Advertisements are everywhere all the time, an inescapable consequence of the capitalist market. You can't scroll on Instagram for more than a few posts before seeing an ad, or go to a website and find multiple pop ups. Even driving down the street you will be confronted with one advertisement after another in the form of billboards, signs, and posters hung up on lamp posts. It is an inescapable part of the world we're in, and there are a lot of ways it impacts everyday life, for better and for worse.
Advertisements: Where are they hiding?
Almost anything can be an advertisement to some extent, and advertising has worked its way into almost everything. It can be as simple as someone recommending a product to someone else, or a logo on a company's product. A more in-your-face example would be the ones you see in television, such as a commercial or a pop-up on a website.
A more specific example of the many forms of advertisements is McDonald's and their logo. The company makes commercials for television (and YouTube, among other media forms), but they also have billboards near highways, as well as pop-ups on websites. The most subtle form would be their famous "M" logo on every bag, box, and cup that is in their stores. While it is very subtle and does not seem like a blatant advertisement, it still is, showing up in ways that advertise themselves even if it is subconscious.
Why Advertise?
The marketing of products, brands, and companies is something inevitable and evident in our Western society and many other places where capitalism is the standard. But why advertise at all? Business.gov lists a few of the benefits that advertising provides:
"increase customer reach
build customer awareness of your business and brand
promote the benefits of your products or services
communicate information about your business
increase sales and demand
gain an advantage over your competitors."
Advertising mainly helps the company or industry that puts them out, as it gets the word out about their products and services. It can be risky to spend a lot of money on ads, but it can pay off big time if things go well. It doesn't always go well, however, but it is important for businesses to enter that sphere to get their names out there in the competitive economic environment.
Some companies have put a lot of effort into their advertising with varying success; one of these success stories is the language-learning app Duolingo. They went a slightly different way of advertising and took to TikTok, where they interacted with others' posts and fan comments. The company even had its mascot, a bright green owl named Duo, make videos to post to their page. While not all content they made was in direct relation to them (such as, Duo doing a popular TikTok dance challenge), it was still advertising their brand as friendly, accessible, and fun for everyone.
While advertising is particularly beneficial for businesses and brands, it can also be helpful for everyday people. Maybe a local restaurant started and Instagram page that found its way onto your feed one day, and now it's one of your favorite place to eat at. They also sometimes show off deals that might be tantalizing, or products and services that you've been thinking about getting for some time. Advertisements do a specific job and work for a reason, after all.
It's not all great, though. As mentioned, businesses can sometime lose more money because of a bad advertisement, and they may not always work. For people, advertisements can be very annoying, such as multiple commercials on TV or the constant looming of popups on a website. Have you ever tried to watch a YouTube video, only to get two unskippable ads before it? It can be annoying and time consuming, especially if you get ads that don't particularly matter to you. Another issue of ads is privacy, specifically with targeted ads.
What is a Targeted Ad?
Have you ever said something that you wanted to a friend, and then days later you get an ad for it on your phone or computer? Or even more specific, have you ever thought of something only to see an ad for it mere hours later? While it's not a case for the "everything is a simulation" theory, it is definitely a real thing called a targeted ad.
According to GCF Global, targeted advertising is "a form of online advertising that focuses on the specific traits, interests, and preferences of a consumer." It's a complex algorithm that works to give people the advertisements that best suites their assumed personalities and wants.
Targeted ads follow us everywhere, and most of the time we don't even realize it. The websites behind the ads have become very smart and precise when it comes to giving you the most relevant ads. Say you were looking into buying a video game on your laptop. Suddenly days later you're getting an ad for that same video game on your phone, even though you only searched it up on your laptop one time. These companies even analyze your location and websites you've interacted with and what services you're logged in to to continue to give these specific ads across devices and platforms.
Why Targeted Ads?
Targeted ads definitely have their upsides and downsides in more ways than other advertisements might. First, let's look at a few potential benefits of enabling or encountering targeted ads:
You get more relevant advertisements.
Less research is sometimes needed when an advertisement can give you new ideas.
Less inappropriate ads pop up while you're online or on social media.
It can be frustrating to see advertisements so frequently in general, but with targeted ads it is beneficial that you are more likely to see things that you enjoy or are more inclined to engage with. For example, you might hate scary movies, but without targeted ads you get recommended terrifying commercials of upcoming scary films throughout the month of October. With targeted ads, you'll probably be getting advertisements that are more marketed to you, which makes them less time-wasting and annoying to see. That scary movie commercial might still slip through every now and then, which goes into some of the downsides of targeted advertising.
It's not always 100% accurate.
It takes a lot of your personal information (like gender, age, location) to use across websites.
Constant advertising can quickly become annoying.
While it definitely has its power, targeted advertising and the algorithms and data used for it is not always going to produce the desired results. If you bought a new bedframe on Amazon when you were moving into an apartment for the first time, you might get recommended ads for bedframes months after the fact, even though it was a one-time kind of purchase.
On a more serious note that gets into the discussion of the right to privacy, these targeted ads (and all the cookies that come with it) really get a lot of your personal information. More general factors such as gender, age, or relationship status are things that websites can get based on what you search up or even what you post on social media. Even more personal things can be revealed to websites, however, when it comes to what they will advertise to you, such as general income, location, and even what the people you hang around with most look up on their devices.
Ads: Good or Bad?
While targeted ads do serve a purpose, having such open access to personal identifiers is something that can be worrying and something to be kept an eye on. Hackers exist everywhere, and Internet connections can be very fragile, so it is important to practice awareness when it comes to engaging with new or familiar websites and social media apps.
Advertising in general is an inescapable thing in our Western society, and with it comes many benefits and downsides to both the companies and the consumers. Not to mention, so many ads all the time can be downright annoying. Overall, I think practicing mindfulness is a great way to be aware of how advertisements are affecting you, as well as taking desired precautions when engaging with online media. Maybe get a pop-up blocker, or go for it and treat yourself to something you see in an ad. Either way, their presence in society is overwhelming and all but necessary, so tread carefully!
Great article, Ads have become such a presence in todays day and age. Targeted ads always annoy me. I get so weirded out and don't like the idea of me feeling like I'm being watched.
Targeted ads are concerning to me because they make me feel like I’m constantly being watched and scrutinized by the algorithm (I am, we all are). It’s through systems like that in which companies gather data on people, and I don’t like the idea of having a file that classifies what sort of consumer I am. The scariest part is that the algorithm is reflexive, meaning that whatever you find yourself shopping for or viewing in social media is continually shown to you in more extreme forms as the algorithm narrows down your preferences, and this in turn influences your habits.
I enjoyed reading your post. I want to go into marketing so reading about targeted ads. I do agree that we have more and more targeted ads recently, especially with the digital footprints we leave behind when we look up stuff or even talk about it in some cases. I don't know if you saw, but "duolingo" had a baby with some other mascot that the duolingo mascot has been "dating."
It was really interesting to look at some of the benefits of targeted ads. While I like many other still can get fearful about the dangers of giving access to personal information it's nice to see some of the possible benefits of tech.
I think your example about Duolingo is a good one because I agree that there's been an increase in content of that sort. It may not be a "buy our new large combo" TV commercial, but it serves to ingratiate the company into the minds of viewers and keeps them coming back.