On this episode of Spark: Stealth Social Marketing, Haptics, and Obsolescence. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:23 — 49.9MB)
You can also listen to individual stories below.
McLuhan in May
This year marks the centenary of Canadian icon Marshall McLuhan’s birth and for the month of May we’re looking at the digital world we live in through the lens of McLuhan’s four laws of media. Everyone’s doing it, right? (Alright, so maybe it’s just us). This week we’re tackling the question: What does the medium make obsolete? If we take the “medium” to be the current digital age we are in, then the answers are all around us (and are up for debate) from the loss of skills like handwriting and spelling, to to the loss of touch as a sensory experience (ironic in this touch-screen world). What do you think? Have our digital devices rendered some things in our lives unnecessary? And is that a good or bad thing? Let us know! (Runs 2:08)
Play audio:
Stealth Social Marketing
Most of us are used to the pervasive ads that appear everywhere we go online, and maybe you click on them and maybe you don’t. But in the social media world there is another common advertising technique that is a little more devious – persuasion through friendly deception. We get the inside story from a former stealth marketer who created several hundred fake online identities for an online marketing company.(Runs 9:24)
Play audio:
In Praise of the 30 Second Ad Spot
Social media is pretty much the new normal for advertising. Thinking about McLuhan, advertising, and obsolescence, it’s almost like marketing with the participatory, many-to-many medium of the internet makes the old broadcast one-to-many medium of TV advertising obsolete. Could we be looking at the death knell of that warhorse, the 30 second TV ad? Not according to Grant McCracken. Grant is a cultural anthropologist and a writer and he tells Nora that when it’s done right there’s still a place for the venerable old 30 second ad spot. (Runs 10:57)
Play audio:
- Grant McCracken
- Grant’s blog
- The Volvo Ad Grant talks about
- The Ford Fiesta campaign Grant talks about
- Spark blog: The Future of the 30 Second Ad Spot
Whole Brain Emulation
Have you ever wished you could make a copy of your brain? Keep it around in case something happens to the original? Some researchers say this technology is complex, but possible. And one of them is Anders Sandberg, with the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University in England. Anders tells Nora that creating sentient software is a very real possibility. (Runs 8:56)
Play audio:
- Anders Sandberg
- Whole Brain Emulation: A Road Map (Sandberg, Bostrom)
- Full uncut version of interview with Anders Sandberg
Microchips for the Brain
Since we’ve got the human brain on the, ahem, brain, research being done at Toronto Western Hospital caught our eye. Scientists are developing a microchip that interacts with brain tissue and could one day make epileptic seizures obsolete. Nora dropped by the lab to meet Dr. Peter Carlen, a neuroscientist who runs the lab and Roman Genov, an associate professor of electrical engineering from the University of Toronto who is part of the project. (Runs 6:19)
Play audio:
C’mon Get Haptic!
The Spark team has been talking a lot about the things our current digital world has made obsolete, or at the very least, scant. I wondered if texting has all but obliterated the teenage love letter. And Nora wondered about the future of touch. Specifically she wanted to know: if we can deliver media and information virtually, are physical media obsolete? Or is there something about us as humans that still craves the physical, the weighty, the tactile? So she called up Mark Paterson. Mark teaches at the University of Exeter where his research focus is on the sense of touch. Fittingly he’s also the author of the book Senses of Touch. (Runs 9:19)
Play audio:
Additional Links
Spark Podcast
You can receive Spark automatically by subscribing to any of our totally free podcast feeds:
- Free weekly podcast (Subscribe in iTunes)
- Free weekly podcast + additional blog-only content (Subscribe in iTunes)
- Free weekly podcast (low bandwidth version)
For more information (and instructions) visit cbc.ca/podcasting
Handwriting had been made obsolete when computers started appearing in homes around the continent. How many of us actually handwrite a letter these days?
One thing I do see that is obsolete is the art of THINKING. I have been one to be able to think for himself rather than have someone else tell me what to think. When we take in a a source of news and information, be it Twitter, Facebook, or even the Fox News Channel, how many of us actually think about what is really going on?
I regularly take notes by hand, for example, when listening to podcasts of Spark, when I wish to formulate a coherent and comprehensive rebuttal to the material presented. I find it easier to have a pad of paper beside the keyboard, than to constantly flip between the multimedia player application and the test editor application.
I trained myself a few years ago to use the mouse with the left hand so that my pen can be in my 'write' hand and I am able to more efficiently use both hands at the same time.
Prof. Mark Paterson was great!
Jaron Lanier brings up some caveats about artificial intelligence and the use of the computer as a metaphor for the brain (and vice versa) in his book, You Are Not a Gadget.
Here is a sample: http://www.jaronlanier.com/aichapter.html
I found the interview with the stealth marketer interesting, in particular because it brings up an important point I'm not sure people are aware of: Unlike in traditional media, there is no moderation for marketing. Whereas in a magazine or on TV or radio you have to explicitly state that something is marketing and you can't misrepresent yourself, online there is no governing body to handle these types of things and as a result people and companies are free to (and pardon the pun here) lie, cheat and steal to get the message out.
Another important element to this that you should bring up in a follow up is the fact that more and more people are turning into inadvertent marketing zombies by virtue of being tricked by marketing companies. There is a reason why marketers are now giving bloggers, twitterers and other online personalities free stuff, and it's not because they are nice people. When people get free stuff, even if they think it's crap, they are likely to rave about it online. Thus they become online representatives for the product and part of a larger promotional platform.
I did a talk on a Code of Ethics for the Social Web at the Northern Voice conference in Vancouver last weekend and I wish I'd heard this interview before the conference. It is yet another example of how although we think we know what's what on the web we are in reality applying our perceptions and experiences from traditional media to this new unmoderated landscape assuming moderation and regulation where there in fact is none.
I'm not saying we need that kind of regulation, but people, both consumers of online content and the people that produce online content, need to be aware that the does not work the same way as traditional media and that all the checks and balances go out the window the second you type "www" in the address bar.
I think you're right to focus on the ethical aspects of social (stealth marketing). I actually think that stealth marketing is problematic in all venues. I wrote a piece stealth-marketing-the-21st-century-con that outlines a couple of the ethical concerns I have related to stealth marketing. I would go farther than you and suggest that we do need regulation. Online, and physical, social networks need to be made as trustworthy as possible. Why not regulate the online environment the same way we regulate the so-called real-world (I hesistate to use the term)?
Norah – Really loved your segment on the value of touch in the digital age. However, due to my apparent challenges in virtual navigation, I posted my comments in the wrong section. Guess that is revealing in itself! I attempt to correct that here…
I recently got back into listening to music on LP's/vinyl because I wanted to connect with my 22 year old son through a medium that really resonated for him, even though the origins were actually "back in my day". The connection was terrific but I must admit that there were additional benefits. Specifically, it sparked a reconnection with something much more primal about music delivered to my ears in this way.
As I look at it now with the benefit of your piece on the importance of touch, it makes even more sense. As was discussed in your program, there is more to a music LP than just the sound. It truly is a ritual that includes the senses – touching the vinyl media, the smell of a new record from its packaging and especially the presentation of the cover art that in so many ways has been lost in translation digitally. Back in the day album covers were one of my earliest exposures to art. While my parents wouldn't necessarily see it, there was a visual power indelibly stamped in my memory from LP covers like "Abbey Road", "Dark Side of the Moon" or "In the Court of the Crimson King" to name a few. Such images truly became iconic and also lost something when they were literally compacted for CD. And if that were not enough, try looking at any of these on iTunes. You just don't get the visual impact nor the touch. I am curious and will check out Mark Paterson's "The Senses of Touch" as a result of your broadcast.
In the meantime, I also wanted to share the irony of my experience just to send this comment. My experience to find all of this was a completely virtual one and I noticed a desire to pick up the phone or print out a hard copy of the broadcast. Yes indeed, there is something powerful about touch. Try as we might, I honestly don't think our brains will allow this to become obsolete. There will continue to be an innate drive that brings us back to things like music LP's, manual typewriters and the like. There is much more to this than can be explained by nostalgia alone and I thank you for shining the light on this topic!
Best,
John