An Existential Question: When Everything Is Advertising, What Is Advertising?
August 21, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
A goldfish in a fish bowl lives in a constrained environment. Most fish — with the exception of the fish able to climb out of the water and draw a bead on a French bulldog — stay in the fish bowl. In a world in which information flows in streams, waves, and geysers, what constitutes advertising.
The fish understands only that the bowl defines the world. The outside-the-bowl world is not well understood. What does this say about the fish? What if an advertising professional does not understand the world outside of the ad deal? How much can the fish or the advertising professional be able to understand? Thanks for the fish, MidJourney.
The LinkedIn user promoting one’s past achievements in order to get a job is advertising in my book. The local bar providing data to Google Local is advertising. The posts on BlueSky, Threads, and X are advertising as well. For example, search for #osint on X.com and you see posts similar to this one:
The Cyber Detective is advertising expertise in performing or advising individuals about reverse face image look ups. Why? Presumably it is to advertise the skill and knowledge of the individual. I believe if that anonymous Cyber Detective were asked, “Why are you posting high value information for free?” the answer might be a statement like this: “I want to help the community.” I accept this rationalization, but I recall a college lecture about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the top was something to do with the “self.” Therefore, the do-good argument is secondary to the action for the benefit of the person doing the posting.
“Made-for-Advertising Sites Lack a Clear Definition, Causing Confusion among the Advertising Industry” makes clear that those who are advertising professionals are struggling to define advertising in a world which is chock full of messaging, self-promotions, influencer TikToks which Amazon is desperate to add to its shopping service, and the old chestnut, the LinkedIn post with the little phrase “OpenToWork.”
The article explains:
Marketers say they’re concerned about made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, but the industry lacks a clear consensus on what an MFA actually is. Consider this response when Digiday asked one media buyer for their stance on including MFAs in clients’ programmatic campaigns: “My mind immediately goes to clickbait. Am I using that in the right context?”
I interpret this as an signal that the world is essentially advertising. Consider advertising in an environment increasingly populated by messages generated by smart software (AI). Are these messages non-advertising? Certainly not. A person instructed a system to generate messages presumably to cause a change in thought or action. When we consider the motive of self-interest, the blurring of “factual” with “marketing” is understandable.
Consider this statement about the Web sites which exist to accept advertising. The quote allegedly is from Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media. (“Jounce” means to move in an up-and-down manner. Link to definition.) He states:
“It’s all about the advertising experience. If the advertising experience is ridiculous, that’s made-for-advertising.
Okay, I think I understand.
Do advertisers know that everything is now advertising? Apparently not. Is YouTube now made for advertising? Is X.com made for advertising? Is Yahoo.com made for advertising? I get the advertising angle. I am worrying about the weaponizing of information on a global scale.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2023
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