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"From Facebook to Talking Points Memo to the New York Times, often what looks like fact-based journalism is not. It's advertising. Not only are ads indistinguishable from reporting, the Internet we rely on for news, opinions and even impartial sales content is now the ultimate corporate tool. Reader beware: content without a corporate sponsor lurking behind it is rare indeed. Black Ops Advertising dissects this rapid rise of "sponsored content," a strategy whereby advertisers have become publishers and publishers create advertising - all under the guise of unbiased information. Covert selling, mostly in the form of native advertising and content marketing, has so blurred the lines between editorial content and marketing message that it is next to impossible to tell real news from paid endorsements. In the 21st century, instead of telling us to buy, buy, BUY, marketers "engage" with us so that we share, share, SHARE - the ultimate subtle sell. Why should this concern us? Because personal data, personal relationships, and our very identities are being repackaged in pursuit of corporate profits. Because tracking and manipulation of data make "likes" and tweets and followers the currency of importance, rather than scientific achievement or artistic talent or information the electorate needs to fully function in a democracy. And because we are being manipulated to spend time with technology, to interact with "friends," to always be on, even when it is to our physical and mental detriment"--… (more)
User reviews
Also covered here are covert types of Internet marketing that make use of cookies and trackers, click-bait teasers that open the gates to more ads, cookies, and trackers, the use of big data to analyze and target people individually for marketing purposes. Many excellent examples of these devices are provided.
Einstein is properly concerned with the issue of how the relentless exposure to hidden marketing mechanisms can transform us from compassionate individuals connected to friends, family, the environment, and other worthy causes into shallow brand-addicted mega-consumers. Her background is itself in marketing, so this enables her to be up-to-date on the latest developments in latent marketing. Yet at times this same background sometimes seems to prevent her from making a clean break with her field. She admires certain clever ads that seem benign and says we should all opt for a world in which ads support the delivery of media rather than one in
which we pay un-affordable prices for content. Yet the success of Netflix's pay-for-content model contradicts this premise. Consumer Reports does not accept ads and offers a reasonable pricing, as did Mad Magazine for many years. Adbusters and Highlights, a children's magazine, similarly do not accept ads and the Atlantic is experimenting with an ad-free version. I would have liked to see a more thorough examination of possible
alternative ad-free worlds, for example one in which revenue-neutral advertising taxes were used to fund media outlets untainted by advertisers and their money. That aside, this is an important eye-opening book that follows a trend that threatens to become even more pernicious than it already is.