NEWSLETTER #120 / JUNE 24, 2018
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FACEBOOK'S CREEPY PLANS FOR YOU
Perhaps you remember Zuckerberg's promise to congressional "leaders" a few weeks ago. He said that Facebook "has to do better" at protecting privacy. Here's an update.
According to The New York Times, Facebook has applied for a slew of the creepiest privacy-abusing patents you can imagine:
"...the company has considered tracking almost every aspect of its users’ lives: where you are, who you spend time with, whether you’re in a romantic relationship, which brands and politicians you’re talking about. The company has even attempted to patent a method for predicting when your friends will die."
It's really a shame that Facebook has only two sides of its mouth to talk out of.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia said, “I’ve seen no indication that Facebook has changed its commitment to watch everything we do, record everything we do and exploit everything we do."
And Speaking Of Creeps...
Things don't seem to be going so well in the sleazy world of social media influencers. As reported here a few months ago, like all online gimmicks, the "influencer" con game is a corrupt, fraud-filled pile of shit.
The way it works is like this. Brands pay people who are popular on social media to say nice things about their products. The problem is these "popular" people ain't so popular. In fact, millions of "followers" are bots they buy on line. So brands are paying lots of money for online digi-monkeys to tweet out niceties for bots to read.
A while ago I wrote about an extreme example of this. It was a study last year that showed that the geniuses at Ritz-Carlton were paying big money to influencers -- 78% of whose followers were bots.
Keith Weed, marketing chief at Unilever made headlines at Cannes last week by calling for the industry to clean up the influencer con game. You can take this to the bank - nothing will happen.
The Telegraph says that the use of influencers is "waning." Count me as officially skeptical. The marketing industry has shown a great ability to whine about the cesspool that online advertising has become, but no one will to do anything about it. Everyone has something to protect.
For a fun look at the stupidity of influencer marketing, I highly recommend this piece by the great Prof. Mark Ritson. Ritson successfully hired some "influencers" to endorse a picture of his ass (Warning: avert your eyes or use one of those eclipse-watching gizmos.)
BTW, Ritson calculates that 99.86% of money spent on influencer marketing might be a waste.
Beyond Clueless
Sometimes you just have to scratch your head. A study of UK marketing execs reported by Marketing Week, indicates that over 80% believe that Facebook and Google should be held responsible for the content they carry, including fake news. Who the hell do these geniuses think is going to hold FB and GOOG accountable if not the people who keep throwing money at them?
A Reminder For Advertisers...
"I don't know how to succeed. But I know how to fail -- just try to please everybody." Buddy Holly
Back To The Beach...
Yes, it's vacation time. As you can see, I've been working on my tan. I'll be back in a few weeks.
