Archive for the 'Eyeballs and Eardrums (The Media)' Category
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
President Coke (or is it Pepsi?)
ROFL! Unwilling and unable to suggest a single compelling reason why people should care about his re-election (“Defend the individual mandate!”), Brand Obama has apparently settled on boilerplate “consumer goods” marketing techniques this time around. The latest campaign combines celebrity endorsement and a sweepstakes:
Interestingly, while the landing site for this click-through ad conveys the impression that one must make a donation to win the grand “prize” of being admitted to the fundraising soiree at Clooney’s California mansion, the Official Contest Rules (again, Orwell couldn’t have thought this stuff up) say otherwise.
Fraud is as fraud does, down to the last detail.
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
It Only Gets Worse
Remember when Google was supposedly all about cutting-edge math and decent places to work?
Take a look at the website Adweek. Without signing in, try to read one of their stories. Pick any one. It won’t matter.
What you get after clicking a headline there is undoubtedly a sign of what’s clearly next in the evolution of the commercially-run internet — compulsory data disclosure.
Clicking any AdWeek story now lands you on a page where you get an opening sentence or two, then must choose between answering a marketing question or “liking” the story page on a so-called social marketing platform.
The culprit here is Google, which is now pushing its “Google Consumer Surveys” onto “content providers.”
Why am I being asked this question?
The website you are visiting is using a survey, powered by Google, to enable access to its paid content. Answering a quick question here gives you immediate access to the content you want without having to pull out your wallet or sign in. These surveys contain questions written and provided by survey creators that want to conduct market research. The website you’re visiting earns money from the surveys that appear. This service makes market research fast, accurate, and affordable, helps to fund great web content and enables you easily and quickly get access to it.
Your answer is anonymous and is aggregated with all other anonymous answers to the question. It’s not connected with any information about you, and is not used to develop a profile or to deliver ads. Once the survey is complete, an aggregated report is provided to the survey creator about the specific question it asked. Like ads on the web, some surveys may be delivered to you based on the interests and inferred demographics associated with your browser. You can click here to review or edit these, or to opt-out.
This new level of coercion is both an obvious affront to the fading dream of an open, democratic internet and a new source of revenue and targeting knowledge for both Google and the most money-oriented websites.
TCT urges everybody to take all possible steps to combat this ridiculous maneuver. Opt out, give wrong answers, use ad blockers, boycott sites that adopt GCS, and, most importantly, advocate creation of a public, not-for-profit internet that leaves the Facebook and Google pirates, as well as the overclass manipulators for whom they whore, in the dust.
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
Ideology and Intuition
The Associated Press ran a story yesterday on still more record-setting income flow for the overclass. Penned by Bernard Condon and Paul Wiseman, it is a true monument to our market-totalitarian times. The authors express perplexity in the face of the basic facts:
Profits have a curious, sometimes counterintuitive, impact on the economy. Unexpectedly strong earnings don’t necessarily translate into surprising economic strength. Consider that profits have surged since the Great Recession ended in 2009, even as the economy has struggled to recover. That’s because companies made profits mostly by slashing jobs and cutting costs.
What? You mean not all capital that gets amassed returns to “job creation”? Giving the rich more money might not be the best answer to all problems? Who’d have thunk it? Could there be something wrong with mainstream intuition, not to mention the central political tenet of the last 32 years? What could it be?
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
Pushing Pablum With Mental Pablum
Coke isn’t alone, of course. One wonders which will give you diabetes faster — regularly eating the food at McDonald’s, or “following” its Twitter feed.
Marketing news site contently glowingly reports the following:
Aside from when Mickey D’s is promoting its newest products or the comeback of a favorite menu item (McRibs or Shamrock Shakes, anyone?), the Twitter resembles that of any other user. The company posts updates such as, “’If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you. If you’d never been born, well then what would you do?’ Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!” and “Happy Thursday everyone! Hope your day is off to a great start!”
It even re-tweets updates unrelated to the company like “Those small words someone can say that makes your day ten times better. #LittleThings” and “I try to be the 1 person to stand up and do something for someone when everyone else sits and watches. #littlethings.”
It’s fitting that McDonald’s Twitter updates are positive and uplifting, considering that its trademark colors are bright, it serves Happy Meals, and its slogan is “I’m lovin’ it.” The company is all about happiness, and this effectively translates over to its presence on Twitter.
Along with never posting negative content, the McDonald’s Twitter feed is clearly run by everyday people. Its ten Twitter representatives sign their tweets with their initials, posting statuses like “It’s Friday! How is everyone this morning? ^MO” and “Good morning and happy Tuesday! Very grateful for the McCafé Mocha that’s about to help me get my day started! ^MO.”
The advertising is in there, but it’s not so direct — people update their Facebooks or Twitter accounts all the time mentioning restaurants or products. Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director, told PR Daily, “People want to connect with actual people on Twitter.” Instead of sounding like an automated machine, the company’s account is personal and heartfelt.
Over 300,000 people “follow” this line of brand-building condescension and lies, by the way. “The company is all about happiness!” I’m sure that news will go over really well at the next shareholders meeting.
What a culture we get.
Monday, April 9th, 2012
Beyond Big Brother
Microsoft is about to launch the Nokia Lumia 900 “smart phone.” Here at TCT, we know exactly what “smart” media devices are smart about: marketing. Not only do “smart” devices increase the already astounding amount of off-the-job time people in the United States spend staring at sponsored content and ads, but they rake in huge amounts of Orwellian-quality data about their users’ habits and preferences.
Ponder, then, the sheer cajones of how Microsoft is promoting this new Nokia phone: As a “Free-Time Machine”! (Note, too, the inclusion of one of the Kardashians, the veritable poster children for time squandered on sponsored media.)
The thing, of course, is a patent stab at expanding the already near-complete corporate colonization of free time, an attempt to reduce even further the degree of independence in what its purchasers do when not asleep or at their jobs (if they have one).
It is more evidence of the old TCT claim that the things our overclass gets away with would make Hitler and Stalin purple with envy.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Why “Connected TV”?
Media capitalists are pushing “connected tv,” meaning television sets equipped with network interface computer cards and content delivered through an “internet service provider” (read: data harvesting) corporation.
Is this being done, as its pushers would have you believe, to expand the possibilities of what you can see on your television screen?
Let’s consult an expert.
