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More From Don Marti About Why Targeted Ads are Bad (Video 2 of 2)

The intro for yesterday's video interview with Don Marti started out by saying, "Don Marti," says Wikipedia, "is a writer and advocate for free and open source software, writing for LinuxWorld and Linux Today." As we noted, Don has moved on since that description was written. In today's interview he starts by talking about some things venture capitalist Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins has said, notably that people only spend 6% of their media-intake time with print, but advertisers spend 23% of their budgets on print ads. To find out why this is, you might want to read a piece Don wrote titled Targeted Advertising Considered Harmful. Or you can just watch today's video -- and if you didn't catch Part One of our video conversation yesterday, you might want to check it out before watching Part 2.

12 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot - STOP! by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop putting together these multipart stories and then having a new thread to discuss it in. We hashed most of these points in the last thread. Now you're barfing it up onto the main page again... so we can have the same arguments a second time? Either wait until all the parts are there and post it as a whole, or join the threads together so we don't wind up rehashing things. It's wasteful and obnoxious.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Slashdot - STOP! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And start using HTML5 for your videos. We're in 2013, Flash is long dead and buried.

    2. Re:Slashdot - STOP! by plover · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, STOP with video interviews entirely. I don't have flash installed, and even if I did, I can read faster than your talking heads can yammer.

      --
      John
    3. Re:Slashdot - STOP! by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      I didn't get first post, but I want to get first hurl.

      huuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU uh hck hck hck huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu hck hck hck :,(,,,

    4. Re:Slashdot - STOP! by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I do have flash installed, but I'm protected by flashblock. But if they think I'm gonna click on a video link, they should probably only interview Woz, because I can't think of anybody else I'd rather hear than read. Not that their blurb gives nerds any reason to even click on a transcript.

      Hint to editors: "Nerds" aren't "average people with computer literacy." We're a subculture. The vapid crud you've been pushing will NOT keep us here. The only reason we're still here is that we're giving you a chance to listen to our complaints and change, because we've been here so long. But your chances to change are running out and if you wait for the traffic to bottom out before changing it will be too late.

    5. Re:Slashdot - STOP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Cut and paste a few +5's from teh previous discussion into here. Instant Karma.

  2. Only one argument in essence by YttriumOxide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was HOPING in this second part, he'd say something new; but in essence it seems his entire argument comes down to various themes of "targeted advertising (online) is cheap and therefore anyone can and will advertise anything and you can't trust it".

    Is that really it, or did I miss some insight as his voice made me doze off?

    --
    My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
    Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
    1. Re:Only one argument in essence by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      Well, slashdot can deliver twice as many ads this way. Ironic, no?

  3. Apples to Oranges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why should the percentage of time someone spends consuming print media be compared with the percentage of an advertiser's budget?

    There are more factors at play than a person's viewing time. For example, who's to say that when a person reads print media, they are more focused on what they are looking at so the advertising found there is more effective.

    Also, on the other side of the comparison, price as reflected in the budget will not evenly compare to number of consumable hours by the target audience. For example, a tv commercial during the superbowl will take up a huge portion of a budget, yet it will only be consumed for the length of a tv ad.

    Percentage of time spent viewing an ad cannot reasonably match the percentage of a budget spent on those ads.

  4. Re:How do you pay for stuff? by 0123456 · · Score: 2

    I remember the days when the Internet was free, and site owners paid for their own sites because they liked running them. Aside from a smaller number of fluffy kitty videos, it was generally a better place.

  5. Re:why bad by gl4ss · · Score: 2

    more likely to work? and you'll have more money because the ads work better? maybe for a short credit crunch time.

    however.. do you know who the targeted ad sellers REALLY target? companies who want to advertise. doesn't matter if the targets are really pregnant 38 year old asian women, as long as the advertising company manages to assure the company that is advertising that the ads are seen by that demographic. they're the real fodder for these companies! "ooh your campaign didn't do so well on fullfilment? maybe try some other keywords!"

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  6. Don Marti != Don Martin. by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, and the really sad thing is that Don Martin is no longer with us.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.