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#239/ FEB 21, 2021
FACEBOOK CORRUPTION NEVER ENDS
This week, newly released court documents gave us a peak at the depths of depravity inside Facebook. We've known for years, and have documented ad nauseam, FB's lies and misrepresentations about their advertising business. This week, new information came to light.
TechCrunch reported that according to emails and other info unsealed for the first time in a court case...
- COO Sheryl Sandberg knew for years that Facebook was over-estimating the reach of FB ads.
- Facebook's product manager for their tool that estimated "potential reach" warned the company that it was making fraudulent representations to advertisers.
- An email from one employee asked, “how long can we get away with the reach overestimation?”
- In 2017 Sandburg “acknowledged in an internal email she had known about problems with potential reach for years.”
- Although they knew their reach estimates were bullshit, they refused to implement fixes proposed by employees.
- Facebook resisted correcting their lies because fixing the problem would reduce their "estimated reach" by 10% and would have significant impact on revenue. When a proposal to correct the lies was rejected, the executive making the proposal said, “It’s revenue we should have never made given the fact it’s based on wrong data.”
The court case in question seems to be based substantially on absurd claims that were reported here back in 2017 when Facebook claimed it reached more people than actually exist.
Perhaps you remember this chart when FB said it reached 41 million Americans between the ages of 18-24. Only problem is, there's only 31 million of 'em. Not satisfied with that horseshit, FB then went on to claim more ridiculous reach numbers worldwide.
To appreciate the thrilling absurdity of their "potential reach" claims have a look at these numbers which show the actual number of live human beings between 20 and 29 in various countries, the number Facebook claimed to reach, and the difference between Facebook's preposterous claims and reality.
Facebook has never allowed industry-standard 3rd-party auditing of its audience claims. Why? Because they're full of shit and always have been. Facebook is permeated with liars, con men, fraudsters, and bullshit artists. Anyone who believes a word that comes out of their mouths is an idiot.
Super Bowl Postmortem
The Super Bowl was two weeks ago but it had so little impact that it seems like it occurred two months ago. The less said about the game the better.
So let's get to the important stuff. First the ratings: According to a headline in The Washington Post, "Bucs' Rout of Chiefs Earns Worst Super Bowl Rating Since 1969."
Nielsen reported a 9.6% decrease from the 101.3 million who watched the game in 2020, and a 19.9% drop from the record audience of 114.4 million in 2015. In an era in which people are largely locked in a few rooms and are starving for entertainment, you'd think the Super Bowl would be a very attractive option. But apparently a Super Bowl without a party isn't quite as super.
The excitement about Super Bowl advertising is also slowly evaporating. As predicted two weeks ago in Super Bowl of Apathy, creatively we got just about what we've come to expect -- celebrities in search of an idea.
I will defer to the great George Tannenbaum for his pitch-perfect one sentence take-down of how this year's crop of Super Bowl ads reflects the demented state of our industry -------->
For my money, the dumbest idea of the day was Uber Eats' "Eat Local" campaign. Eat local? Really? As opposed to what? Ordering in from France?
Most years, the Monday after the Super Bowl, the lead story on the front page of the business section of newspapers is about the Super Bowl spots. This year, the NYTimes ran its only story about the SB spots on P.4 of the business section. The Wall Street Journal had no story at all. I think they're trying to tell us something.
Sometimes Even a Blind Blogweasel...
Back in April of last year I wrote..."if you're a marketer and you want to know exactly the wrong thing to do 'in these difficult times' for exactly the wrong reasons, take a lesson in stupidity here from Coca-Cola."
It turns out Coke revenues dropped over 10% since then and they announced this week that they are "planning to bring marketing investment levels back to pre-pandemic times to boost growth."
Major Brands Funding COVID Anti-Vax Nonsense
As if adtech hasn't done enough damage to the world already, it is now a major cause of COVID anti-vaccination horseshit. Ad Age reported this week that tens of millions of ad impressions from brands on creepy anti-vax websites are being unwittingly bought by major advertisers through adtech's idiotic "programmatic" ad system.
Believe it or not, here are some of the organizations whose ad dollars are supporting websites promoting anti-vax stupidity: Pepsi, Sprint, Macy’s, Rite Aid, Kroger, Walmart, Starbucks, Acura, Marriott, Pfizer (which makes a COVID vaccine!) Stanford Health Care, Emory Healthcare, United Healthcare, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, New York Presbyterian and the Mayo Clinic.
The misinformation is coming from websites like WorldTruth, TheGateWayPundit, and IntelliHub which promote nonsense like: the COVID-19 vaccine contains a tracking microchip, Anthony Fauci will make billions from the vaccine, and the vaccine will alter your DNA.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found that there is a measurable drop in peoples' willingness to get vaccinated after being exposed to such nonsense. A study by NewsGuard, an organization that monitors the web for misinformation, has found "42,000 programmatic ads from 4,315 brands running on websites spouting misinformation about the vaccine and COVID..."
Think this bullshit doesn't matter? According to the NY Times, 1/3 of US military personnel have refused COVID shots.
"You Can't Make This Shit Up" Hall of Fame
If you need further proof of how insanely stupid and dangerous adtech and the programmatic ecosystem is, one of the organizations unwittingly buying ad space on COVID misinformation websites is the Centers for Disease Control. I kid you not.
Mouthing Off
I have a few speaking gigs coming up.
This Thursday (2/25) I'll be speaking (virtually) to the Portland Ad Federation's ThinkNW F/O/P Roundtable. I am told there are a few tickets left. If you are a member you can secure one here.
On March 25 I'll be speaking at the Festival Of Marketing in London (it runs virtually from March 23rd to the 25th, more info here.) The good news is that in addition to dumbass blogweasels, there will also be some actual smart people like Mark Ritson and Helen Edwards speaking.
Josh Nichol, RIP
Josh Nichol died last week. Josh was one of my partners in the agency Roger Lewis and I founded in 1991. Josh joined us in 1995 as head of our Account Services department after stints at Goldberg, Moser, O'Neill and TBWA Chiat/Day. Josh was a remarkably savvy advertising guy. But I think he will be remembered most fondly for his joyful personality. It was hard to have a bad time when Josh was around. In an industry largely populated by worriers and doomsayers, Josh brought humor and perspective to everything he did.
My connection to Josh and his family goes back a long way. Over 40 years ago, Josh's father, Jim Nichol, was my first boss in the agency business. Like Josh, Jim was a very smart guy, and more importantly, a delightful person. Jim also died much too young.
While I have not been associated with the agency since my retirement eight years ago, I am secretly proud that it is one of maybe 1% of independent agencies founded thirty years ago that still exists. Josh succeeded me as CEO of the agency.
Josh's death was a very sad day for our industry, for his agency, and for me personally.
