The Internet Is Drowning in Secret Ads | Hacker News Reader

The Internet Is Drowning in Secret Ads

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33 pointshn_acker9 comments

Related topic, who is flooding skincare and cosmetics marketing to minors? A fast paced teen action anime spent a long time on makeup talk. My nieces get lots of makeup stuff in their Youtube feed. I saw an ageing Youtuber (16 years old in calendar terms) with her dad as her manager launch a skincare line.

This is bad, given that advertisers end up corrupting every ad-supported media. Look at what newspapers, TV and radio became - thinly veiled puppets of the advertisers, willing to kill stories at their behest.

Users dont understand the externalised cost of free services.

Worse than that, they feel entitled to them, to the point that the actual expectation of having to pay for something that requires effort to maintain is treated as an insult.

I keep a mental list of some of my favorites of these: I remember seeing a popular post on Reddit like "My girlfriend's sweater matched her cup" with a cropped figure of a woman holding a cup that looked like her sweater and behind her there was a pack of Oreos on the counter. I also wonder about the initial Sonic design leading up to the movie release. There was a huge wave of "bad" press over the terrible design, then another wave of "good" press when they fixed it. You kind of never know but these are definitely the sorts of things I'd want to be thinking up if I worked in marketing. Trust Me I'm Lying is a great book on the topic and it's probably a quintessential book of our time along with enshitification.

I was talking to a friend recently about those Tupperware parties (she did a different brand). I think maybe those were better for society than modern ads. People had to get out of their comfort zones and talk face to face. It was all so personal, compared to what we have now.

This influencer nonsense described here is gross and fake compared to that. What would a genuine, face-to-face advertising campaign look like nowadays?

That sounds horrible. Taking time out of your day to do nothing but be advertised to. Not even considering everyone hosting these things constantly having to invite everyone they come across to participate. Modern ads suck, but changing that to in-person interruptions to your day is not better. Of course, if you want to know what it might be like, there's likely a time-share presentation somewhere near you and you can go experience one. Be sure to set aside enough time.

Honestly the Tupperware parties weren't great for the company either; while it kept an exclusivity to the brand it also severely limited their client base. You had to know someone who hosted them, or knew someone who knew them. Then they had to take time away from things they have or want to do to go be advertised to. They ended up social when they started because you invited your friends and neighbours, but after you exhausted them you're just a door to door salesperson.

At the time, though, it was one of the few ways women could find employment. Same thing with Mary Kay cosmetics.

not exactly a correlation. but I have found - garbage product means garbage ads, with either hyper-personalization or mass targeted.

whereas decent | good product - means well thought ads, with either one aim to increase brand awareness or with a particular call to action.

& this is why decent brands are migrating from search | social ads to retail or ctv & other native ad platforms.

> People had to get out of their comfort zones and talk face to face.

I think "talking face to face" was still squarely in the comfort zone back then, so I doubt there was so much positive impact from those parties.

> What would a genuine, face-to-face advertising campaign look like nowadays?

There is none, that sentence is a contradiction.

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