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Advertising of the Future, Already Here

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

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."

39 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Extremely personal ads? by miltimj · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just what some people would want are "extremely personal ads" where they walk by a kiosk in the mall, and it asks if they want to switch from Viagra to Levitra...

    --
    "Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
  2. LOL by user+no.+590291 · · Score: 4, Funny

    At Taco posting an article about intrusive ads. The future is here, it's the Slashvertisement (TM). Oh, the humanity.

  3. you can't do that by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can't directly put something on MY eye unless I get an implant of some kind. As long as I refuse to get any implants then they can't advertise to me..

    --
    I like muppets.
    1. Re:you can't do that by Poromenos1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, but what if by getting that implant you can have a screen/pc with you at all times, even connected to the net? It's the same as the internet or any other medium, you're using it because it's very useful but the ads are still annoying.

      --
      Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
  4. Good by The+Patient · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, as a non-female entity, if I don't have to see any more Stayfree ads, I'll take that as a positive.

    1. Re:Good by TCM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't mind ads when they are for something that interests me

      But that's the crux of the issue. To make ads that fit you perfectly you'd have to give the marketing assholes as much information about you as possible.

      So on the one hand you don't want ads that are not targeted at you. OTOH, at least I don't want to give those wankers any information about me. So I just block ads and that's it. No "I'd take ads if they were more targeted" from me.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  5. A quote from Futurama by IcarusMoth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.

  6. Then shouldn't it be called... by EEBaum · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... advertising of the present?

    --
    -- I prefer the term "karma escort."
    1. Re:Then shouldn't it be called... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes.

      One thing that annoys me about some ads, is they say "in the future...", make some claims about good things, then say "...the future is now".

      I also find medical ads annoying. They all seem to push a perception that things will be great if you'd take this pill or have that operation. Stuff like Viagra, Levitra and Claria are only supposed to be help people with certain medical conditions, NOT to make a healthy person have "better sex". I think mass marketing is completely wrong for that kind of product, and targeted mass marketing is also going to cause problems.

    2. Re:Then shouldn't it be called... by Archangel_Azazel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The reason you don't see much info in ads is something to do with the Truth In Advertising laws. For everything good they say, apparently they have to balance that out with listing some side effects. Which is why you get rhyming Krestor ads that don't say what the fuck the med does....

      I agree that Pharm. companies should *NOT* be able to advertise on TV. Their commercials are intentionally mis-leading.

      You know, I was told growing up that there were these evil people who would tell you very little about what they were offering, and they'd tell you that it would solve a lot of your problems. But they were *shaking finger* EEEEVILLLLL. They'd even sometimes give you "samples" of their drugs to get you hooked.

      Apparently now those "drug dealers" are ok and even have the support of the government. My street dealer ain't got SHIT on Glaxo Smith-Klein.

      My 2c

      A.A

      --
      Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
  7. I hope it does by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously, I would appreciate some ads that are relevant to me. Instead of punch the monkey and Free* iPods, I could be getting discounts on stuff I'm interested in and might actually buy. If I could get a guaranteed higher quality of ad, I would definitely give up some of my personal information, especially to sites that I care about.

    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  8. Helpful utilities by NixieBunny · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...helpful utilities from companies like Claria already know a lot about your shopping and browsing habits

    Helpful is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. Helping your PC crash is one thing Gator's stuff is known for.

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  9. PKD? by stevobi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just to give credit where it's due, it's probably more accurate to say that Philip K. Dick foresaw this advertising, as it or something similar appears not only in his short story Minority Report, but throughout his fiction.

  10. Enough by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Ok...I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but here goes:

    I happen to be a young ad exec (not to mention a privacy nut, avid slashdot reader, gamer, geek, etc) and I'm really getting tired of people not understanding our industry.

    Are there sleezy advertising people? HELL YES! Is it the vast majority of them? HELL NO! You see, there is this interesting phenomenon where people tend to only remember negative experiences over positive ones, and then make generalizations that most are bad.

    And guess what, this is true of ANY industry. Software development? Yup, you got your sleezeballs there too, but you wouldn't say the vast majority are that way. (Or would you?)

    What really pisses me off is that everybody assumes that our goal is to just annoy you and grab your attention in any way possible. Attention Slashdotters: We Are Not Idiots! (All of us at least. We know damn well that if we are advtertising a product to privacy advocate geeks, we will not win them over with a popup that says "based on your previous purchases of viagra from www.biggerpenis.com....". But the truth is that often times the advertising us geeks find offense with is not targeted at us at all, and in fact the target audience has no problem whatsoever with it.

    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.

    I also want to comment about a new form of advertising many of you most likely participate in. Viral advertising. All those cool video clips that companies put out, all those funny websites like CoqRock.com, or Subservient Chicken, all of these get passed on by people like you because you find them interesting, clever, and entertaining. THAT is the goal of most advertising agencies. Believe it or not, we LIKE making good ads that people like. New technology lets us do this in different ways.

    So in summary, I'm not saying there isn't a dark side to our industry (like every single other friggin industry in existence), I'm just saying that everybody seems to focus on the bad and ignore the good. If people want some proof that good advertising exists, check out the Cannes Lion Awards. They have videos of all the winners, and I'm sure most Slashdotters would approve.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
    1. Re:Enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thats fine. If you want to make a living doing that, and you feel good about it, go ahead and keep doing it.

      But remember, the goal of advertising is to change the behavior of a person. So you are exploiting pyschological traits to pressure the consumer into buying the product using color, suggestive imagry, playing on their insecurities and desires.

      You may in fact be changing people's habits who have no use for your product or could not truely afford it. You defend yourself by saying that they have a choice.

      Looking at it more realistically, I equate it to stealing someone's credit card. Essentially, you are exploiting the way the brain works to cause a behavior. Yeah, real ethical.

      Viral ads are MUCH better because they are opt in. I can seek out an ad which I want to see (subjecting myself to all the pyschological tricks).

      So while individulally you might be delluded, your industry is as inherently evil as the spam industry. You are just dulluding yourself.

    2. Re:Enough by daeley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    3. Re:Enough by Moofie · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't want your better results.

      I don't want to BE your better result.

      I don't like any ads at all. I think your entire business is founded on manipulation, deception, and brain washing. You have no leg to stand on. You can't put a bright face on it, and you can't convince me that you're just an innocent, idealistic advertising executive who's speaking out for the people with integrity.

      If it is your job to trick me into buying something, you don't have any integrity.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    4. Re:Enough by TCM · · Score: 2

      I happen to be a young ad exec

      OK, to make this quick and painless: could you tell me what domains and network blocks you use? Thanks.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    5. Re:Enough by drsquare · · Score: 2

      What a load of crap. Advertisers care about one thing: as many results as possible, and they don't care how many people they piss off. All that matters is sales, advertisers are completely amoral.

      The world would be a better place if all 'young ad execs' were all put on a ship and sent to the Arctic, then the boat sunk. Adverts are nothing but irritating, infuriating and patronising. They are NEVER useful, except to the companies involved. Only idiots base their purchase decisions on adverts.

    6. Re:Enough by misleb · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You ought to give yourself more credit, and so should the rest of everyone who shares your view. You seem to subscribe to the idea that consumers are mindless minions under the spell of advertisers. If you think that us advertising folks are controlling the minds of consumers, dictating what they can and cannot drink, eat or wear, you're dead wrong.

      Nobody said anything about forcing people to do anything. It is about manipulation. If you are not a manipulator for hire, please describe what you do.

      Granted, there are shoddy advertisers out there that give our industry a bad name, but there are those like us who take pride in what we do.

      What do you take pride in, exactly?

      If you don't believe this then look no further than the script kiddies that gave the hacking community such a bad rap. There's a good parallel for you.

      I don't see the parallel. Could you explain it?

      See, people tell you they hate advertising and yet when they're in the market for a new house, a new apartment, a new car, a new stereo, a new MP3 player, where do they look? When you're trying to score a deal for a laptop, do you bring competing stores' flyers to compare prices? Do you tell the salesperson that you can get a better deal from Store X? Of course you do. And yet here you are telling us advertising folks we have no integrity.

      Perhaps I have a too strict idea of what advertising is, but I don't think that simple price lists and such are advertising. That is basic information that any informed consumer needs to know. Just posting a price list or having an catalog is not "advertising." There is a big different between information that is there to be referenced at will, and advertising which is unsolicited and inserted into otherwise desirable material.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    7. Re:Enough by chihowa · · Score: 2, Informative
      We happen to believe that consumers are smart, independent-thinking individuals who decide what they will buy. They do have minds of their own you know.

      That's funny. By referring to them as consumers, it seems that you see them first and foremost as an endless source of income in their defining feature as those who exist to consume [your products].

      I understand that the term is used to indicate those who purchase the products from the producers, but by constantly and openly referring to your customers as consumers, you seem to cement the idea that people only exist in order to give you money and that no trick is too low in order to achieve that (exploiting emotional and psychological responses in order to sell stuff).

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  11. Not a problem... by gwernol · · Score: 2, Informative

    Personalized ads will be just as invisible, thanks to AdBlock.

    My behavior with AdBlock: if the ad contains movement of any sort - animated GIFs, Flash etc. - I will always AdBlock it. Small, stationary ads I generally leave in place, especially if they are around the border of the article I am reading. As Firefox/Mozilla usage increases and tools like AdBlock become (hopefully) widespread, it will be interesting to see if advertising changes in response. The "conventional wisdom" in advertising is you need to make your ad stand out, hence pop-ups and wildly animated adverts. These are the most noxious and instrusive. If users start to react to this sort of ad, maybe it will die out over time? I could live with a world of small, static ads like Google's text ads - they can even be useful sometimes.

    --
    Sailing over the event horizon
  12. Don't punch the monkey just yet... by Japong · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can only hope that advertisers start to realize what they're doing by making their ads increasingly intrusive. I've done a fair amount of work studying advertising, and it's shown that by creating louder, personalized, in-your-face ads is more effective to about 90% of the market, and it turns off about an additional 10% (these numbers incredibly generalized for your reading enjoyment).

    However, as great as that sounds to marketers, advertising has increased so dramatically on such a huge scale, that these stunts are yielding diminishing marginal returns, because they now do it continuously. It's nearly impossible for today's generation to escape advertisement and endorsements. Increasing the volume has reached the point of turning off just about as many people as it gains - and this will become a huge factor as the baby boomer population reaches Senior Citizen status.

    The elderly respond far better to conservative advertising than to brash advertising - they also become less likely to switch brands, having built up brand associations over several decades. As they're going to be a dominant economic force, not earning wages but spending money nonetheless, advertisers need to back off of the intrusive advertising if they want to continue making sales.

  13. I already get personal ads... by catdevnull · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm already getting those personalized ads via e-mail! I mean, how did they know I'm up to my eyes in debt with a small, flacid penis and looking for hot horny teen girls?

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
  14. Actually rather not by knipknap · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  15. Re:Valueless for some by xiando · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You seem to be ignorant of undercover marketing. It is product placement just like product placement in movies, except that we do it to you in real life. We will take your most popular friends and make them do something on behalf of our advertisers. They can show you their new shirt and tell you how happy they are with it or they can simply invite you to a great party and tell you all about how cool it will be and make you come along without you ever getting even a hint that they are, in fact, part of assembling the crowd for the party and are secretly paid a small fee for ever person they bring. Undercover marketing is direct and extremely personal and to think you have the power to ignore 99% of all advertisement messages when you are in fact probably influenced by at least ten undercover messages daily seems kind of ignorant.

    --
    9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
  16. ad blocking 101 by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just block ads outright. I keep an updated hosts file of ad servers here. The whole situation with flash ads, firefox proof pop-ups, etc is getting ridiculous. Funny, I've been blocking ads for years yet I still buy stuff.

  17. M$ Advertising by mporcheron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, M$ advertising don't appear personal, im on a gaming website with MSN Search advertising Ski Resorts, i watch discovery and M$ are advertising child at school with outlines of their bodies in white. Only a few ads I see are relevant to what I do, most are complete rubbish about IPods and screensavers.

  18. Philip K. Dick, not Spielberg.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not Spielberg who invented it, but Philip K. Dick. You can read something about it in its novel
    "Sales Pitch", written in 1953.

  19. yahoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    yahoo is probably further ahead on data collection than anyone. they track every link on the site, the federate all data you associate with your ID, they have a demographic profile on you if you provided it, and they have an massive infrastructure doing analysis and mining on everything they find.

  20. how about an "advertise this" file? by E8086 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ok, there have to be some ads or too many useful sites may have to go subscription only, that ThinkGeek ad up there doesn't look that bad.
    I wouldn't mind non flashy ads, includes flash and animated GIFs. The semi-tergeted text only and out of the way Google ads are not that much of an eye sore.
    Ads for something I'm looking for might have the chance of being useful once in a long while. What if browers have a user definable file telling the advertising site the products you're interested in and are looking for a good price before buying. I wouldn't mind seeing a few ads for a good inexpensive 500GB hard drive or $10 DVDs.

    --
    F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
  21. How long??? by Duncan3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How long until the entire American economy is based on people convincing other poeple to buy cheap stuff made elsewhere at a huge markup for the brand that they believe will bring them happiness/money/love/sex?

    Almost everything I buy is the generic, the exact same product made by the same people in the same plant, but at 1/4 the price because a brand isn't printed on it. This way, almost all my money is going to the slaveowners in Asia that made the stuff for 2 cents an hour, instead of an ad agency.

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
  22. Yeah, right, personalized ... by ankhank · · Score: 3, Funny

    {focused sound beam} "Pssst! You've been glancing at that young woman across the room. She's over 18, so it's OK to ask about her. We know what she likes. Would you like to know what she likes? Nod if it's ok to charge your card. We can get you her phone number. Would you like to have that? Nod if we can charge your card. Would you like to now if she's dating anyone? Nod if it's OK to charge your card. Would you like to see her naked? We have her last airport security scan images. Nod if it's OK to charge your credit card. Our eye tracking security camera system is watching out for what interests you, all the time ....."

  23. You feel like I do! by crovira · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And, because WE go and look, Googling for products when we need them, the sites we find are garanteed a sale.

    This gets into media studies but I believe that the future of broad casting is NO future.

    What I suspect will happen is that we will have specialized content aggregators that we look at, like we used to look at car magazines for cars and audio magazines for audio components.

    But instead of magazines which were mostly waste, we will be able to focus in on what we want, a couple of sites, possibly a podcast or two, backed up by some blogs.

    Then we'll be in a position to buy.

    Problem with that 'trend' is that its going to put a lot of people 'on the slag heap' of history.

    A study of the buggy-whip makers is in order.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  24. Philip K Dick, not Speilberg by abandonment · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All Speilberg did was buy the rights to a story written 30 years ago - by arguably the most visionary writer in this century - Philip K Dick.

    Even other amazing writers like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson are simply extrapolating the futuristic vision as envisioned by PKD way before their time.

    Beginning with Blade Runner, Total Recall, etc PKD's books have become the foundation of 'futuristic' sci-fi/cyberpunk movies as Hollywood continues to realize it has no creative vision whatsoever...

    However, the more people that become aware of PKD's amazing writing and vision, the better ;}

    Also check out the upcoming 'Scanner Darkly' by Linklater - it's another PKD story gone movie coming out soon...

    --
    Gekido's Lair
    1. Re:Philip K Dick, not Speilberg by Zero_Independent · · Score: 3, Informative

      I actually read Minority Report. I didn't see anything about retina scanning targeted ads or spider robots in it. All I read was a silly story about pre-determinism. Philip K Dick wasn't prescient. In Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, the sheep's voice was done by cassette tape. He couldn't even envision the microchip.

      Give credit were credit is due. It was the modern writers of the movie that showed us a dystopian ad enveloped future. Not PKD.

    2. Re:Philip K Dick, not Speilberg by Wes+Janson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As the reply above this one mentions, PKD's orignial story has nothing to do with advertising, future life, or anything remotely prescient-ish, except for the central premise of precognition. Like many short stories of the time, it focused on a single plot idea, with everything else being merely a setting to place and explore that idea. If you're seriously claiming that PKD was a master of exploring mundane details of the future, then you're either a poser or an idiot. Virtually every other story of his talks about someone taking rocket ships somewhere, or slime aliens from Jupiter, or laser pistols. PKD's greatness was his plot ideas, and general weirdness, not his ability to predict future technological trends. That would be Isaac Asimov who holds that award (may you rest in peace, Isaac).

      The writers of Minority Report deserve the real credit, and Spielburg for spending a crapton of money to get a bunch of people to sit around dreaming up ideas for what the future might look like.

  25. Pohl and Kornbluth (slightly off topic?) by panurge · · Score: 2, Informative

    The real predictors were surely Pohl and Kornbluth, in their novel The space merchants from the 50s (and yes, the title is a clever pun). I still have a copy. It's wrong about the future - oil and population run out of control much too soon - but (IMFHO) dead right about the unholy alliance of corporations, governments and the advertising industry. It's one of the two books about dysfunctional societies that should be compulsory in the school curriculum, the other one being 1984.

    --
    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
  26. Better Results by jesterzog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even "generating better results" sounds like a commercial. Better results for who? Better results for me would be fewer ads, in every medium.

    As much as I agree with the general sentiment of this thread about marketing (which I frequently get sick of), there are times where I actually appreciate it. I don't like marketing and advertising that's in my face, and I don't like marketing that lies to me. But some marketing material is just out there to be informative for people who want it and ask for it, without being in anyone's face.

    Better results for me means being fully informed about all the relevant options I have, at a time and level of detail of my choosing. This is also a type of marketing, and it's one that I respect. I do know some marketing people who focus on this goal, and I appreciate it.

    I actually like the way that the shoe salesman walks up to sell me a shoe when I walk in. I really have no idea what I want and it's not a decision I want to make. What I care about is trusting the guy to sell me something that works, and that's what will get me to come back again and again. That's also marketing. The guy's job relies on him selling lots of shoes, but he knows that his best approach is just to be honest with people. (and to chat, and joke, and so on.)

    I also quite like the way that Amazon suggests books for me to read. It's only there when I ask for it, it often offers good suggestions, and every so often they might get a sale out of it. That's the type of marketing that I like.