Advertising of the Future, Already Here

prostoalex writes "Did Stephen Spielberg predict the future of advertising, when in Minority Report the relevant ads were delivered by retina scanner, which could then personalize any message? August issue of Inc. magazine takes a look at future of advertising and who's offering advanced technologies today. Internet search engines and helpful utilities from companies like Claria already know a lot about your shopping and browsing habits. Combine that with advanced tech from TV viewership tracker Nielsen and large nationwide databases like Experian, and the advertising messages of the future could get extremely personal."

Comments

Actually rather not

[knipknap]

Hello, I am your digital shopping assistant! I saw that you were looking at some of our trousers - may I help you with that? I think you would like these, kind of like in that porn that you watched yesterday. Or these, maybe? The extra air might help you get rid of that fungus thing that I found in your medical record.

Re:Enough

[daeley]

New technologies will continue to be developed to target more accurately because that generates better results. I repeat: IT GENERATES BETTER RESULTS! This means that due to it being targeted better, people are buying more! We are not holding a gun to their heads saying they have to buy, we inform them of the product (and yes, some do it less truthfully than others, I will not lie about that)and they make the decision to buy.

See, here's the thing: this *is* the dark side of your industry. You're yelling "generating better results" as if that were some laudable goal. Even "generating better results" sounds like a commercial. Better results for who? Better results for me would be fewer ads, in every medium.

When your industry plasters every available surface with advertising, whether that's walls or screens or clothing, it's bad enough. You may not be holding a gun to people's heads, but frankly that reminds me of a child irritating another child by saying "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!" You aren't holding a gun, but you are "targeting" people.

I don't care if your industry likes making good ads that people like. Hell, I might even laugh at some of them, or see the cleverness. But for every "clever" advertisement, there is a tidal wave of ad-noise drowning out the sounds of life. Your goal might not be to annoy people, but that is what you are doing.

The worse the advertising gets, the more ubiquitous, the more targeted -- the less I will watch, the less I will pay attention.

The less I will buy.