speculations

Dispatch from an advertising future #70

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/29/tech-hearings-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-amazon-jeff-bezos-apple-tim-cook-google-sundar-pichai-congress 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, … [Read more…]

Dispatch from an advertising futures #69

https://scitechdaily.com/mit-dream-research-interacts-directly-with-an-individuals-dreaming-brain-and-manipulates-the-content/ 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 … [Read more…]

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 … [Read more…]

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 … [Read more…]

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 … [Read more…]

Dispatch from an advertising future #66

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/16/1005284/openai-ai-gpt-2-generates-images/ Scamp (™): We’ll finish that for you. Times are tough. We’re all trying to make best use of the resources we have. We’d all love to have AI that is as creative as our human teams, but we’re not there yet. Here at Scamp (™), we don’t pretend our systems can be as creative … [Read more…]

Micro-speculations w/c 13/7/20

He missed the fussball table, the free foot massages… the start-up vibe. As he opened another “start (up) your day (TM) innovation-food” package with its cheery message from the founder, he sighed and grabbed a donut.https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/a-new-era-in-functional-foods/43850 He was nostalgic so he dialed up the ‘wonkey wheel’ as the display reminded him of his 5:2 day. … [Read more…]

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 … [Read more…]

Micro-speculations w/c 6/7/20

He left his avatar by the water cooler: conversation set to “football”, style on “witty”. He left the dining room table and went to the kitchen. When he got back he checked the “overheard” and added the fragments to his Office Graph. A new link lit up. https://digiday.com/marketing/bringing-serendipity-back-to-the-office/ He looked deep into it. It was … [Read more…]

Dispatch from an advertising future #64

https://singularityhub.com/2020/07/01/a-highway-to-smell-how-scientists-used-light-to-incept-smell-in-mice/ She was being good. Waiting in line. Moving from one pavement sticker to another. The line was moving slowly but the masked and gloved doorman was letting people in, gradually. She was on her phone of course, swiping through posts, adding data points to her profile as she waited. The shop windows played cheery … [Read more…]