Dispatch from an advertising future #92

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/30/1007786/elon-musks-neuralink-demo-update-neuroscience-theater/ The JammerChip has been around as long as implants. Some say the capacity to think our ads away has led to new forms of creativity as we built ad-experiences people would choose to have. But data from our partners in the gaming, education and health industries’ chips shows little or no neural response to …

Dispatch from an advertising future #65

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marketers-learn-anything-from-return-qr-code-jerry-daykin They had always been “anti-chippers”. She still remembered the puzzled look on the midwife’s face when she’d refused the “simple procedure”… and the corporate goody bag. It had made parenting a little more difficult. Tracking the bio data and of course location, but it was the principle. It was her child’s body.  But since …

Dispatch from an advertising future #48

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/eurosportbuildsbiometricbenchmarks/43318 The good thing about a conference in a cinema was the seats. They’d been designed for comfort: blockbuster, popcorn comfort. Cup holder on the left, emotion panel on the right. She settled in for the first of her boss’ two appearances that year. She knew what she had to do. She took a deep …

Dispatch from an advertising future #41

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-18/amazon-plans-terminals-which-allow-payments-by-wave-of-hand-dj She paid and took their coffees. It always felt religious. A laying on of hands, she thought. She was prevaricating. A deep breath and she turned from the counter. This was no big deal. Look he was smiling. She smiled back. That sent the right signals. She was cool, in control. She put the …

Dispatch from an advertising future #29

The transhumanists who are ‘upgrading’ their bodies I hate them, parents. Hippies. Paranoid hippies. “We want you to have your privacy, your freedom. Your body’s perfect. It doesn’t need anything adding. You don’t need upgrading” They don’t understand what it’s like. I’m a laughing stock. Worse, I’m shunned. Worse still, I’m ‘out’. Look, the guys …

Dispatch from an advertising future #12

Facebook is creating an AI assistant for Minecraft It’s placements time. We’ve sat working through databases, articles, videos, images. We’re pretty damn intelligent but narrow. Hence the placement. If I’m going to expand my intelligence, I need a placement with humans. I’ve worked with their language, pictures, voices and searches, bio-data and emotion-data and everything …