An inferior app
Instagram is a perfect example of not what you know, but who you know. It is a truly an inferior app compared to others out there. Hell, my Android came built in with pic share.
Photo-sharing Facebook subsidiary Instagram has announced that it will soon start serving ads to its US users, including photos and videos. "We have big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building Instagram into a sustainable business," a company spokesperson wrote in a blog post on Thursday. Facebook …
I was actually surprised to read the headline, didn't know Instagram were still going. Fashion is fickle, the press darlings become the 'oh I remember...'s quickly, and I genuinely thought their moment had passed and they were working towards wind-down. Maybe carrying Facebook ads will accelerate that.
I wouldn't worry, Instagram users seem to think that uploading a selfie or a photo of whatever overpriced coffee-flavoured whipped cream Starbucks confection they're drinking today, then applying Instagram's canned "pretend degraded Instamatic snapshot from the 1970s" filter to it counts as "creativity" and makes them a Real Photographer.
I'm sure that Instagram's "creative" adverts will feature bearded twentysomethings in a field, shooting-into-the-light lens flare and music played on a ukelele for that down-to-earth-whimsicality... just like EVERY OTHER F*****G ADVERT just now.
I can see someone following a brand for coupons/freebies. I wouldn't do it, but I can understand why someone might.
The weirdest thing I've seen people follow though is their insurance company. Why in gods name would you want to follow them? There's nothing to be gained and, going solely by my experiences, insurance types tend to be insufferably boring and/or inane.
Are ones that don't exist. Failing that, the ones I can block. Failing that, ones I can instantly skip. Failing that, ones which are unobtrusive and low frequency.
Some apps have such annoying ads that I walk out of the room to ignore them. e.g. the 4oD app for android inflicts *minutes* of ads during playback. You can't skip them or trick play past them. So if you want to watch the last 10 minutes of a show you get a dose of ads when you start playing the vid, and another dose when you skip to the point you want to watch from.
But..
Personally I don't mind ads as long as they are enjoyable. I remember some of the TV ads in the past were actually more enjoyable than the programmes they were shown beside (thinking of the classics here, the Heineken ads with Griff Rhys Jones for instance. The trouble is Advertising has changed. Today, it's all about getting the brand in the face of the viewer as many times as possible in as short a time as possible. Even if you offend the viewer. that doesn't matter as long as you are noticed.
Gone are the days when TV ads were particularly funny or had a storyline to attract viewers. In the past, we even had short soap operas in the form of the the OXO family ads, the Nescafe Gold Blend ads (Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan playing a flirting neighbours) and the "Papa and Nicole" Renault Clio ads.
Internet ads though have rarely done anything but irritate me. OK, so some of the Google ads are quite amusing but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Don't forget the Wine Gums 'Juice is Loose' advert!
The Nescafe adverts were cringeworthy and awful. They have similar things going today, but today's watcher has a lower attention span.
The Papa/Nicole adverts were only good because we were all thinking of the other hundred horrific ways those two could have actually bumped into each other (streetwalker/man drives up in car looking for streetwalker, etc).