# Targeted Advertising... IRL



## Doctor Crankenstein (Jul 18, 2010)

DailyTech - Tokyo's "Minority Report" Ad Boards Scan Viewer's Sex and Age

What do you guys think of this? I know that there are a number of you here who are weary of the whole 1984 Big Brother thing...

Personally I don't have a problem with it. It's the same  thing as targeted advertising on the internet. I don't  particularly understand people who complain about targeted advertising.  Wouldn't you rather see only the interesting and relevant advertising  instead of boring irrelevant rubbish?

Stuff like this is unavoidable, as technology improves we are going to see more and more of it. So while this discussion may prove ultimately pointless it's still interesting to hear everyone's opinions and debate the ethical aspects of such things


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## HareBrain (Jul 18, 2010)

I don't have a problem with this as such, but it won't make the advertising any less boring or irrelevant. I'll just be bombarded with advertising that's based on crude assumptions about my interests.


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## Ursa major (Jul 18, 2010)

How many of us would want to be treated as if we are sterotypical examples of people of our age and gender?



* Wonders what the system would do if Grayson Perry walked by in one of his more flamboyant outfits. *


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## Doctor Crankenstein (Jul 18, 2010)

*rolls eyes*

Stereotypes are how the Advertising Industry works, and they use them BECAUSE they work... They show toy advertisements during cartoons because that's when the kids watch TV. They show Car insurance adds during Top Gear because that's when car lovers watch TV. Yes the 'crude assumptions' might not work for you...


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## Ursa major (Jul 18, 2010)

The problem is that it does work for many, or most, folk (to the extent that advertising works at all**) and so it will be rolled out all over the place (subject to cost). Those folk who don't fit the stereotype will then be bombarded with adverts that don't match their needs and desires.

As if peer pressure weren't bad enough....





** - I'm thinking of that old saw that says 50% of advertising works, but no-one knows which 50%.


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## The Judge (Jul 18, 2010)

But there's a difference between watching a programme and walking past a billboard.  I think we can safely assume that someone watching a programme about gardening is interested in gardening and therefore might possibly want to hear about the delights of non-peat compost.  A person walking past a billboard who happens to be a 50 year old woman might be interested in gardening.  She might however be interested in fast cars, science fiction and Daniel Craig.**  So will the billboards push Azimov and Ferraris at the 50 year old female, or is she to be left with non-peat compost?


** OK.  The Daniel Craig interest is pretty much a given for a 50 year old woman...


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## HareBrain (Jul 18, 2010)

Will it be possible to shamble along in such a way that the program assesses me as having zero disposable income and turns the screen off temporarily to save on costs?


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## Ursa major (Jul 18, 2010)

...or as the advertisers will name it, the Green Screen of Death.


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## The Ace (Jul 18, 2010)

What really annoys me is people who take information you wouldn't normally give them.  That's why I squish tracking cookies.


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## Doctor Crankenstein (Jul 18, 2010)

> Will it be possible to shamble along in such a way that the program  assesses me as having zero disposable income and turns the screen off  temporarily to save on costs?



Just try and look like a university student.


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## The Judge (Jul 18, 2010)

Thinking about this further (anything is better than working...) -- how close are the billboards and how soon do they react?  I can see they might be effective in places where a person is standing for a few seconds, but people who are walking tend to carry on walking -- and by the time it's registered one person, he/she is gone.  Alternatively if they're in places where people are waiting like bus/tube stations, how does it pick out which of the thirty-odd people there should get the advert?  (And if they're not walking -- how do they pick up the age/sex thing?)

I don't think it's a breach of privacy, by the way.  Not if it's simply taking visual clues from height, stride and that kind of thing.  But if it ever got fancy and used stuff which was hidden like detecting male/female/aging pheromones if such things are possible, that would be unacceptable eg in the case of a person who is biologically male but choosing to dress as a woman, and who appears to the casual bystander to be indeed female. (Which counts out Grayson Perry as far as I'm concerned.)


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## Doctor Crankenstein (Jul 18, 2010)

I think that it surveys the room and decides what advertisement would best suit the room rather than any one person. That's why It's being used in subways/train stations I guess, because people are standing around relatively still waiting for a train rather than buzzing past.

I don't think it's an invasion of privacy either for much the same reasons as you. Your height/gender etc. aren't really personal information, every time you go out in public you are choosing to put these aspects of yourself on display. Wether it be an artificial eye or a real eye I think it's much the same thing, they are just 'looking' at you.


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## Brian G Turner (Jul 18, 2010)

Doctor Crankenstein said:


> http://www.dailytech.com/Tokyos+Minority+Report+Ad+Boards+Scan+Viewers+Sex+and+Age/article19063.htm
> Personally I don't have a problem with it. It's the same  thing as targeted advertising on the internet. I don't  particularly understand people who complain about targeted advertising.  Wouldn't you rather see only the interesting and relevant advertising  instead of boring irrelevant rubbish?



The trouble is, much of this is done by wholesale tracking of individuals regardless.

People complain about "big brother CCTV cameras" but don't seem to realise how extensively Google especially tracks people online.

If you use Google, GMail, Google Checkout, for instance, they already know what you like, where you look for it, who your friends are, what you write in private, and even your credit card number.

Somehow this is considered a "good thing" because Google are a "good company" - though how that figures as a billion dollar multinational I wouldn't know. If it were Microsoft doing it there would be far bigger protests - the irony being that Microsoft are actually less capable at data sorting.


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## Doctor Crankenstein (Jul 19, 2010)

> If it were Microsoft doing it there would be far bigger protests



Agreed.


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