘Where should we draw the line?” The year was 1997. More [HERE]

Talking the Talk, Even With Strangers; An Inquiring Couple With a Sign Are Just Looking for a Nice Story

Very excited to find out about this type of stranger outreach happening in NYC. I know its not directly ad related but it is about finding meaningful connection in public space which is becoming a bigger concern of mine as I transition from young anger based action to more measured solution based concepts.

VIA: The NY Times

Liz Barry and Bill Wetzel sit on sidewalks around the city, not asking for money, or sociological survey data, or dates, or even a shower, though that would help after weeks of camping in parks and on rooftops. They just want to hear stories. More [HERE]

You See Pepsi, I See Coke: New Tricks for Product Placement

VIA: The NY Times

First came product placement. In exchange for a payment, whether in cash, supplies or services, a TV show or a film would prominently display a brand-name product.

Then there was virtual product placement. Products or logos would be inserted into a show during the editing, thanks to computer-generated imagery.

Now, with the rise of Netflix and other streaming platforms, the practice of working brands into shows and films is likely to get more sophisticated. In the near future, according to marketing executives who have had discussions with streaming companies, the products that appear onscreen may depend on who is watching.
More [HERE]

Feeling Lonely? Perhaps You’d Like to Talk to Some Strangers

A few months back I attended a Tea With Strangers in my research for the Talk To Me project and empathy machine that runs on old advertising infrastructure. I am interested in the connections and community that is built when two people that do not know each other come into contact, if only briefly, and how that alters the way we live in the world. Tea With Strangers is 3 hours and I couldn't recommend it more. As John Cage once said, "To make the world a better place, spend time with people you haven't met" Amen.

VIA: The New York Times

When Ankit Shah graduated from college and moved to the Bay Area in 2013, he didn’t know a single person there. Hungry for connections, he asked his Facebook friends to ask their Bay Area-based friends if they’d like to have tea with him, a stranger. More [Here]

You Are What You Watch? The Social Effects of TV

The adage shouldn't be you are what you eat, or in this case, you are what you watch, but rather you are what you attend. It is a simple concept that we would like to be able to escape but its the nature of reality. If we cover our cities in advertising, we spend time attending that advertising, and the messages and ideas behind them become us. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can ignore them, or simply beat them at thier game. It simply isn't how things work.

Other than sleeping and working, Americans are more likely to watch television than engage in any other activity. More [HERE]

FaceApp Shows We Care About Privacy but Don’t Understand It

I have been posting a lot of articles on data privacy because it related directly to my interest in outdoor advertising and the influence industry as a whole. While advertising and OOH advertising more specifically tried to greet you where you were in an effort to capture your attention and influence the trajectory of your thoughts, your digital data exhaust is being used to predict in more accurate ways than you can imagine, your emotional and psychological profile at any given moment in an effort to serve that influence to you on a device you have already given your undivided attention. The goal, like advertising is not mind control, but the subtle nudge of outcomes. Don't demand a society that bows to consumer culture and finds itself so deep in the forest of capitalism that we cannot see our way out, but rather slowly push us there over generations by making each moment of each individuals life more likely to involve a consumer interaction. With enough data, this doesn't become a hypothetical but an inevitable outcome of a society that has allowed our daily lives to be subtly influenced by the needs of capital over the needs of our society. 

VIA: NY Times

FaceApp, a mobile face-editing application, has all the necessary components for a viral privacy scandal: a catchy concept, celebrity users, a mysterious company and a stampede of public interest.

Here’s the rundown of FaceApp’s 15 minutes of fame: A viral app lets us see what we might look like as a wrinkle-laden 75-year-old. Users click “yes” on the terms of service without looking, and start snapping and uploading pictures. More [HERE]

Opinion | I Used Google Ads for Social Engineering. It Worked.

While I love this project and it's goals,  redirect ads are still redirect ads that dupe you into seeing content you weren't looking for, placed there by someone who paid to influence your opinion. It may seem like a callous thing to say but I'd prefer we keep people from pursuing extremist lives by nurturing our citizenry with racial equality, economic fairness, and social justice that creates a sense that we are all in this together. I think the fair distribution of the immense wealth created by the human project would go a long way to combatting outsiderness. I believe it would inevitably come with racial and social justice as distribution would require us to face inequality. Some say that the competition which capitalism creates is what fuels our creative impulse and pushes society forward. The ingenious of humanity tied to the need to work harder and beat out your fellow man. I think that logic is a not so veiled attempt to hide the greed that undermines our social contract in its current form. While I am all for redirecting the suicidal to prevention, or extremist behavior towards the true costs of such pursuits, I wish we didn't have to do it by paying to manipulate the populous, because most manipulations just aren't that altruistic. 

VIA: The NY Times

Kevin Hines had one thought as he plummeted toward the Pacific Ocean: I can change anything in my life except the fact that I just jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge.

“One sentence could have stopped me,” Kevin wrote. “Had any one of the hundreds of passers-by engaged with me, it would … potentially have showed me that I had the ability to choose life.”
More [HERE]

Selling Your Private Information Is a Terrible Idea

As the tools of manipulation become more heavily driven by the data we create through our online, social, and physical interaction with the digitized world, its incumbent on us all to think about not only our ownership of that data, but how inalienable it is to our own being.

VIA: The NY Times

“Claim Your 31st Right,” declares the #My31 app’s splash screen. “Review, share, and confirm your HUMAN right to your data as your property.”
More [HERE]

In Stores, Secret Surveillance Tracks Your Every Move

VIA: The New York Times

Imagine you are shopping in your favorite grocery store. As you approach the dairy aisle, you are sent a push notification in your phone: “10 percent off your favorite yogurt! Click here to redeem your coupon.” You considered buying yogurt on your last trip to the store, but you decided against it. How did your phone know? More [HERE]

A Fake Zuckerberg Video Challenges Facebook’s Rules

VIA: The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks ago, Facebook declined to remove a doctored video in which the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, seemed to drunkenly slur her speech. Over the weekend, two British artists released a doctored video of Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, as a sly comment on the spread of false information online. More [HERE]

New York Bans Alcohol Ads on Most City Property

Advertising through repetition makes more likely that you will do something. It is an exercise of soft power that tips the scale one way in favor of those doing the advertising. Like the house at a casino. They don't win all the time, but the odds are in their favor. Advertising doesn't make you do something, but it makes it more likely. Considering alcohol has it's own addictive pull, we probably shouldn't give it any more advantages.

VIA: The NY Times

Eighteen months after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority banned alcohol advertisements on New York City buses, in subway cars and in stations, the City of New York has followed suit, instituting its own ban on most city-owned properties. More [HERE]

How Much Longer Is That Floating Billboard Going to Ruin My View?

The audacity of one man deciding what should and shouldn't bother people so he can continue to profit off of thier grievance is remarkable... and then entirely not when you consider the business model of distracting the public for private profit. 

VIA: The New York Times

Months after a Florida-based company began sailing digital advertisements on the Hudson and East Rivers, the city has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop them. More [HERE]

Waiting for a Bus? Time to Enjoy a Taste of Art

While I obviously have an issue with PAF and JCD as the curators of our civic media environment, I am very happy with curator Katerina Stathopoulou's choice for this project. Public space should be used by, and be representative of, the citizens who live in our cities. Elle Perez's work will no doubt bring us a deeply personal group of portraits that reflect our city back at us in all its beauty and nuance.

VIA: The New York Times

This summer, 100 city bus shelters will be transformed into platforms for an exhibition of work by a New York-based photographer, Elle Pérez. More [HERE]

Meet the Flintstone House, a Home So Odd It Was Declared a ‘Public Nuisance’

This article isn't about advertising but I was struck by one of the last paragraphs and how similar in sentiment it is to my thinking about outdoor advertising in most cities. 

“The panel cannot support a project that proceeds on a ‘build first, ask for permission later’ basis,” the order said. Ms. Fang’s improvements, the panel added, were “designed to be very intrusive, resulting in the owner’s ‘vision’ for her property being imposed on many other properties and views, without regard to the desires of other residents.”

In this San Francisco Bay town, rich homeowners cry foul over the fact that a visual intrusion has sullied thier airspace, contributing to thier discomfort in thier living environment. This house, despite what you may think of it, does not demand anything more than a billboard would and yet we allow private landlords in cities to sully our shared public spaces without hesitation. 

VIA: NY Times

A small town in the San Francisco Bay Area is apparently unamused by improvements that one of its high-profile residents has made to a distinctive property known as the Flintstone House. More [HERE]

Two Related Articles About Advertising and Choice

Two recent articles in the NY Times caught my attention through their relationship to one another. The first was "Places Where Smartphones Tracked People’s Movements," [HERE] and the second was "Digital Data Gives Billboard Owners More Reason to ‘Love a Good Traffic Jam’." [HERE]  Each suggest how tracking and recognition will go hand in hand to deliver targeted content that is powerful enough to bend choice in ways I don't think we have seen before. 

The goal of advertising is to present you with an idea that you will act upon. Often this is the consumption of a good or service. Persuasion is the ultimate goal and over the years repetition has been the most effective tool in the advertisers repertoire of tricks. Early on advertisers increased their chances of reaching target audiences by inserting messages at regular intervals on many advertising platforms at once, including TV, Outdoor, Print and Radio. As audiences grew, so did the advertisers ability to segment them through Nielsen ratings, focus groups, and social research. If the original idea was to present the message as often as possible, It was quickly updated with a caveat to target the vulnerable. Repeat as many times as possible, but do so to those most susceptible to your charms. For a long time everyone understood the predatory nature of advertising and accepted the fate of being distracted at regular intervals during most social events. It was a price we were wiling to pay for whatever gesture was made in return. TV programming, radio shows, print articles, subway systems, all paid for through our attention to the incantations speckled throughout. For many it has been entirely overwhelming and yet the haphazard way in which advertising content stills seems to seep into our lives has allowed us to see its idiosyncrasy and critique its end game. I have been able to outsmart the system because it revealed itself with each clumsy campaign that I was uninterested in and which revealed the production and consumption cycle in all its uselessness. I took the indignation I felt at these moments of clarity and carried them with me into my other consumer interactions. I was skeptical. The problem I see with new recognition and targeting technologies is that the messages will become so well targeted that I wont have the opportunity to peer behind the curtain. That each message will be so well attuned to my actual desires that I will begin to loose the line between what is actually me and what is the me that the machine has built for me. A few years of cross pollination between my actual personality and the very close replica of my personalty that machines are now capable of building, and my choices stop being my choices alone but some amalgamation. Its a scary and yet somewhat utopian prospect when you really get down to it, and one I'd like to think more about in 2019.

New Public Spaces Are Supposed to Be for All. The Reality Is More Complicated.

VIA: NY Times 

Office workers sip coffee beside men sleeping in chairs pulled together. Tourists park their shopping bags where people shoot up heroin, or drink until they pass out. Panhandlers go table to table seeking handouts. Piles of trash, used needles and worse (human feces) have drawn complaints. More [HERE]

Your Kid’s Apps Are Crammed With Ads

VIA: NY Times

Many developers market apps for children as being educational. So Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician who wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for children and media, wanted to check that out. More [HERE]

On Crowded London Streets, Councils Fight a Flood of Phone Boxes

VIA: NY Times

LONDON — The British telephone box is not dead yet. In parts of central London, a box stands sentinel every 100 feet — and if phone companies got their way, they’d plant one every 50 feet.

More [HERE]