Targeted Advertising & Trump
If you're not alarmed by the exponential increase in the use of targeted advertising, you damn well should be. See, here's the thing they're not telling you about the 2016 election. We can argue all we want about what was exploited and what wasn't, who voted for who, what went wrong in the primaries and so on.
Yes our voting system was exploited. But you know what was really exploited in 2016? That advertising box in your web browser! We can argue about voting machines until we're blue in the face. And while that is a massive problem that needs to be seriously fixed before 2018 and 2020 or it will happen again, the real problem is advertising.
Advertising exploits the most vulnerable senses in the brain. Putin knew this and he used it to his advantage and targeted the worst among us through advertising, exploiting that weakness and finding that vulnerability. It worked in Turkey. It worked in the Philippenes. It's working in Italy. And it worked here in the United States.
And targeted advertising gets it wrong too. I bought Thor:Ragnarok on Blu-Ray. I don't need a million reminders from Best Buy telling me to buy every Blu-Ray movie that's ever starred Chris Hemsworth. Nor do I need to take a survey on the most minute details of my visit to the store! I bought a ticket to a show on Stub Hub at the House Of Blues Anaheim. I don't need suggested recommendations for every show that's ever been to the House Of Blues Anaheim! Surveys. Reminders. Targeted ads. We give advertisers way too much data. And no, I am not voluntarily giving my DNA to a company like 23 & Me. What do they do when they're done with it? And what are they using it for? They're not going to squeeze every last cent from us. But they will try!
Which brings me to my point - Donald J. Trump. Trump was laughed at when he first launched his campaign by going down that gold plated escalator at Trump Tower. Putin works his magic through his targeted advertising system - exploited the Hillary haters through a constant and steady stream of misinformation, targeted ads and sponsored content, and boom! Trump is now the leader of the free world, and a dangerous and stupid one at that!
While I'm saying that advertising has tons of loopholes that can be easily exploited, fewer ads isn't the solution. This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that nobody is talking about. The weakness that Putin exploited in the 2016 election was a box - its more that advertising box in your browser. Targeted advertising is a huge problem that needs a serious fix or it will get worse.