Arthur D. Hlavaty

Spy vs. spy

Sun, 19 Jan 2020 11:18:00 GMT

There are technological wars all around us. In sports it’s performance enhancement vs. performance enhancement detection. Many websites have started nagging us about ad blockers or even making it impossible to read them without that essential prophylaxis. I eagerly await the next step: when the ad blockers are undetectable, or better yet tell the advertisers that their shit is being viewed by an audience as rich as Trump says he is and as gullible as the people who vote for him.

comments

Self reference

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 10:59:36 GMT

A CNN article on tricks cyber-marketers use to get you to buy more stuff immediately pops up an effort to get you to turn off your ad blocker, but at least it’s easy to bypass.

Link thanx to twistedchick

comments

Chumbox

Fri, 10 May 2019 09:45:32 GMT

The mysterious vegetable the mysterious doctor begs us to throw away [Vox]

Thanx to Metafilter

comments

Escalation

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:08:45 GMT

Facebook plans to show ads to the people with ad blockers. The next generation of ad blockers will stop those. I’m rooting for ad blockers that tell the advertisers that their crap is being looked at by people as rich as Trump and as gullible as his supporters.

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

Unsustainable

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 12:13:37 GMT

The advertising bubble

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

No actual human was harmed

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 11:16:38 GMT

Esurance, in the grand American tradition, used a sexy woman (in this case a cartoon character named Erin Esurance) to peddle their product. For some unfathomable reason, filthy perverts made porn of her. Or, as The Onion put it, “Vanessa Williams Tarnishes Miss America Crown with Sexist Objectification”

Thanx to Metafilter

comments

Block that ad

Sun, 05 Jul 2015 10:16:41 GMT

Remarkably enough, advertisers find adblocking immoral. Here's an article claiming that it's like speeding. Actually, it's like telling a pick-up-artist that he doesn't have a right to sex with you.

Thanx to Metafilter

comments

Coke ad redux

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 11:04:04 GMT

For many people, including some who read this, Sunday evening was a festival of new TV ads, interrupted for some reason by funny-dressed big guys bumping into each other. (There was also a lengthy interlude of what has replaced music, but that's not important now.) Two of the ads won my support by the enemies they attracted: the Cheerios ad, with its interracial family, and the Coca-Cola ad, which included "America the Beautiful" in languages other than English. John Scalzi offers some info on it. I had not known that "America the Beautiful" was written by one of those early-20th-century spinsters who had a really close female friend and we can't be sure but....

Most of the ads went over my head because I am an old fart who doesn't know contemporary pop culture. I'm glad there was a lot less of the misogyny that seemed to rule the Super Bowl ads a few years ago. My least favorite was the Chevy ad with the bulls and the trucks. It dripped with testosterone, to the point where I was glad I didn't have to take a PED test after watching it.

comments

TC;DR

Sun, 05 Jan 2014 11:04:37 GMT

Philip K. Dick wrote dystopian stories about a future where the ads would buzz around our heads. We aren't there yet, but the big step in that direction is modal overlays

comments

The advertising mind

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 11:36:39 GMT

Why Marketers Fear the Female Geek

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

Tactics of self-defense?

Thu, 17 Oct 2013 17:52:53 GMT

Eating popcorn disrupts advertising

Thanx to novapsyche

comments

This appears to have been an actual ad

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 11:23:13 GMT

Secret of suckcess

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

Brain invasion

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 11:53:31 GMT

Philip K. Dick imagined a dystopian future with ads that would buzz around your head. Some schizophrenics imagine unacceptable thoughts being snuck into their minds via a "mind-reading radio in the neckbone" or similar device. Embrace the power of And.

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

You stink

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:31:27 GMT

Advertisers making us hate ourselves.

Thanx to Body Impolitic

comments

I have seen the future

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:08:28 GMT

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

Denial

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:18:03 GMT

One of LBJ's favorite jokes dealt with the candidate for sheriff who accused the incumbent of improper relations with the livestock. He knew it wasn't true, but "Maybe we can get him to deny it."

Christine O'Donnell is launching an ad campaign in which she proclaims, "I am not a witch."

Thanx to rm

comments

New horizons in product placement

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:30:07 GMT

Formula milk advertising in British exam questions

Thanx to andrewducker

comments