Dispatch from an advertising future #112

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/24/1008882/facebook-ai-test-benchmark-people-break-adversarial/ He’d told her he had a job with “a big tech company”. She was so proud. He’d spent three years in his room: in lectures, tutorials, ‘socialising’ or whatever students did. She had wondered if the fees had been worth it. But now he had a job. She’d heard how much people could earn. …

Dispatch from an advertising future #111

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21454872/amazon-ring-always-home-cam-flying-drone-ad-demo The profiles were nearly complete. The different dimensions were in place. Shopping JDoe was catalogued. Consuming JDoe was captured. Emotional JDoe was measured. Moving JDoe was tracked. There was no need to worry about the JDoe office space as there had been in The Before. The JDoe home space was visualised. The various dimensions …

Dispatches from an advertising future #110

https://www.engadget.com/oldest-computer-manual-zuse-z4-161214346.html It had been a themepark for a long time. Students came on fieldtrips and marvelled at the rows of desktop computers, giggled at the printers and looked puzzled at the meeting rooms. The guide was programmed as a Don Draper-style CD, from The Before. He talked about pitches and client meetings, and told tales …

Dispatches from an advertising future #109

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/traders-set-to-don-virtual-reality-headsets-in-their-home-offices/ He’d always been slightly envious of them, their corner of the office. It was just more… fun. They had paper, lots of it. Doodles and post-it notes with half-written jokes or quotes. Their screens always looked better too, their software exciting. And then there were the gadgets and games. They justified playing as work …

Dispatches from an advertising future #108

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/09/22/amazon-launches-luxury-store-will-luxury-brands-buy-it We’ve spent a long time being exclusive. We’re careful not to say anything about ‘The Public’, but they know and we know, we’re different. Well we all knew. Now? It was bad enough when management embraced ‘social media’ – the very name! I bit my tongue. Then they ignored the real shows and spent …

Dispatches from an advertising future #107

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/18/1008559/letter-writing-lockdown-loneliness-get-out-the-vote/ I imagine them opening it. You’ve seen feeds of them waiting by their new letterbox for my papergram to arrive: expectant, delighted. Sometimes they rip them open, sometimes they take endless time. I can almost feel it when I’m writing. Of course I’ve always had their profile to work with, but I think imagining …