Makeup Blog: Advertising

Max Meyerson mm603815@ohio.edu

Advertising is an ugly game, but a necessary one. How else would we be able to compare the marketplace for items and services without advertising? Advertising is defined by Merriam-Webster as, the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements. The important word in that definition is "attention." 

Attention is the goal of every single advertisement. I worked at a radio station this summer and that was the first thing they told me about advertising, get the audience’s attention. This can be achieved many ways through the content of the ad itself or with an overload of advertising being shoved in the audience's face.

This naturally creates a line of tension between ethical and unethical advertising. What advertising content is too offensive or too attention grabbing? How much advertising content is too much? How should we target the audience for our advertising? These are all of the ethical questions that arise with advertising.

The biggest issue with advertising today is privacy. This website discusses the ways in which your iPhone can listen to you when you are unsuspicious. There have been countless reported cases where people are having a conversation about a certain object or service and later those people see advertisements promoting an object or service related to the conversation you were having. 

This breach of privacy is a big reason why companies like Facebook and Apple are facing massive lawsuits regarding their privacy policies. These companies are storing massive amounts of information from you and are selling them to advertisers. These advertisers then use a series of algorithms to send you messages directly tailored to your needs. 

The question is how ethical this type of targeted advertising is. Companies for years have been sending messages to you based on your purchase habits, socio-economic background, age, gender and many other denominating factors that are public record. However, this act of spying on private conversations is not an acceptable ethical act. 

There are many programs coming out to battle this attack on privacy. The issue is this is a complicated problem that not many people can really understand. How are average people supposed to understand all of the technology that goes into their phone or computer spying on them. New technologies like Siri and Alexa are Artificial Intelligence items that you can speak to and work at your command. The average person might see these things as a nifty item that can help around the house. In reality these people are leaving hot mics all around their house for anyone to tap into and listen to their private conversations

There is something brewing in this new age of technology and I am not sure that we are prepared for it as a society. Privacy is becoming a thing of the past and all of our information is about to be out in the open exposed to the public on record. I see that as the only realistic way of avoiding cyber hackers from accessing all of our personal information.

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