MediaWeek published a dim-witted perspective from Thinkbox Chair Tess Alps, calling on all adpeople to band together and clean up online advertising.
What makes Alps’ viewpoint so annoying? For starters, she leads Thinkbox, a company primarily focused on promoting TV. Alps wrote, “Before you think I’m having a competitive snipe, remember that increasing amounts of TV ads will be consumed online. This matters to every one of us.” Somebody tell Alps that the overwhelming majority of TV ads online are unwelcome shit that most folks don’t even want to watch on TV.
In her global praise of advertising, Alps gushed, “But we know [consumers] can—and do—love ads in particular: meerkats, floating beds, boys impatient for Christmas. Not just TV; they like outdoor ads brightening up cities and magazines’ ads are part of the reason for buying them.” These lines prove that watching too much TV—as Alps likely does in her line of work—makes you an idiot.
The main blow was delivered when Alps opined, “I’d like to believe every part of our industry strives to make advertising not just tolerated but accepted and, ideally, welcomed. It doesn’t feel like that online; most advertising I see behaves more like cowboy builders: bish-bosh quality, barely legal and with the certain knowledge that it can’t be traced. It feels like an industry that does not believe it has much future so goes to squeeze out every penny now.” Um, advertising by nature is not welcomed—it seeks to interrupt, disrupt and seize consumers’ attention. And while it’s easy to point out the poor quality of online ads, the same critiques can be directed towards TV ads. Simply consider commercials for pharmaceuticals, local car dealerships, legal services, financial institutions, household cleaning products, exercise devices, political campaigns, etc.—in addition to infomercials and TV programs that are essentially product placement vehicles.
Alps completely crushed her own credibility by stating, “I apologise to those striving to make online advertising a beautiful thing, but you’re being drowned out. Maybe because I’m 60, I only see ads for raspberry ketone, dental implants and sofas from a website I briefly visited last month. No space here to dissect addressable advertising and how creepy and insulting it can be, but 300 million people using Adblock Plus says something is broken.” Sorry, Ms. Alps, but you’re digitally ignorant—and perhaps a dinosaur too. Please put down the remote (as well as the raspberry ketone) and read The Open Brand for general enlightenment. Oh, and Adblock Plus is also a popular tool for eliminating those pesky TV ads online.
MultiCultClassics has consistently argued that digital practitioners should not be allowed anywhere near a TV project. On the flip side, TV enthusiasts like Alps should not be permitted access to a mouse and/or digital initiatives—and they absolutely have no business making stupid suggestions on how to save the World Wide Web.
Ad money should go towards cleaning up
It is time to stop moaning and use our collective influence to achieve the advertising environments we need.
By Tess Alps
I’ve had low-grade anxiety about this for ages, but a brilliant mea culpa in The Atlantic by Ethan Zuckerman, the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, titled “The internet’s original sin”, brought it into focus.
Then there was the Financial Times article exposing online fraud and, in The Observer, John Naughton had a pop at the surveillance culture online.
“This” is the parlous state of online advertising. Before you think I’m having a competitive snipe, remember that increasing amounts of TV ads will be consumed online. This matters to every one of us.
We don’t expect people to say they love advertising, even if they can be nudged into articulating its rational benefits. But we know they can — and do — love ads in particular: meerkats, floating beds, boys impatient for Christmas. Not just TV; they like outdoor ads brightening up cities and magazines’ ads are part of the reason for buying them. It’s a fair exchange — but also a delicate balance.
I’d like to believe every part of our industry strives to make advertising not just tolerated but accepted and, ideally, welcomed. It doesn’t feel like that online; most advertising I see behaves more like cowboy builders: bish-bosh quality, barely legal and with the certain knowledge that it can’t be traced. It feels like an industry that does not believe it has much future so goes to squeeze out every penny now.
Zuckerman puts this down to the “investor story”, where advertising revenue and traffic are hyped to drive the short-term share price; excessive frequency, uncloseable pop-ups, click-bait and fraud are just some consequences.
I apologise to those striving to make online advertising a beautiful thing, but you’re being drowned out. Maybe because I’m 60, I only see ads for raspberry ketone, dental implants and sofas from a website I briefly visited last month. No space here to dissect addressable advertising and how creepy and insulting it can be, but 300 million people using Adblock Plus says something is broken.
I downloaded a free game app recently. After every move, I was served the same ad. Eventually, I paid 69p for the ad-free version. Effectively, some advertiser was allowing its ads to be used as punishment to promote an ad-free format. We are fast teaching people to become militant advertising avoiders.
Zuckerman’s conclusion is that we have damaged online advertising to such an extent that it must be abandoned. But surely we can collectively solve this? No-one has a better incentive. Talking is good and there are plenty of industry forums for that.
But nothing talks like money, so let’s use our investments to encourage the online advertising we want for the long term. Brands and agencies should reward only media owners doing the right thing: treating data and intellectual property respectfully and allowing independent traffic audits. Let’s not allow content to become commoditised by pricing all views as equal within superficial programmatic algorithms.
Moderation in all things: some frequency, some personalization, etc is good. Media owners must say no more often.
Even if we did just those modest things, the situation would immediately improve, and we could start to rebuild an online advertising landscape to be proud of.
Tess Alps is the chair of Thinkbox
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