The Independent
When I go online, my internet server likes to offer me candid shots from the world of celebrity. Wardrobe malfunctions – a rogue nipple or a flash of knicker at a film premiere – are a regular feature on its home page, as are zany videos involving cats or weather forecasters swearing on camera.
Similarly, if I watch a football match on Sky, the advertisements seem aimed at a very stupid, loud man in his twenties, with a weakness for gambling. It is worrying to be treated as an immature moron for so much of the time, not least because there is something contagious about this cleverly marketed stupidity. One can so easily end up watching Miley Cyrus’s twerking video or having a small bet on how many goals Norwich are going to concede.
Suddenly, though, something far worse has appeared. Advertisements are about to become discriminating. Soon they could be reflecting back at you the sort of goods which are thought likely to appeal to someone of your age, gender and buying habits. We knew the internet was gathering information about shopping habits to sell more to us, and that supermarkets were playing the same trick with their loyalty cards, but now, with the friendly help of Lord Sugar, Tesco is going further.
When I go online, my internet server likes to offer me candid shots from the world of celebrity. Wardrobe malfunctions – a rogue nipple or a flash of knicker at a film premiere – are a regular feature on its home page, as are zany videos involving cats or weather forecasters swearing on camera.
Similarly, if I watch a football match on Sky, the advertisements seem aimed at a very stupid, loud man in his twenties, with a weakness for gambling. It is worrying to be treated as an immature moron for so much of the time, not least because there is something contagious about this cleverly marketed stupidity. One can so easily end up watching Miley Cyrus’s twerking video or having a small bet on how many goals Norwich are going to concede.
Suddenly, though, something far worse has appeared. Advertisements are about to become discriminating. Soon they could be reflecting back at you the sort of goods which are thought likely to appeal to someone of your age, gender and buying habits. We knew the internet was gathering information about shopping habits to sell more to us, and that supermarkets were playing the same trick with their loyalty cards, but now, with the friendly help of Lord Sugar, Tesco is going further.
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