Advertising Might Destroy Us
The first rule of advertising since time immemorial, is that every blank surface means that somebody losing money from not having an advertisement on it.
But if you've visited certain places in the recent past (Las Vegas, Hong Kong, the 4th-9th circles of Hell) you'll understand that just like endangered species and unemployed third-world children, we're rapidly running out of available blank surfaces in our environment. So 21st-century marketers will need to become more devious.
There's no cause to weep for the prospects of the future of the ad industry, and its little tapeworm-like inhabitants, however... the principles of evolution apply even to the lowest life forms.
It turns out that IBM's already forging ahead, having devised an idea that is so evil, you could add 'and also put poison in chocolate milk' without making it much worse.
When the GPS system was declassified for everyday use in the 1990s, it represented truly a step forward to everything from industry to scientific research, and even our daily lives. There's a whole generation of folks driving around these days having never felt what it was once like to be lost somewhere without an automatic map in their pocket.
GPS has just one job to do and it does it well - so, some evil doofus thinks, why not monkey with it to skim off a few bucks?
An employee of IBM has come up with the idea of a algorithm which would enable advertising to affect your GPS routing - it would enable braindead marketers to (and I quote): "pay a fee in return for having your route calculation service de-optimize driving instructions to make you do a drive-by of their stores, and an additional fee if GPS tracking of your car indicates you actually took the suboptimal route."
After slinking back to the Devil's side for a pat on the head, this opportunistic infection of a person went and filed for a patent, of course.
So one day, imagine how mourners in a funeral procession could be silently diverted past a local fitness club - ambulances might be coaxed to make a quick detour past a nearby personal injury law firm - school buses, affordably guided to trundle past Catholic churches?
The patent filing contains no mention about maintaining common decency or good taste, so let money be your muse!
This approach has unlimited potential - the hottest skrillex beats can be downloaded to pacemakers, traffic lights can be made to burn corporate logos into your brain while you wait trapped, and why not equip fire hydrants in desirable demographic areas with the latest brightly-colored sports drink??
Practically anything which was designed to do one job and do it well can be spoiled and wrecked (or "monetized") by marketing.
But if you've visited certain places in the recent past (Las Vegas, Hong Kong, the 4th-9th circles of Hell) you'll understand that just like endangered species and unemployed third-world children, we're rapidly running out of available blank surfaces in our environment. So 21st-century marketers will need to become more devious.
There's no cause to weep for the prospects of the future of the ad industry, and its little tapeworm-like inhabitants, however... the principles of evolution apply even to the lowest life forms.
It turns out that IBM's already forging ahead, having devised an idea that is so evil, you could add 'and also put poison in chocolate milk' without making it much worse.
When the GPS system was declassified for everyday use in the 1990s, it represented truly a step forward to everything from industry to scientific research, and even our daily lives. There's a whole generation of folks driving around these days having never felt what it was once like to be lost somewhere without an automatic map in their pocket.
GPS has just one job to do and it does it well - so, some evil doofus thinks, why not monkey with it to skim off a few bucks?
An employee of IBM has come up with the idea of a algorithm which would enable advertising to affect your GPS routing - it would enable braindead marketers to (and I quote): "pay a fee in return for having your route calculation service de-optimize driving instructions to make you do a drive-by of their stores, and an additional fee if GPS tracking of your car indicates you actually took the suboptimal route."
After slinking back to the Devil's side for a pat on the head, this opportunistic infection of a person went and filed for a patent, of course.
So one day, imagine how mourners in a funeral procession could be silently diverted past a local fitness club - ambulances might be coaxed to make a quick detour past a nearby personal injury law firm - school buses, affordably guided to trundle past Catholic churches?
The patent filing contains no mention about maintaining common decency or good taste, so let money be your muse!
This approach has unlimited potential - the hottest skrillex beats can be downloaded to pacemakers, traffic lights can be made to burn corporate logos into your brain while you wait trapped, and why not equip fire hydrants in desirable demographic areas with the latest brightly-colored sports drink??
Practically anything which was designed to do one job and do it well can be spoiled and wrecked (or "monetized") by marketing.
About the Author:
Ben Scott is a blogger whose muse is 'schadenfreude' (a German word meaning "laughing at another's misfortune") - you can read more of his thoughts at his blog and if you liked this story, you'll probably enjoy the original version here.
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário