|
Share this page
Quick links
Add feed 
|
|
The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘advertising’
16.05.2022
Itād be unfair if I didnāt note that I managed to see a āCreate postā button today on Lucireās Facebook page for the first time in weeks. I went crazy manually linking everything that was missed between April 25 and today.
Maybe I got it back as it would look even worse for Facebook, which still live-streams massacres as a matter of course in spite of its āpromisesā after March 15, 2019, if white supremacist murderers had more functions available to them on the site than honest business people.
The upshot still remains: get your supporters going to your website as much as possible, and wind down whatever presence you have on Facebook. You shouldnāt depend on it, because you never know when your page might disappear or when you lose access. Both are very real possibilities.
Bob Hoffmanās newsletter was gold this week. It usually is, especially as he touches on similar topics to me, but at a far higher level.
This weekās highlights: āBlogweasel calculations indicate that adtech-based targeting adds at least 100% to the cost of an online ad. In order for it to be more efficient it has to be more than twice as effective. I’m slightly skeptical.
āAn article in AppleInsider this week reported that, “Apple has revealed to advertisers that App Store search ads served in a non-targeted fashion are just as effective as those relying on targeting via first-party data.”ā
Indeed, ads that might use the page content to inform their contents (contextual advertising) work even better. Why? The publisher might actually get paid for them.
Iāve seen so many ads not display at all, including on our own sites. Now, our firm doesnāt use trackers, but we know the ad networks we use do. And for whatever daft reason, there are ad networks that wonāt show content if you block trackers. (Stuff is even worse: their home and contentsā pages donāt even display if you block certain cookies.)
If we went back to how things were before tracking got this bad, the ads would be less creepy, and I bet more of them would displayāand that helps us publishers pay the bills. If you donāt like them, there are still ad blockers, but out of my own interests, I would prefer you didnāt.
I came across Drew Magarryās 2021 article, āThereās No Middle Class of Cars Anymoreā, in Road & Trackās online edition.
āYouāre either driving a really nice new car, a deeply unsatisfying new car, or a very old used car.ā Drew notes that there are nasty base models, and also fully loaded ones, and the former ātreat you like absolute shit, and everyone on the road knows it.ā
It seems whatās happening is that the middleāthe āGLsā of this world, as opposed to the Ls and GLSsāis getting squeezed out.
It says something about our society and its inequality.
Interestingly, itās not as bad here with base models, and that might reflect our society. But look at the US, as Drew does, or the European top 10, where cheap cars like the Dacia Sandero do exceptionally well.
This goes back many years, and Iāve seen plenty of base models in US rental fleets that would make a New Zealand entry-level car seem sumptuous.
Finally, the legacy pages are reasserting themselves on Autocade. When the latest version was installed on the server and the stats were reset, the top 20 included all the models that appeared on the home page, as Mediawiki recommenced its count. Search-engine spiders were visiting the site and hitting those the most.
Fast forward two months and the top 20 are exclusively older pages, as visits from regular people coming via search engines outnumber spiders.
Until last week, the most visited page since the March reset was the Renault MĆ©gane II. It seems the Ford Taunus 80 has overtaken the MĆ©gane II. Peugeotās 206+ (207 in some markets) follows, then the Ford Fiesta Mk VII and Renault MĆ©gane III.
Before the reset, the Ford Fiesta Mk VII was the top model page, followed by the Taunus 80, then the MĆ©gane II, Opel Astra J, and Nissan Sunny (B14).
Probably no one cares, but as itās my blog, hereās the old, just before the switchover:
And hereās where we are as of tonight:
You can see the ranking for yourself, as the stats are public, here.
Tags: 2022, advertising, Autocade, Bob Hoffman, Dacia, Facebook, inequality, JY&A Media, marketing, Mediawiki, privacy, society, technology
Posted in business, cars, internet, marketing, publishing, technology | No Comments »
02.05.2022
Here are May 2022ās imagesāaides-mĆ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Tags: 1950s, 1955, 1960s, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1970s, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980s, 1983, 1986, 2022, actress, advertisement, advertising, Alfa Romeo, Audemars Piguet, Autocar, Bertone, BL, Brazil, British Leyland, Canada, car, celebrity, Envoy, fashion, film, Germany, GM, Hollywood, humour, James Bond, language, magazine, marketing, modelling, musician, Netherlands, Opel, Panos Emporio, retro, Saab, science, Simca, Sweden, Switzerland, Triumph, Twitter, UK, USA, Vauxhall, watch
Posted in cars, culture, gallery, humour, interests, internet, marketing, Sweden, technology, UK | No Comments »
02.04.2022
Here are April 2022ās imagesāaides-mĆ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Tags: 1960s, 1970s, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1980s, 1983, 2020s, 2021, actress, advertisement, advertising, Buick, car, celebrity, film, GM, Italy, James Bond, Japan, magazine, Mitsubishi, modelling, retro, Sean Connery, Sweden, technology, USA, Volvo
Posted in cars, culture, gallery, interests, publishing, Sweden, technology, USA | No Comments »
07.12.2021
Top: Decent enough specs for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G. Above: Very respectable download speeds (in the header) as the phone updates 71 apps.
My Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G is here, and itās proved better than the reviews suggested.
First up, kudos to the seller, YouGeek on Aliexpress, who not only double-checked to see that I wanted the Chinese version, but was considerate enough to send me, without any prompting, a New Zealand power adapter. The wrapping was the most secure Iāve ever seen from any Aliexpress vendor, like a hefty transparent Michelin man.
DHL did the delivery two days ahead of schedule, which pleased me no end.
The phone itself surprised me. I imagined 6Ā·53 inches would be too big and 199 g too heavy, but neither has come to pass. Itās marginally taller than the outgoing Meizus but not ridiculously so, and as I have large hands, the width is fine. I havenāt noticed the weight increase, either.
The blue finish, which isnāt available on the export Note 9T 5G, is probably the best colour of the three on offer, and frankly I donāt care if the back is plastic or metal. As long as it keeps the bits inside, itās fine.
What also isnāt on offer for export is precisely these specs: MediaTek Dimensity 800U running at a maximum of 2Ā·4 GHz, 6 Gbyte of RAM, and 128 Gbyte of internal storage. The model code is M2007J22C.
Other surprises: itās Android 11 (security update, October 1, 2021) running MIUI 12Ā·5. Now, whether it was straight out of the box, I canāt swear to, since it prompted me to do an update not too long after I switched on and logged in.
It did try to get me to give a voice print to unlock its features by saying four Chinese words. Naturally I said them, but it seems Xiaomi doesnāt recognize Cantonese! The fingerprint scanner wasnāt that easy to set upāit took numerous attempts before it recognized my fingerābut I got there, and now itās programmed, the home screen does launch quickly.
The first order of business was to take myself off ad personalization (so easy, they even take you to the screen during set-up), then download Bromite as the browser, to stop using the clumsy default; and replace Sogou keyboard with Microsoft Swiftkey. The rest was getting the apps to mirror the old phonesā, which was pretty simple thanks to various APK sites such as APK Pure. The only one that did not function at all (a blank screen after the logo) was Instagram, but you expect Facebook, Inc. products to be buggy. An Uptodown download of a version from June 2021 solved that.
Despite what other reviewers found, I discovered that the watermark on the photos was switched off by default. Iāve seen the grand total of one advertisement on the default apps, so the notion that Xiaomi is heavily ad-driven doesnāt seem to be the case with mine. There is a possibility that the combination of Chinese spec, English language, and a New Zealand IP address isnāt one that advertisers want to reach. There are far fewer app notifications than I got on the Meizus.
After updating the OS, there were 71 apps that also needed the same treatment. Those came down at lightning speeds, even on wifi, at over 20 Mbyte/s.
Iāve synced my messages, call logs and contacts, though surprisingly the phone could not work out that the New Zealand 02 numbers were the same as +64 2, and those had to be manually added. The old Meizu M2 Note had no such trouble back in 2016.
The default typeface choice in MIUI is much easier on the eyes than the default Android fonts.
Interestingly, the default music player here also fails to pick up local music on an SD card, rendering it useless, much like Meizuās (are they copying one another, to have the same bug?). Once again, it was InShotās Music Player to the rescue, and it works fine here. Sadly, I do have to relink a lot of the album covers.
Screenshots arenāt as intuitive, as the volume control invariably appears if you do the powerāvolume switchesā combination, but a screenshot feature in the pull-down menu does the job.
The battery life is interesting, as Iāve used it for about six hours since it was charged up to 100 per cent, and it fell to 65 per cent in that time. That tells me the 5,000 mAh is good for 18 hours of sustained usage, which included setting up, Bluetooth-linking it to the car and the M2 Note, running apps, using Here Maps for some navigation, and using some mobile data. I havenāt viewed any videos yet, and I donāt play any games. Iāll be interested to see how it fares on a more regular day: earlier reviews had led me to believe it could last over a day. Iām sure it can without the heavy use Iāve put it through in its first six hours.
I understand that with the pace of change in China, this phone, launched this week one year ago, is already obsolete, but as far as Iām concerned, I hope Iām future-proofed for another six yearsāthatās how long the M2 lasted before things like its short battery life and inability to receive some calls became an issue. (And this was despite the M6 Note having come into service from 2018 with a short break to get serviced at PB.) Itās been a very pleasing first six hours, without the stress of having to put on a Chinese OS myself, and continuing to be Google-free.
Tags: 2021, advertising, Aliexpress, Aotearoa, cellphone, China, Google Android, language, Meizu, New Zealand, privacy, review, Shenzhen, technology, typography, Xiaomi
Posted in China, design, internet, New Zealand, technology | 1 Comment »
01.12.2021
Here are December 2021ās imagesāaides-mĆ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Notes
Roger Moore and Ford Fiesta Mk I, via George Cochrane on Twitter.
More on the Volkswagen Fox in Autocade.
More on the Ford Consul Corsair at Autocade.
The Guardian article excerpt, full story here.
The devil drives Kia? Reposted from Twitter.
Audi maths on an A3, via Richard Porteous on Twitter.
Christmas decoration, via Rob Ritchie on Twitter.
Back to the ā70s: Holden Sandman used for Panhead Sandman craft beer promotions.
GeorgiaāPacific panelling promotions, 1968, via Wendy O’Rourke on Twitter.
Ford Cortina Mk II US advertisement via the Car Factoids on Twitter.
Bridal fashion by Luna Novias, recently featured in Lucire.
Deborah Grant in UFO, with the VWāPorsche 914, which would have looked very modern at the time.
Freeze frame from episode 1 of The Champions (1968), with William Gaunt, Stuart Damon and Alexandra Bastedo.
Our rejected greeting card design, with a picture shot at Oriental Parade, Wellington.
Ford Taunus GT brochure spread via the Car Factoids on Twitter.
My Daddy Is a Giant image and UK measures, reposted from Twitter.
Richard Nixon attempts to appeal to younger voters, 1972. Simple, modernist design using Futura Bold.
A 1983 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am advertisement.
Mazda Savanna brochure via George Cochrane on Twitter.
More on the Renault MĆ©gane E-Tech Electric in Autocade.
Lucire issue 44 cover, photographed by Lindsay Adler, layout by me.
Tags: 1960s, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1970s, 1971, 1972, 1980s, 1983, 1988, 2000s, 2006, 2021, actor, actress, advertising, Aotearoa, Audi, book, Brazil, car, celebrity, Christmas, COVID-19, design, election, electric cars, fashion, fashion magazine, film, Ford, GeorgiaāPacific, GM, graphic design, Holden, humour, ITC, Japan, JY&A Media, Kia, Lindsay Adler, Lucire, magazine, marketing, Mazda, media, modernism, New Zealand, newspaper, Norway, photography, politics, Pontiac, Porsche, Renault, Roger Moore, The Guardian, TV, Twitter, typography, UK, USA, Volkswagen, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in cars, culture, design, gallery, humour, interests, media, New Zealand, politics, publishing, TV, typography, UK, USA, Wellington | No Comments »
28.11.2021
Digital art by David MacGregor
I hope the media will say more because David MacGregor had packed so much into his 50-something years on this planet. Here is my tribute on Lucire. Not everyone can claim to have discovered Rachel Hunter, created the Family Health Diary TV commercial format (and others), founded the first online men’s lifestyle magazine in New Zealand (Emale, or to give it its official form, eMALE), conceived and co-founded Idealog, and won a heap of advertising, marketing, and magazine publishing awards in the process. A brilliant man who never stopped creating.
Tags: 2021, advertising, Aotearoa, Auckland, friends, friendship, marketing, New Zealand, publishing, TÄmaki Makaurau, TV
Posted in business, internet, leadership, marketing, media, New Zealand, publishing, technology, TV | No Comments »
06.11.2021
Here are November 2021ās imagesāaides-mĆ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Notes
Nice to see BoConcept advertise on Lucireās website (they were an early print advertiser).
Triumph 1300, Hillman Avenger Super and Range Rover advertisements via the Car Factoids on Twitter.
More on the Ford Sierra at Autocade.
Mindfood advertisement on the Lucire website: it might not be worth a lot but I’m still happy to take some money off my colleagues.
Aston Martin Rapide, photographed by me.
Audi R8 Typ 42, more at Autocade.
More on the 1968ā70 Dodge Charger at Autocade.
Mercedes-Benz 280SL pagoda and Fart via George Cochrane on Twitter.
Renault 15 via the Car Factoids on Twitter.
Tags: 1960s, 1970, 1970s, 1980s, 1982, 1983, 2000s, 2001, 2009, 2019, 2021, advertisement, advertising, aeroplane, Aotearoa, Aston Martin, Audi, BL, BoConcept, car, China, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, GM, humour, JY&A Media, Lucire, magazine, Mercedes-Benz, modelling, NASA, New Zealand, publishing, Range Rover, Renault, retro, SAS, Sports Illustrated, Sweden, Triumph, Twitter, UK, USA, Volkswagen, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in cars, China, gallery, humour, internet, media, New Zealand, publishing, UK, USA | No Comments »
22.10.2021
In the āI told you soā department, from the Murdoch Press this week:
An internal Facebook presentation this spring called the phenomenon of single users with multiple accounts āvery prevalentā among new accounts. The finding came after an examination of roughly 5,000 recent sign-ups on the service indicated that at least 32% and as many as 56% were opened by existing users. The companyās system for detecting such accounts also tends to undercount them, according to the presentation, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
They know, and frankly itās been this case for years.
Bot nets are the biggest culprit but they donāt even get on to that. But when you get news that milliards of bots have been removed, you know thereās a serious problem.
And of course even regular people have multiple accounts, because no one can predict when Facebook is going to kill their primary one. I was locked out for 69 hours in 2014 because of a bug, then Facebook decided to force malware on to me in 2016 in the guise of a malware āscannerā. Wouldnāt you have a second back-door account?
The Wall Street Journal also notes that this affects advertisersā decisions about audience targeting. Considering that thereās no independent verification of these metrics, why would you even bother with that site?
The newspaper continues: āFacebook said in its most recent quarterly securities filings that it estimates 11% of its monthly active users world-wideāwhich totaled 2.9 [American] billion for its flagship platform in the second quarterāare duplicate accounts, with developing markets accounting for a higher proportion of them than developed ones.ā Notice how that total number is rising. Now ask yourself: do you know anyone whoās recently joined?
Exactly.
The proportion is much higher, in my opinion. I’ve long said their total sits at around 750 million. Maybe it’s at 1 milliard now. It’s a great way for dictators to manipulate their countries.
If Facebook’s own sample of 5,000 says as many as 56 per cent were opened by existing users, it would not surprise me one bit if this phenomenon occurred through the entire user base. As early as 2014 I said Facebook had a bot ‘epidemic’ and I had the user account URLs from just one night to back me up.
And hereās the biggest joke of all:
Unlike Twitter Inc. and other platforms without such rules, the company requires users to have just one master account under a real name.
I can find you 5,000 with fake names right now. Itās bloody easy.
Of course Iāve reported some of them, but itās not my job to sit there and report all of themāparticularly if Facebook consistently gives the ones I report a pass.
Iām glad the WSJ is keeping the story going because for a while the Frances Haugen whistleblowing had disappeared from the headlines. On that note, here are several links to that, from Aljazeera English, The Independent, and Vox.
Tags: 2021, advertising, deception, Facebook, fraud, law, Murdoch Press, social media
Posted in business, internet, media, technology, USA | 1 Comment »
19.10.2021
Usual story: go into the Facebook advertising preferences, spot organizations that Iāve never dealt with somehow possessing private information about me that theyāve uploaded to Facebook.
One noticeable one was Afterpay, both its Australian office (no reply on Twitter) and the āAfterpay USA Business Managerā (the US office did reply).
Iāve never had an Afterpay account. Iāve seen their TV commercials. One of the Lucire crew attended Australian Fashion Week, although I registered him before Afterpay became a sponsor. So how does this company have my details? How does anyone?
The US office asked me to go into DMs on Twitter. And as this is (a) public policy and (b) their replies look copied-and-pasted, I doubt I am breaching any confidences here.
My first DM:
Hi folks, I donāt know if I can tell you any more than what was in the Tweet.
Somehow you have my private information and according to Facebook you uploaded it to their site for your marketing purposes.
Iāve never dealt with you so how you have any info on me is a mystery.
Obviously it would be nice to get me off your lists and off Facebook.
Their first reply was this. From here you can already tell they didnāt read my first message.
Hi Jack,
We would love to investigate this for you.
Before we do, we need to verify your identity to protect the privacy of your account.
Can you please confirm:
* Your full name
* The mobile phone number registered to your account
* The address registered to your account
* Date of Birth
* Email registered to your account
Polite reminder: It is essential you maintain the personal information we hold on our systems – this means keeping things like your current mobile number and email address updated, and updating your home residential address when you move home.
We collect and handle personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy (afterpay.com/en-au/privacy-ā¦).
Thank you,
My reply:
Hi there, thatās the thing, I donāt have an account with you, so you shouldnāt have any of this. Could you please just search for my name and delete anything tied to it? I can only assume youāve bought someone elseās list.
Obviously Iāve seen you in TV commercials and to my knowledge thatās the sum total of our contact.
The next one was positive:
Sure! I can search your name to see if you have an account with us.
That’s your full name?
Me:
Thank you, and yes!
I wonāt have an account though, and if I do, thatāll be pretty suspicious since Iāve never signed up ā¦
This morning, we were back to square one:
I would love to investigate this for you.
Before we do, we need to verify your identity to protect the privacy of your account.
Can you please confirm:
Your full name
The mobile phone number registered to your account
The address registered to your account
Email registered to your account
Thanks,
Three minutes later:
Hey Jack,
Without verifying your identity in order to protect the privacy of your account, we can not provide any account details.
If you don’t want to provide any requested information via this chat, you can email us or give us a call to discuss this matter directly.
Please contact us via +1855 289 6014 or use the link below to email us:
help.afterpay.com/hc/en-us/articā¦
I hope this was helpful! Please feel free to reply to this chat if you have any further question or concern.
Have a great day,
You can tell what Iām thinking here:
We are going around in circles here. I donāt have an account so how can I provide information tied to an account? Can you please explain how you would do this?
Please see your message at 1.47 p.m. GMT. You said you would use my full name, which you have, to see if I have an account with you. What was the result of that?
Iām betting you came up blank ā¦
I tried their link and none of the options really apply here.
We know that an unethical US-owned company operating in Australia did once obtain my private information through Lumino, the dentistry franchise, and I accordingly kicked up a big stink about it. And as Afterpay is Australian, are they somehow connected?
Updates since original post
Afterpay, October 20, 1.33 p.m. GMT:
Upon further investigation, I was not able to match your name: Jack Yan to any Afterpay account.
Have a good day,
It took two days for them to realize this, despite my saying so from the beginning. My response:
Thank you, this is what the original Tweet was about. Itās precisely that I donāt have any relationship with Afterpay that makes this perplexing.
Now that weāre on the same page, hopefully you can finally start dealing with my original Tweet.
What I asked there was: why you have uploaded private information about me to Facebook? Thatās what theyāre claimingāboth you and your Australian head office did so over a two-day period.
This means you must have some info about me and as I do not have an account with you, I would like to know how you got it.
And as Facebook claims you have uploaded it to their platform, I would like you to remove it from both their and your databases.
Trust me, if this was routine, where I could have just used your FAQs and your website, I would have done so.
I’ve yet to hear from [email protected] over this matter but I only contacted them today.
Since they have obstructed for two days it makes you wonder what they’re hiding. Over in Australia they’ve already done this:
Finally, some progress (sort of), at 4.30 p.m.:
Thank you for your patience
We have reviewed your request to erase your personal data. The right to erase only applies to a customer who has an account with Afterpay. As we believe none of these circumstances apply to your situation, we have not option to upload private information to Facebook nor we can do if you had an account with Afterpay.
You can read more about the purposes we use personal data for in our privacy policy afterpay.com/en-CA/privacy-ā¦
Please let me know if I can assist in any other way.
Not a full answer but my feeling is that this is as far as things can go with their US office. If I don’t hear from their Australian head office in a week, I’ll get in touch with our Privacy Commissioner. I know, Facebook lies, but on those earlier occasions when I chased up firms who had done this, the honest ones took my details off. (One less honest one denied it happened but then my details disappeared!)
My final DM for now:
Thank you. The privacy policy probably allows for uploads to business partnersāI had read it when you first sent me the linkāso you are technically covered should an upload have taken place, but I appreciate your going as far as you can in this thread.
Tags: 2021, advertising, Australia, Facebook, law, privacy, social media, Twitter, USA
Posted in business, internet, technology, USA | No Comments »
14.10.2021
I canāt be the only person who does this. This is one of the few things that I do on Facebook. Removing off-Facebook activity is another.
1. Let me check my Facebook advertising preferences. Who has been uploading my private information to Facebook without my permission? Hmm, Ramp, @rampcard, thatās new. Iāve never heard of you.
2. āThey uploaded or used a list to reach you.ā I never gave you my details, so the fact youāre uploading them to a platform I disagree with offends me.
3. Therefore, Iām going to click āDonāt allowā for both these options. You canāt show me ads, and no one can use your list to do so, either. And Iām just going to click āDonāt allowā for the second option just to limit things more. (The graphic is after Iāve done both.)
4. Just to make sure I never hear from you on this platform, Iāll block your page as well.
There are dozens of companies Iāve had to do this to. Netflix and Spotify were big offenders, but so are some of our government departments. Even places I like and shop with: if I havenāt given you permission, then youāve earned yourself a block. I don’t want to hear from you via Facebook or Facebook products. Own goal is the applicable football term here.
Very few T&Cs around the place mention the uploading of private information to Facebook like this. Thereās usually some mention of the like buttons and what they do, and tracking by Facebook Pixel, but not this.
Tags: 2021, advertising, email, Facebook, Netflix, privacy, social media, Spotify
Posted in business, internet, marketing, technology, USA | 1 Comment »
|
