Tag: 02.04.20

How Google, Facebook, Microsoft, And Amazon Became The Most Manipulative Advertisers On TV

“For most of their history, these companies scoffed at traditional media. Can’t measure it, can’t convert viewers into customers, not enough real-time data. Yet here are the 21st century’s most dominant brands behaving like their counterparts of the late 20th, using TV as a key tool to build image and consumer loyalty. Taking a half-step back, this development is a bit rich given that other than Microsoft, these are companies whose businesses are working, through digital advertising dominance and streaming content, essentially to destroy the modern TV industry.” – Fast Company

Polarized News Is Hurting Advertising Revenues

Just 9 of the most 100 most-read news articles from 2019 were considered brand safe by keywords blacklists, per the study. Often many words are blocked in fear of one meaning, but then are misapplied. For example, words like “attack” are often included in blacklists, even it it pertains to something positive, like an “attack wing” in soccer. – Axios

When Working Men Bought ‘Pride And Prejudice’ For A Penny

“Austen first emerged in penny editions in the 1890s. Penny versions were modeled on the sensational Penny Dreadfuls, those cheap stories of violence on which Britain’s lawmakers were known to blame the rise in urban crime. Operating in tandem, two newspaper giants stepped in to offer better entertainment to ‘the poorer millions.’ These alternatives were pushed as ‘Penny Delightfuls.'” And yes, poor working men and women bought and read them. – Literary Hub

Alice Mayhew, Editor Who ‘Helped Pioneer The Modern Washington Political Chronicle’, Dead At 87

“A top editor at Simon & Schuster who assembled a roster of literary heavyweights, … Ms. Mayhew focused on popular histories and biographies as well as the journalistic genre known as “the Washington book.” Released only a year or two after the events they covered, the books featured heavily reported, insider accounts of Beltway politics and White House intrigue, tailored for readers who wanted details that were often unavailable to daily journalists.” – The Washington Post

A Right-Left Tug-Of-War Over Poland’s Museums

“Over the past five years, Poland’s art institutions have increasingly become a vehicle for the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party’s cultural reform efforts. … [There’s now] a nationwide battle over who shapes Poland’s cultural institutions, with both sides claiming that they are being silenced. The stakes are high: the dispute has the potential to shape the art shown in Poland and the history taught to the public for decades to come.” – Artnet

A Mural Helped Turn Around A Derelict SoCal Park — Until Unexpected Protests Got It Removed

For decades, Tony Cerda Park in Pomona was desolate, dilapidated, and dangerous. Last summer, artist Joe Ded painted a mural to honor the park’s namesake, a longtime leader of local Native Americans. People began using the park again, and the city started paying attention to it. Then some of the local Native Americans got a look at the mural, and they were not happy. – Los Angeles Times