He took a deep breath in as the doors opened. It wasn’t the gently encouraging signage that appeared as he passed, or the patronising, approving messages that appeared on his trolley when he chose the ‘right’ things. He didn’t even mind the way the prices changed under the words: “This week you lost five pounds and now you’ve saved two. Every little helps”. What he hated were the non-food aisles: the clothes rail that cheerily talked of the power of stripes to shape perceptions; and the personal care aisle on Valentines day, well! He’d have sighed but cameras were watching.
Dispatch from an advertising future #70
The politicians sat in rows remembering the physical etiquette of the committee, after years of virtual meetings. The “techwraiths” lined up with their DeepMinds. @AOC, a veteran of “looking them in the eyes” had demanded they appear in-person but she couldn’t stop them bringing “advisors”. The agenda progressed as normal: opening moves, middlegame gambits, wraiths playing for the draw, DeepMinds calculating plays well in advance. Looking at their screens, the wraiths did fine but when they met her eyes… that move simply wasn’t in the book. One wraith didn’t look. “He” couldn’t, and she couldn’t make “him”. Software doesn’t blink.
Dispatch from an advertising futures #69
Ever since the ban, we’ve asked to be treated as creatives. Artists, authors, filmmakers have all been allowed in. We’ve not. We presented our award-winning work; research that showed people loved our content,showed our cultural impact. We made a strong case that we were a Creative Industry. But still the ban. No commercial dream incubation. No branded dreams. We have news. Our lawyers are working on changing our registered business to Standard Industrial Classification 90030 “Artistic creation”. We will no longer be an advertising agency. We will be an artist. We are looking to change our name to The Factory.
Dispatch from an advertising future #68
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/24/1005602/ai-hiring-promises-bias-free-job-hopping-prediction/
She couldn’t afford a job hacker. But she knew she couldn’t afford not to hire one. AIs had got better and ‘employability coaches’ that helped you steer your answers, no longer cut it. Advice on how to avoid appearing as a “job hopper” or a “activist” was just the start. Now you needed to hack the hiring systems if your innovation and soft skills score was to get near 1.0. She booted a secure connection and reached out to the hackers. One took her bid. She entered the company’s log in and sat back as the AIs did battle.
Micro-speculations: w/c 20/7/20
They meet every year. In their club. The founding ‘fathers’. Reminiscing. Tales of transformation. Glory days and deals. Remembering when they were fast enough to pounce. The accountant. The creative turned CEO. The quiet one in the corner: the algorithm. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/21/sir-martin-sorrell-wpp-facebook-s4-capital
She was used to the sell. The moment when Speak2aDoc tried to sell her something. Before covid it had been cough sweets now it included masks. What was new was the offer of the vaccine. Those elecution lessons had worked. She spoke well enough to be in. https://voicebot.ai/2020/07/21/how-voice-samples-collected-from-whatsapp-in-brazil-may-help-create-an-audio-coronavirus-test/
He was due to deliver the keynote. He’d sent two scripts, depending on which way the vote went, the virtual attendees would see his contrite or frankly gloating persona. He’d never intended to talk live. He’d set the time aside for talking to lawyers. https://nypost.com/2020/07/20/mits-deepfake-video-of-nixon-announcing-apollo-11-disaster-surfaces/
She kept thinking of those movies: “it’s quiet. Too damn quiet.” It wasn’t fear but more, an uneasiness. It didn’t feel right. Even her garden was somehow wrong. She put her earbuds in and dialed up the Noise Amplification. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/23/1005574/lockdown-was-the-longest-period-of-quiet-in-human-history/
Dispatch from an advertising future #67
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/23/pandora-launches-interactive-voice-ads-into-beta-testing
She enjoyed playing with ads. The more literary-minded might call it ‘deconstruction’’; the more political, ‘ad jamming’. It was fun to see how many times it took saying “depends” to get the Voice to give up and play a jingle. The bed company that wanted to offer sleeping tips was easy to wind-up when you got it to “interact” with you on other bed-related topics. This ad was different. The company was known for “purpose”. It used accents and phrases to highlight implicit bias. Difficult to take apart, She remembered Dark Star.: “How do you know you exist?” she asked