What's life like in advertising these days? When I was a child you could buy a commercial during the Saturday morning cartoons to sell your toy (or buy the whole cartoon) and you could put your car commercial on during the Evening News.
And you'd reach most of your "demographic."
But now? a maze of influencers and fragmented media (I don't think influencers really matter much, they are just the most familiar item in the new landscape for advertisers.)
Radio Free Trumpistan reshared this.
#unix_surrealism animation: how-to?
Draw the first frame; draw the next frame; and the next.
Don't think about it.
This was done in pencil2d.
AN/FPS-24 Radar Tower, Mt. Umunhum, Los Gatos, CA, 2024.
All the pixels, none of the interference to TV reception, at flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53…
AN/FPS-24 Radar Tower
Mount Umunhum Summit, Los Gatos, CA 16 June 2024 Two captures with Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR-Digaron-W lens, Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50), Cambo WRS 1250 camera (shifted left/right 15mm) to produce a 230MP stitched image.Flickr
Matt Blaze reshared this.
Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told to Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models
A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”
wired.com/story/ai-safety-inst…
#news #tech #technology #security #AI #politics #uspol #uspolitics #GOPCult #trump
Michael Stanclift reshared this.
Oh, I really wish I had known this sooner.
explainshell.com/
explainshell.com - match command-line arguments to their help text
match command-line arguments to their help textexplainshell.com
pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/alt… #amazon #privacy #alexa from @pluralistic
today is the last day to submit a comment to the white house on tech companies & trump trying to loosen copyright for the purpose of AI:
whitehouse.gov/briefings-state…
If you care about art & privacy, please voice your dissatisfaction with this plan.
Public Comment Invited on Artificial Intelligence Action Plan – The White House
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Trump’s recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Executive Order shows that this Administration is dedicated to America’s globalThe White House
When Gonzo Artist Ralph Steadman Illustrated George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1995)
openculture.com/2017/08/ralph-…
When Gonzo Artist Ralph Steadman Illustrated George Orwell's Animal Farm (1995)
As a novelist, George Orwell did not traffic in subtleties, but then neither did the authors of Medieval morality plays. The allegorical Animal Farm performs a similar, if secular, function, giving us unambiguous villainy and clear didactic intent.Josh Jones (Openculture.com)
'Bloody Saturday' at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5329244/bloody-saturday-voiceofamerica-radio-free-asia-europe-trump-kari-lake?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Media @media-npr
15 March 1935 | A French Jewish girl, Paulette Wajnryb, was born in Metz.
She arrived at #Auschwitz on 6 November 1942 in a transport of 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy. She was among the 639 people murdered after selection in a gas chamber.
God, I had to physically restrain myself.
spkeyboards.com/collections/ke…
G20 Semiotic
In the eerie depths of space, a legendary relic has resurfaced and is back for a reboot - the G20 "Semiotic" keycap set! Harking back to 2017, this masterpiece, designed by Zslane, draws its inspirations from Ron Cobb’s "Semiotic Standard for All Com…Signature Plastics
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 9, including aid workers and journalists, witnesses say
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5329257/gaza-air-strike-israel-al-khair-foundation?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into World News @world-news-npr
i want to try to collect up some observations about programming in this mode, and how it differs from usual programming even in languages like Agda, which have much richer interactions than usual
kolektiva.social/@beka_valenti…
beka valentine (@beka_valentine@kolektiva.social)
ok, let's continue looking at these issues, but instead asking how we could go from the recursive factorial to a product definition calculationally, without insight the recursive factorial is fac n = if n == 1 then 1 else n * fac (n - 1) https://k…kolektiva.social
undefined variable? drop into a REPL and let the user define it, and then continue running the program
use appropriate patching to insert that definition back into the program's source code so the definition doesn't get lost and repeat itself
Apparently DOD went through the web pages for Medal of Honor recipients and marked those of non-white dudes as "DEI", which also broke links.
The shameless racism is nakedly on display.
reshared this
Fortunately there is a complete list of Medal of Honor awardees at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…
Many of the profiles don't have photos. Many were Black and Brown Americans.
Paris Games gender row was product of Russian fake news campaign, IOC's Bach says
The International Olympic Committee had to fight off many similar campaigns before and after the Paris Games, its outgoing president said.
reuters.com/sports/paris-games…
#news #olympics #paris #parisgames #russia #disinformation #politics #ioc
I've got a long held a theory that if a store's cash register says "IBM" on it, that store is a dead man walking. But anyone who's been in a Bay store or tried to buy something from their website recently has to have known this day was coming.
theglobeandmail.com/business/a…
Hudson’s Bay Co. may be forced to close all stores
The company announced late on Friday that it has been able to secure only limited financing ‘that will require the full liquidation of the entire business’Susan Krashinsky Robertson (The Globe and Mail)
From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson's… :
It looks like the end of the #HudsonsBayCompany has been coming for a while:
"In 2006, Jerry Zucker, an American businessman, bought HBC for US$1.1 billion."
The real estate was apparently reorganized under its own holding company:
"It also owns or manages approximately 3.7 million square metres (40 million square feet) of gross leasable real estate through its HBC Properties and Investments business unit."
(Granted, that "or" seems to do some heavy lifting to obfuscate how much it actually "owns" vs. just "manages".)
non-paywalled link to article:
"Hudson’s Bay Co. may be forced to close all stores"
by Susan Krashinsky Robertson, Retailing reporter
Published 9 hours ago
Despite the rain, despite the government shutting down every form of public transport towards Belgrade, the amount of people on the streets of Belgrade right now is absolutely *insane*.
Today's protest is already being referred to as the biggest protest in Serbian history — and rightfully so.
The people are still pouring in, the peak of the crowd isn't expected until 8pm.
Glyn Moody reshared this.
"Protesting university students have led the nationwide anti-graft movement, which started after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station and killed 15 people in Serbia's north on Nov. 1.
Many in Serbia blamed the crash on rampant government corruption, negligence and disrespect of construction safety regulations."
cbsnews.com/news/belgrade-prot…
Crowds converge in Belgrade for protest rally against Serbia's president and government
Large crowds of flag-waving protesters converged after meeting up at several agreed-on protest venues in various parts of Belgrade, which was placed on high alert.CBS News
Nerding out at Hackaday Berlin 2025! @geekmomprojects I finally got my own bendy dude!
#hackaday #hackadayeurope #hackadayberlin #electronics #pcb #sao
Dave reshared this.
Green card holder from New Hampshire 'interrogated' at Logan Airport, detained
Fabian Schmidt’s family said they are unsure of why he is being held. They said he has a recently renewed green card, and no active issues in court.NHPR
Intro 5/10
This paper circuit project became my all-time favorite for parent-child workshops. It never fails to amaze kids or parents as the result is just fun to use and the build process is easy and straightforward. The idea is quite simple, and you can also repurpose an old PC fan for it. You can check my workshop instructions here: voltpaperscissors.com/spinartr…
#papercircuit #electronics #papercraft #STEM #MINT #maker #DIY
DIY Spin Art Robot for Kids — Volt, Paper, Scissors!
This simple DIY art robot spins a paper disc, and you draw circles simply by holding down a pen. Kids can combine different colors and techniques to create an endless array of artworks.Volt, Paper, Scissors!
myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •The ability to hold a big audience in the millions of a predictable demographic is deeply sought after. To me that just seems like trying to wind the clock back to the 80s when things were simple.
Social media plays a huge role here, and that is exactly why I think we should promote the idea that advertising on social media is as rude as advertising at a funeral or bat mitzvah.
myrmepropagandist reshared this.
myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Oh and to be clear I don't really count someone selling things they made by talking about them, or saying "I wrote this book" or whatever as "offensive" advertising.
In fact, it is the only way that promotion should function along side people talking about stuff and criticism.
Allan Chow
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •advertising back in the day was heavy on correlative data to determine success.
Advertising today gives has more direct cause and affect traceability for ROAS (return on ad spend) especially in the form of online advertising, direct marketing, and SEO. Happy to dive deep into this stuff with you if you want.
However to be honest, as far as I know, all this "improvement" hasn't really lead to any sort of decrease in marketing spend as a function of gross revenue.
My soap boxy thing is that a lot of people in marketing departments today want to think they're being very quantitative but in reality they're really bad at it and lack a lot of functional skill. As a result a lot of departments no longer deep dive into customer personas and demographic focused messaging.
Everyone just wants to do scattershot marketing to hit kpis but pretend they're not.
myrmepropagandist reshared this.
sabik
in reply to Allan Chow • • •@grumpasaurus
To be fair, there's also the story of how someone (Uber?) halved their ad spend, bracing themselves to see what effect it had, and... nothing happened, there was no perceptible change
Apparently the more direct metrics were so dominated by fraud that they were meaningless
Harry Percival
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Harry Percival • • •@hjwp
I would be delighted if there were more restrictions on advertising:
* It should always be labeled "This is a paid advertisement."
* It should not target children, gamblers or make outlandish claims.
* It should not be on social media or built into apps.
* It should be subject to an obnoxious public review process.
Everything would just be better. People will pay for entertainment and games.
myrmepropagandist reshared this.
BoxOfSnoo
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Don Marti
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •B L O C K in the U S A
blog.zgp.orgmyrmepropagandist reshared this.
Don Marti
in reply to Don Marti • • •@hjwp Also the "advertising" that people are blocking today is different from what "advertising" used to be. Fewer agency people, doing more ads each, means that each ad carries less info on brand quality and reputation, and it makes more sense to block them
source: youtube.com/watch?v=-Vv7bWP7U0…
Michael Farmer Business Models Workstream
YouTubeWulfy
in reply to Harry Percival • • •@hjwp
I work in (community) #TV (Australia)
We have let out sales staff go.
We no longer rely on Advertising for main income. We do get some money from Government ads.
Our main income streams are now training and production.
We do some promotion of artists for festivals, but it's programming rather than ads (eg. Interviews)
Selling Ads was nearly impossible.
TV ads are dead, they just don't know it yet.
Urban Hermit
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •I listen to a lot of podcasts and, in the last two years specifically, the number of minutes spent advertising has at least doubled. I think there is a correlation with the 'end' of the pandemic, big companies sort of realized that there are no "everybody watches" platforms any more and seem to be scrambling.
I even get new ads when I relisten to old episodes of podcasts, so they are up cycling ads everytime!
I still think nothing that needs advertising is worth buying.
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Streaming services keep showing me ads for cars.
WTF?? I buy a car once every twenty or so years, I hope each year that it won't have to be this year, and when I do eventually need to buy a car the models, or even the brands, that have been advertised to me over the decades will no longer exist.
What *is* the point of showing me SEVERAL MINUTES of car ads every time I watch telly? Is the targeting really that bad? And it's not that they know when my car is finally going to break down, because it's been going on for years.
mike805
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •I'm on the anti side of this. In 1999 I wrote an app called Ad Extinguisher. I cannot read while something is moving on the screen, so have gone to a lot of trouble over the years to avoid that. Have pretty well removed ads from my life, and as a result they really bug me when one does show up.
Advertising IMHO is a form of pollution. The first 10% might be useful, making you aware of something you want and don't know about. Past that it is an attack on the mental wellbeing of...
mike805
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •the public. For example, if you are waiting, there are two ways to avoid waiting becoming suffering. You can either find something interesting to think about, or do the mindfulness thing and intentionally keep words out of your head.
Neither option is possible if there is an ad playing. Medical ads are the worst. Health fear is one of the worst mental states, and deliberately inducing that is just evil. When those ads are playing, I get out of the supermarket faster, and buy less.
mike805
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •So to me the breakthrough would be finding a way to reach the public without causing annoyance or pain. If I am trying to find something online and an ad gets in the way, that is unpleasant.
However, I look through Slickdeals and Vine every day. Sometimes buy something too. Those are ads but I want to see them. How can we make advertising more like Slickdeals, and less like pop-ups on phones and shingles vaccine commercials in Ralphs?