Tag Archives: Advertising industry

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. IS IT NOT TIME FOR THE ADVERSTISING INDUSTRY TO BE CURTAILED.

05 Monday Oct 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Advertising, Advertising industry, Big Data., COVID-19, Digital age., Disconnection., How to do it., Human values., POST COVID-19., Purchasing Power., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The pursuit of profit., The state of the World., The world to day., TRACKING TECHNOLOGY., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World

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(Twelve-minute read) 

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a considerable drop in advertising spending however life in the time of coronavirus is increasingly a life lived online which has led to an acceleration of digital adoption and e-commerce.

Our current regulations governing advertising are no longer enough to ensure protection against aggressive sales techniques, false or deceptive ad messages, as well as intentionally incomplete information. The Sale of Goods Act of 1979 under which all advertised goods must match the description advertised on them is out of date. 

In today’s digital era, conventional marketing dictums no longer hold true.

In a nutshell, ‘Everything for everyone, customized’

The very nature of what this industry is about should with the current difficulties facing the world be questioned.

Clearly, there should be a line separating the private from the public, the free from the controlled.

But who should be in charge of drawing this line?  Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Apps, or Laws to curtail the advertising industry from promoting consumerism for the sake of profit.

Just like any other industry, advertising needs regulation.

On one side, we live in free-market times, which means that each product or brand, no matter how big or small, has the right to be noticed but not the right to piggyback on fear – On the other side, not all products and services are equal. Some are neutral, while others might have a negative effect on our health, safety, and overall well-being-  such as gambling- fast food -obesity – cleaning products – damage to ecosystems. 

  1. We realize that advertising should be regulated.
  2. We admit that proper regulation can only be implemented on a state level.
  3. We are as concerned about government data collection as we are with data collection by marketing agencies and brands.

What is mind-blowing is that even with so many organizations, laws, and regulations designed to control the quality of advertising, some brands manage to get around ad regulations using legal loopholes.

You only have to look at BIo it now applies to everything down to sardines in tins. 

It would be an understatement to say that advertising regulation is complex but is it not time with what the world is facing to force it to rethink and stop pigging backing on the problems we all now face.

These days, when massive data breaches have become the new norm just imaging what is going to happen when the advertising media get their hands on promoting a vaccine against COVID -19.

Ad regulations should specify which forms of data collection and tracking are been used in order to consider what is legal and which Ad be banned. As the need for this form of regulation emerges international regulations such as GDPR come into play. The primary goal of such documents is to limit/control the power of ad tech companies, marketing agencies, and brands trying to make the most out of user data.

If not mass, untargeted broadcasting will become passé and data will be at the heart of marketing strategy.

New tracking and data collection technologies make us all more vulnerable and unprotected than ever before.

For instance, if there were no advertising regulations put in place, we will fall victim to the whims of marketers, quickly and inevitably, once and for all.

Brands will use complex combinations of personal data, location data, and environment data to target their customers with the right message at the right time on the right device.

These days, everything changes in a heartbeat. With new technologies, advertising can be as personalized as we allow it to be –  voice marketing.

In the modern ‘attention economy’ where consumer attention is divided across more devices, applications, and formats than ever before, only engaging and relevant ads will command consumer attention.

Advertisers are adapting by following consumers, which means prioritizing digital advertising. The online environment is favorable for “direct response” campaigns – those encouraging quick purchases by consumers.. and technological innovation continuously redefines the landscape of advertising. 

This new era has placed new demands upon marketers. AI and machine learning bring massive benefits to marketing. Digital advertising technology is changing rapidly. New communication technology –including social media, wearables, virtual reality — is turning the advertising industry upside down.

One could argue that many elements of human behavior are going to change permanently and there will be increasing complexity in consumer purchasing decisions but this will not stop advertising from exploration and delivering targeted ads.   

If we want real transformation all companies must find new ways of brand-building by using advertising to create awareness of climate change, pollution, racism, slave labor, etc.  In forests of inaccurate data we can’t make sense of or dark caves of illusory tech that yield no light at the end of the tunnel.

With more and more highly specific marketing there is still a lot to be done in this regard both on national and international levels. – greater transparency in the value chain is required.

A few examples: 

Switzerland: Although the local ad space is small, it is worth our attention. According to Swiss law, advertising lotteries and games of chance are strictly prohibited. In Switzerland, it is illegal to promote pharmaceutical products under prescription in any publicly available media. Health-related and nutritional claims for foods are only permitted if they deliver exactly what they promise.

China: The Chinese advertising market is the second-largest in the world and one of the most interesting in terms of ad control. For instance, brands can be fined up to $157,000 for using statements such as “the best,” “the most,” or similar phrases in their marketing campaigns. Another fascinating fact is that children under 10 are not allowed to endorse or promote within Chinese ads (even if it’s an advertisement for toys!)

Chile: Under Chilean law, it is not allowed to advertise products that are high in calories, sugar, sodium, and saturated fats to children under the age of 14. Brands producing the above-mentioned foods cannot be marketed in schools and are illegal to use in cartoons or toys for promotional purposes.

Ireland: According to advertising regulations in Ireland, any ads that target children under 18 cannot include celebrities. Foods that are high in sodium, sugar, or fats are completely banned from advertising on channels where at least half of the audience is under 18 years old.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S : IN THE END ARE WE ALL JUST IDIOTS

06 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., COVID-19, Disconnection., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Literacy., Modern day life., Our Common Values., POST COVID-19., Reality., Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Truthfulness., Viruses., We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( Five minutes read|) 

Giving the state of current world affairs which feels like the entire world is being pushed off a cliff you could not be blamed for struggling to be optimistic about what the future holds.

Its a worrying time and one would have to ask where is all of this going.

You don’t need to be either a genius or an idiot to see that we are at a turning point.  

The pandemic has and is exposing that there is a complete lack of any global plan of action either to fight COVID-19 or the coming economic disaster that is going to take more lives.

It is obvious that we are entering an era of global debt/defaults/nationalism/and a transfer to technology.

When one looks at the US that is trying to undermine the WHO, wreck Climate change, and put a spanner in the works of EU, and other world trade agreements it is obvious that it has only an interest in putting America first, which it has achieved with the number of dead and sick people in the world from COVID -19.

There is an itinerant contradiction between nationalism and globalism between loyalty to your nation and global solidarity.

It is now paying the price when there is really no contradiction when it comes to a global pandemic. If a vaccine was discovered outside the USA they are not going to say no we won’t use it till there is an American vaccine.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that it is no longer leading the world but here is nobody to fill the vacuum.

We can’t deal with either the pandemic or climate change without a 100% cooperation.

Both emphasize that humans are flawed beings, maybe not quite yet bonkers but not far off it.  

The world is full of them and they come in many shapes, forms, and types but the current level of stupidity cannot go unnoticed. Climate Change, the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing wars, and conflicts, the biasing filtering racism, the distribution, and attachment of wealth, our tolerance to the spread of false news, you name it and some idiot will believe it.

Look at history and it is clear that this has always been the case.

We are all idiots, it’s just a matter if how you handle your stupidity that determines whether you are a dumbass or just a plain moron.

To achieve any kind of sanity or serenity we must weed out the idiots.  

But how?

The mark of an unintelligent person is that he doesn’t see the difference between his knowledge and his opinions and thinks that all of his beliefs qualify as absolute knowledge. Furthermore, an unintelligent person sticks to his opinions as knowledge even when new knowledge completely contradicts them. 

Intelligence is the basic ingredient that helps a human being experience unintelligent.

Perhaps this is why we refer to Artificial Intelligence as artificial.

Our social development, schooling, gender acquisition, peer group interaction, and parental and sibling interactions have an enormous impact on shaping how we respond to social stimuli.

“Seeing is believing and you are who you meet.” 

One only has to look at what is supposed to be an intelligent individual walking around in the middle of a killer pandemic without masks. They are also idiots, without even realizing it themselves. They chose to put themselves only first above everything or everybody else.

Why do they do it is ostensibly hard to fathom.

Why do we need intelligence in the first place?

To understand ourselves and other people regardless of race, sexuality, culture, nationality, or religion, and whether we relate to each other as individuals, couples, families, tribesmen, or citizens, so we can live peacefully and harmoniously together.

To understand the hopes and desires that unite us as human beings so that we can govern the world with fairer rules and laws that make us more equal and that we can join forces in initiatives that benefit all of us. This elimination of artificial scarcity and inequality through understanding and cooperation means that we don’t have to dominate, fight, or kill each other to better our lives.

To understand that protecting and revitalizing the delicate ecosystems that make the planet livable for humans and all other living creatures and plants. Use Earth’s resources to make advanced tools and machinery with which to produce and refine foods, medicines, energy sources, housing, infrastructure, sanitation services, and many other useful things.

We all rely on both knowledge and opinions to make decisions in daily life, but the mark of an intelligent person is that he will try to gain as much knowledge as possible about the subject that interests him so that he doesn’t have to rely too heavily on opinions when making decisions.

The patterns that we participate in and that surround us daily shape our perceptions of what behavior, language, and mannerisms are “normal and natural.”

As you can tell, we are still very far from having solved all of these issues, so there is plenty to do for intelligent people.

Ignorance causes the spread of the virus. One only has to look at absurdity for not wearing a mask.

These idiots defy the level of stupidity and are usually the ones who end up crying for help, sick, or dead. If the virus continues to spread without decline, these are the ones who need to be held accountable.

The worst reason for being an idiot is just plain ignorance, and for that, there is no cure.

We all in this together, which the advertising industry has long recognized piggybacking on everything from fear to everyone an idiot except Donal Trump.

In him, one can see Anger and Hate, Riots, and Climate Murder, Pseudo-Activism, and Genuine empowerment, Solidarity, and Division.

One of the challenges with uncertainty is it reminds us of things that are out of our control.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE TYRANNY OF GROWTH.

02 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Algorithms., G7., GDP., Happiness., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations.

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( A Twenty minute read)

They say we have free will, but there are many types of tyrannies in our world.

You could describe our hand-held devices which are keeping us connected to anything, anytime, anywhere as one. 

We now use our hand-held devices for almost everything. More importantly, they use us for everything.

The extreme availability of information has not led to a more enlightened population, but to more confusion.

Connectivity is both a blessing and a curse.

It has become the pathway for almost all we do as we have become helpless without technology and the need for immediate data at our fingertips. But this is taking its toll.

The number of times we look at our phones daily would shock you: some studies say 50 times, others as many as 75 to 150 times. Most of our e mails are reactionary.Tyranny of the Should

Information technology is all-pervasive in production and consumption.

Each time we look at the phone, we look away from what we should be or were focused on. Our collective ability to stay focused on anything is destroyed.

How does this connect to Growth.

It is too simplistic to attribute all of our economic problems to government: indeed, that sort of reasoning is counterproductive: it absolves everyone else responsibility.

Although part of the responsibility lies with forces that are outside a government, a significant share rests with the attitudes, preoccupations, we have to Artificial Intelligence that is now analyzing our every movement to the extent that advertising is becoming personalized.

I’m not saying that growth is bad but growth that destroys value just for profit is cancer that is driving inequality with a tendency to cluster around the short-term, issues while ignoring reality is going to bite us all.

I want to begin by touching on a crucial economy-wide factor
in the erosion of our economic strength which fosters short-term
thinking.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media advertising"

Advertising:

 It is a major driver of unnecessary consumption.

This hasn’t always been the problem. Advertising use to inform you of the useful qualities of an object. Now it manipulates your emotions like anxiety and promises to improve social acceptance or class distinction.

It is now with a frenzy of social media advertising attaching its self to saving the world  that is driving consumption to new dizzying heights.

Growth for growth’s sake, is an ugly word with even uglier connotations when it is using social media in the form of algorithms FOR PROFIT, regardless of the cost.

So what is driving it:

In the information age, time is compressed and events are squeezed into ever-decreasing periods.

We have governments encouraging a restless, fleeting mode of being, and a superficial, hurried culture, which is inimical to fundamental values.

They encourage growth programs, the benefits of which are available   immediately, but the costs of which appear only at a later stage. They are less interested in public investments that have to be financed now but do not payoff adequately before the next election.

It’s as if human progress depends on economic progress.

At minimum, the kind of short-term oriented cycle in which we find ourselves behaves as though tomorrow is forever. And, in fact, a series of tomorrows will create a forever — a very predictable one — and not a very desirable or promising one.

Rewards which are heavily focused on short-term results, even if they make some financial sense, often do not deliver the economic promise or the synergy which is anticipated.

Perhaps it is true that the landmarks in human progress — in the arts, science, government, or elsewhere — have rarely been reached in societies in which the economy was unable to free most of its members from a daily obsession with subsistence needs.

On the contrary, wherever the economy is feeble or stagnant for
a prolonged period, where most people see their basic material
needs as unfulfilled and the prospects for improvement as
unlikely, the result is almost invariably either a dull fatalism
or political upheaval, neither of which is likely to be favorable
to liberty and freedom.

However we are now looking at a unremitting focus on economic growth. The drive to achieve growth at practically any cost and to the exclusion of all other measures of prosperity.

This focus on GDP growth as the prime measure of economic success is out of date. It’s not how big it is that counts, it’s what you do with it.

The distance to the future – is no longer the next election, it will be how much you are willing to pay the Cloud for information. The cumulative effects of almost five decades of constantly accelerating reliance on government regulation to address social inequities and problems is coming to an end.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media advertising"

The linkage between ownership and participation is changing.

Social Media is not just eroding the meaning of democracy but effecting our critical thinking skills. Polluted with consumption advertising it is adding to global inequality.

While there are hundreds of different marketing strategies, only one can bring in consistent sales from day one. Social media advertising. This is why global social ad spending doubled from $16 billion in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016 and is projected to increase another 26% in 2017.

One of the fascinating things about social advertising is that there is virtually no limit to your ability to scale.You don’t have to wait for someone to search for your targeted keywords. You don’t have to wait for someone to run your promotion or read your blog.

( For Instance:

With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook hosts over a quarter of the world’s population, providing advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone and everyone. It provides free lead magnet like:

  • Whitepapers
  • Ebooks
  • Product coupons
  • Sitewide discounts
  • Limited-time offers
  • Giveaways
  • Free shipping

These leads can then be nurtured with a targeted autoresponder. Offering free products, download-ables and predictable discounts and coupons for her audience. Doing so has earned Facebook more than $1,000,000 in annual sales in just 2 years. Facebook allows more advanced targeting than any other advertising platform on earth. Advertisers can target by location (within a 5-mile radius), job description, interests, past activity, and many other incredibly valuable criteria.

Instagram now boasts more than 500 million monthly active users and commands one of the highest audience engagement rates in social media, 58% higher than Facebook and 2000% higher than Twitter.

Twitter with 328 million monthly active users, it remains one of the most popular social media platforms. Brands don’t need to pay in order to reach their followers, which enhances the platform’s value even when running paid ads.

Pinterest: With 175 million monthly users is highly targeted toward women with an 81% female user base.

LinkedIn : Where you tend to find the highest average disposable income, has an estimated 227 million monthly active users.

Snapchat Advertising:    310 million users.   

All Social advertising is incredibly measurable.)

(You can, in fact, control when you choose to look at your hand-held device.)

In light of this one easy solution to over-consumption would be to ban advertising- at least in pubic places and on Social Media where Profit seeking Algorithms are used.

Much of’ the crippling of our economic systems can find its roots in Algorithms for profit. (see previous posts)

The consequences of elected government’s short-range perspective are not difficult to understand. They are seen as having succeeded in undermining the economy through overbearing regulation, tolerance of inflation, indifference to the cost of environmental and social programs, and a pervasive anti-business attitude.

Government thus diminishes the private sector’s sense of responsibility —
both in economic and ethical terms — for its own conduct and for its own performance.

While I appreciate that degrowth will not happen as quickly as we need it to do and it will take generations to move our collective consciousness on most issue, we don’t have that kind of time any longer.

Technology that ostensibly should help people save time, has instead led to a situation where time is scarcer than ever.

When an exponential growth curve becomes vertical, time has ceased to exist as duration.”life stands still at a tremendous speed”, with serious consequences for culture, intellectual life and the very fabric of society.

What we do not know today is what it will take to send us to
the pumps.

The struggle now concerns the right to be unavailable, the right to live and think more slowly.

Choosing to live according to one’s own self-made conception of reality, human nature, and happiness is a recipe for tyranny.

It is about time that we ask what wireless communications and the Internet are preconditions for. They are problems need to be understood well, in order to be dealt with the political upheaval that is around the corner.

Relying on averages generate by computers is worsening inequality

within countries, and the world as a whole.

So is there anything that can be done legitimately that will have a positive effect.

Becoming more grounded in ones own true feelings and perceptions is a primary indication that one has begun to free himself from the “tyranny of the should.”

Assuring that investment in future profitability is not sacrificed on
the altar of quarterly earnings growth. Refocusing our approach to economic decision-making, to benefit all not the few.

Willingness to pay the price today for the health and vitality of the country tomorrow is the ultimate test of stewardship. To live with a view to the regime should not be supposed to be slavery, but preservation.

Finally, it is as we all know easy to point the finger, however we are the will in any form or symbol and we are identifiable as water.  

However if we are to address any of our world problems and stop the self-perpetuating downward cycle, with all the suction of a whirlpool, from which there will be no escape we cannot and should not rely on technology to bail us out.

There is only one solution. Make Greed pay a World Aid commission of 0.05% ( See previous post)

Technology, if it has not yet become the de fac~o

decision- — . . . maker in the production process, has

certainly become a participant who cannot be

ignored.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.
 

 https://youtu.be/cV_D2hC50Kk

 

 

 

 

 

Is Black Friday our worst example of unchecked consumerism.

30 Sunday Nov 2014

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This year, the shopping orgy called Black Friday became untethered from Thanksgiving and floated across to the U.K., where it most assuredly did not increase happiness and gratitude. It did however exposed a society that is encouraged by its Government since Maggie Thatcher day to treat   shopping as a sport.

We were all treated to woman fighting over leggings, people stampeding to get the latest TV/Smart phone/i Pad till the police had to be summoned to stop them from biting or killing each other. An extremely shameful, embarrassing thing to watch.

Many of the more extreme political movements in the world today claim that they are a response to the power and force of the modern global economy and its accompanying set of values. We should not be surprised when Social Media carries such pictures.

Today, young people are building a shared understanding of how the world works through social and other web-based media..

In 2008, a Walmart employee was killed when a mob of deal-desperate Black Friday shoppers tore the store’s doors from their hinges and stormed inside, trampling him to death. The chain was eventually fined $7000 for their role in the employee’s death — but six years and $2 million later, the world’s largest retailer has yet to pay up. I am sure the poor brighter did not collect his Loyalty points either.

The shape of the global economy, media, and world-wide society now being born is difficult to predict. On the one hand, the logic of economic growth can lead to the pursuit of short-term economic gain to the exclusion of other values.

On the other hand, a sustainable growth strategy could help ensure that the pursuit of economic growth factors in long-term considerations such as environmental impacts and human well-being.

Consumerism has is part to play in this well-being but because humans are like wildebeests the advertising industry spends $12 billion per year on ads targeted to children, bombarding young audiences with persuasive messages through media such as television and the Internet.

The average child is exposed to more than 40,000 TV commercials a year and ads are reaching children through new media technologies.

Some researchers say that consumerism is baked into our DNA, nestled in our neurons. They say our consumptive tendencies will forever evolve in response to marketing, culture, policy and changing needs on our one and only, tiny blue planet.

In light of Black Friday let’s rediscover the full meaning of the word consume.

Is it a modern American tradition gone wrong or just one more bizarre piece in the backbone of our wobbly world economy?

Now days to consume has become a negative word, but there are other meanings.

The verb to consume can also mean to enjoy avidly and to engage fully.

More and more people are coming to the realization they much prefer to consume experiences than stuff — they prefer doing over owning.

Nature has massive value that we may never be able to put a value on. This is truth, not a fad or a trend. For example if you love the ocean, share it, and don’t be afraid to consume it in the very best sense of the word. But also, fight for it. Protect it.

Black Friday has its roots in shopping frenzies. Online retailers such as Apple and Amazon have facilitated the spread of Black Friday far beyond its american frameworks, to any would-be consumer with an internet connection.

While it is easy to brush of all this behavior off as dystopian present-day phenomena, consumerism and taste-makers set the course of this nations culture, with purchasing power playing a huge role in the nationalistic negativism of or nations.

The technologies of information, stimulation, and comfort are seductive and addictive. People and their needs remain constant. Little else seems to be very stable. We are literally drowning in information. Still, the great difficulty with the empirical base of the information age is that much of the data we rely on to understand the world we live in is unverified.

So much so that the reality behind all that glam and glitter is that joy of engaging in the natural world might be forgotten.

As Pope Francis succinctly wrote: “Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric.”

So what can we do to slow or even work against the hordes of mindless buyers?

We could and should promote a Buy Nothing Day (BND)

A global day of exercised purchasing power, where social activists or other concerned people work to counteract the rampant avarice and shopping orgy of Black Friday with a day dedicated to purchasing… nothing.

Let’s call it neoconsumerism.

Our economies are being artificially kept afloat, and despite all the signs (shuttered businesses, monetary easing, disastrous world politics and energy issues looming), businesses are now pulling out what appears to be the “final act” for the phrase BLACK FRIDAY.

Thank god there are some gnus that are still evolving.

Black Friday Shoppers

These are rich experiences worthy of consumption. Think of the parts of your life that give you immeasurable joy, yet cost nothing taking time to eat good local food and to consume nature, together, is perceived as valuable, because it is valuable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of us worry about the addiction to the information streaming out of smart phones as people walk the street, oblivious to vehicular and even pedestrian traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

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The market revolution was a boom-period in american culture derivative of advancements in technology, infrastructure, and communications, as well as the shift in public attitudes after the Great Awakenings.

The mirrors, furs, furniture, hats, and fine clothes allowed for consumers to express their individuality, not only as sovereign beings with varied tastes, but as citizens who were beginning to desire a sovereign nation.