In last week's episode, we talked about ad blockers.
Let's see what you had to say.
Ranak Lindor hits on a really important part
of this conversation, and I think a really important sort
of idea in the larger conversation
about making ads, marketing and PR,
which is the degree to which any ad can itself be entertaining,
and how effective that entertainment is.
And when an ad isn't entertaining,
or when it just completely ignores or eschews
the idea that it might be how ineffective it becomes.
And I think like the television on the television adverts
side of the stereotype is that, right?
American ads are loud, and flashy, and brash.
And they're just, like, in your face
and want you to buy the thing.
But then English ads are entertaining, and funny,
and sometimes contain stories.
And you know, always the first place that I would go to
is like John Lewis, John Lewis advertisements,
which are so good.
And we have nothing like that in the United States.
And I think extending that to internet ads-- yeah,
they're all that kind of brash, loud,
just trying to get your attention,
just trying to get you to look even for a second at the thing
so that you are reminded of the existence of the product it's
trying to sell.
And I would guess that that is effective and easy,
and I think that's a big part of it, right?
That making an ad that is entertaining and earnest
and draws people in earnestly is just really, really hard,
so it doesn't happen as often.
But I would guess it's also probably
a lot more effective-- but again, I'm not sure,
but it certainly feels like it is.
iNezumi and a bunch of other people
point out that, while it might be
useful to talk about the ethics of ad blocking,
there is a complementary conversation
to be had about the effects of ads.
And when we're talking about things
that autoplay, and flash, and make a lot of noise,
and track you, and do all of these other things that
are just sort of like, make you feel a little comfortable,
or give you the gibleys, or are just plain irritating,
you are incentivizing people.
Sort of like how we talked about it in the episode
to block those ads.
And so there's this whole set of things
that come together to create what might be an ethical ad.
And I think, yeah, I'm going to put it
in the notebook for a future Idea Channel episode.
I think it's a great idea.
GelidGanef writes a really great comment about engagement
as it relates to advertising, and how a lot of companies
seem to have figured this out on television.
That if you make an ad entertaining, and earnest,
and engaging in all these ways, people
are not only likely to tolerate it,
but are then likely to engage with it, to talk
about it with their friends.
Like, we'll be hanging out with friends,
and we'll talk about how good the Apple Watch
commercials are, and be kind of like upset about how much we
like them.
But this strategy doesn't seem to have transported over
to online advertising.
And this made me think, like, has there ever been
a case where I have seen an online ad
like a YouTube pre-roll or anything where I was like,
man, I was entertained by that, they did a good job,
and then I later went and talked about it with friends?
And I don't think that has ever happened.
And I wonder if-- am I alone here?
Has that happened to you?
I would love to know.
All Hail the Money Glow Cloud points out
another aspect of this thinking of ads
as work frame, which is the kind of inherent subjugation
or-- I don't know if that's the right word-- almost
like hierarchy that it perpetrates, which is you're
handed this thing from down on high from your boss,
so to speak, that you then must deal with, or labor on.
And I think that this is a great point.
I think that this is one of the ways in which you
can say that, like, cultural hegemony is maintained
or perpetrated.
But then it also has the effect that All Hail the Money Glow
Cloud talks about, which is that you can then
protest against it.
That it might have the opposite effect
then because you are forced to watch all
of these specific commercials.
You then might be like, well, I'm just sick of this thing
and I will consciously decide to not purchase it,
to not to engage with it.
And yeah, I think this is a great point.
Pikirion Mallea talks about how television advertising is not
as obtrusive as internet advertising,
and so that makes them fundamentally different
advertising entities.
And I think that that is absolutely true,
but I also think we're kind of used to the way
that television ads are obtrusive
and that we've sort of accepted it, we've gotten used to it.
Because I think that they really are deeply obnoxious
and that they have their own techniques for accomplishing
the same things that internet ads do.
You know, they can be really loud.
They can be really flashy.
They can sort of disrupt context in a really jarring way.
And I think really what it is is that ads
will only ever be as obtrusive as their medium allows.
And it just so happens, internet advertising,
the internet allows ads to be obtrusive in a really
specific and pervasive way and that's
not as true on television.
And there's also regulation related
to how one can and is able to advertise on TV.
So I think that's another big part it, like, what
is the legal sort of background or framing
for all of this stuff.
But yeah, definitely an important part of this.
Virginia Smith talks about how all of this
relates to basically paid product reviewing,
or paid product placement.
And I think there's a whole other part of this conversation
that's really huge and super complicated
which is native advertising, which is how do you,
what are the best ways to create an ad that looks like "content"
that still accomplishes all the things that an ad does.
But then the audience knows that it's an ad
but still wants to engage with it as though it is content
and it's just-- man, I would summarize the whole thing up
by saying that it's a mess.
It's just a mess.
J. Kurayami and a bunch of other people
talk about Patreon as an important part of all of this,
and I totally agree.
I think Patreon is great.
And I think that it provides a sort of hope
for the kinds of things that we're talking about here, which
is being able to consume media that we love in such a way
that people are fairly compensated for it,
and we don't have to consume ads or additional content
that we're not interested in, or that we
find offensive or obnoxious.
And I think that you can see some
of what Patreon is going for in things
like PBS Broadcast, or American Public Media, or NPR,
like these publicly funded broadcasters and distributors
that have figured out that they can go to the people who
like their things for a huge portion of their support.
But man, I don't know.
Call me cynical, I think that it's
going to be quite a while, if ever,
that something like Patreon would
create an ad-free ecosystem of any kind.
I just think that ad funded media
is such an inextricable part of the way that media operates,
and even the way that we think about it, that we're just
always going to be stuck with it.
I don't know.
What do you guys think?
Is there a potential for a future that is ad-free?
I just-- I don't think so.
I just don't think so.
But also, get off my lawn, maybe?
I don't know.