It's finally time to explore one of the apps that I think is most accurate when targeting advertisements at me: Instagram. Insta gets a bad name for being full of 'influencers' that advertise an unattainable lifestyle, but those aren't the kinds of accounts I follow - my feed is full of friends and artists.
There's two parts of Instagram where I expect to see ads: the home feed and in between 'stories' (that's those little circles at the top of the screen, for those of you who aren't familiar with the app. Today I'm focusing on the home page and it didn't take long to find an ad - there was one immediately following the top post.
The advert is for Phaidon, a British publisher of art books. They're a company I hadn't heard of until they first appeared on my Insta feed this morning but the feel of their ad is that they're a high-end publisher of those big expensive coffee table books you see in the Fashion section of Waterstones but definitely can't afford. This is the most sure I've been so far that an ad is targeted to me, as I spent yesterday evening reading about Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe (who was a renowned photographer) and as of this morning the app is trying to sell me books of photography.
The actual advert here is not for Mapplethorpe (but they do sell two books of his photos) but is actually there to inform me that they have a sale on. I was intrigued by the Rihanna book you see above, which is the first of four pages on the ad; the other screens showed books about nature and animals. One thing I did notice is that they are prominently displaying the discount, but not the actual price. Apprehensively I clicked to have a look at the website and find out what the cost is.
I was unsurprised to find that their 'sale' books are mostly retailing at between £50-£100. Scrolling through, I didn't see anything I was interested enough to spend that sort of money on, although I did see some things going for £15-£25. After ruling out the sale section, I moved on to the full-price books - first art, which featured the £125 Mapplethorpe anthologies and also what is probably their most expensive item:
Now, I like Rihanna as much as the next girl, but anyone who has £5175 to spend on a book has too much money! In the fashion section, a couple of things caught my eye: first, a book about 70s punk posters and press, and then a book called 'Gothic & Lolita' showing Japanese street fashion pictures.
At £19.95 this is much cheaper than the Rihanna offerings but even still, I always have an eye out for a bargain so I went for a browse online to see if I could find a cheaper copy. eBay was a contender and so was Amazon, but Abebooks won out with a Used copy retailing for £2 (plus £3.10 postage).
The listing says there's some wear to the cover but that the inside pages look new. At a quarter of the price of a new copy from the publisher I'm willing to go for it, so I placed an order and waited for it to arrive...
It came pretty quickly but the package was open, which was a little weird. Luckily, the book was inside. It's in great condition and from first glance, the pictures inside look really good quality and fascinating - I can't wait to use it as inspiration for some sketches. My only complaint is that the lettering on the spine is upside down so it's going to look unsatisfying on my shelf.
If I come across any more cool Phaidon books in secondhand shops I'd definitely be tempted to pick them up and display them on my coffee table. I still won't be dropping £5k on a book though.
App: YouTube
Ad: The Jesus And Mary Chain - Damage And Joy
Targeted?: Yes?
Hello again from lockdown, where I haven't been blogging even though I've been at home with nothing to do. I hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the sunshine responsibly. I was going to come to you today with an exploration of some ad content in my email inbox, but it's been quiet on that front since Apple made the 'unsubscribe' button from newsletters really prominent. One of the newsletters that I've removed myself from is the Penguin Reading Challenge, which I wrote about at the start of this project - despite really enjoying the first couple of books it suggested to me, I felt like it really deviated from the "books you've always meant to read" theme by recommending books I've never even heard of for the last few months. Don't worry though, I've read 13 books in the last 5 months, which is usually my annual figure, so I'm managing to find plenty to read without Penguin's suggestions! If you want to know more about what I'm reading you can keep up with me on Goodreads.
Anyway, on to YouTube, which is recommending TikTok as the top video ad today. I've written about TikTok before for this project and it's only gotten bigger since; actually, even though I was unimpressed with it back in January, I downloaded it back onto my tablet this week... I'd jump over there and see what sort of things it advertises to me, but it doesn't look like there are any ads on the For You page so I'm not sure where they appear, if at all.
So, on to the first suggestion on my YouTube homepage, which, just like when I looked at YouTube for this project in the past, is for the song 'Age Of Consent' by New Order as part of 'My Mix'. I promise that it doesn't suggest that to me every day and it's not the only thing I ever play on YouTube!
Before the song started there was an ad of sorts in the form of a YouTube survey about online dating sites, asking me which of the listed sites/apps I would consider using. The idea of dating apps doesn't appeal to me at all, so I picked none, then I got my New Order video.
After three songs I got an ad, but it was just the YouTube interstitial before taking me to my fourth video: 'Just Like Honey' by The Jesus And Mary Chain. This video had an ad in its annotations right at the start, saying "Damage and Joy out now". I clicked on it and was taken to the JAMC merch store, which was showing all the sold-out pre-order bundles for the album, which, it turns out, came out in 2017. Rather than buy the album, I decided I'd stream it on Spotify instead.
My knowledge of The Jesus And Mary Chain doesn't go too far - they're Scottish and I have a copy of their first album, Psychocandy, which I like a lot. Other than that, I've heard a few songs but not a full album's worth so I don't know how their sound has changed in the 34 years since Psychocandy came out.
My initial impression on hearing the opening track, 'Amputation', is that they're less noisy and more like a standard indie band - it reminds me of 'Bohemian Like You' by The Dandy Warhols. A lot of the JAMC hallmarks are still there - the pace is slow with the same drumbeat and simple guitar riffs as ever - so even without same haze of distortion, it's still recognisably them. There's also elements that remind me of the little 90s JAMC I know - there's some Americana in there (the chorus of 'Los Feliz' goes "God bless America, god bless the USA") and some female harmonies that recall their duet with Hope Sandoval, both of which make me want to see what they'd produce if they linked up with Lana Del Rey.
There's no song on the album that sticks out to me as being a highlight - the only one that will probably stick in my head is 'Simian Split', which alleges that "I killed Kurt Cobain" on his wife's orders and made me feel a bit uncomfortable - but overall I think it's a good record and I'm glad to hear that the band are still making good music. I considered going to see them at Glasgow Summer Nights this year, which I assume is now cancelled, but if they postpone and play Kelvingrove Bandstand in 2021 I'll think about getting myself a ticket. This album, like most of their back catalogue, would sound great sitting in the park on a hazy summer's evening.
This was a targeted ad inasmuch as it was included on the band's music video, which was recommended to me by YouTube since I've played it about 20 times, but I think it was a safe bet to assume that people who want to watch The Jesus And Mary Chain's videos might like to know that they're still going. I don't usually click on YouTube annotations, in fact I usually disable them, but this time it paid off.
The first ad I got today was a message from Openreach, reminding me that their engineers are doing essential work to keep us connected during the lockdown. It makes me sad that they've had to start putting these ads out - I work for a telecoms provider so my job is reliant on Openreach continuing to provide their services, and the conspiracy theory about 5G causing the current virus outbreak has been problematic for them. Despite the fact that 5G is the mobile data network and not part of the Openreach telecoms network (not to mention that it hasn't caused the pandemic!), there have been reports of telephone poles being damaged and Openreach engineers being attacked while they work. I wish people would think seriously and at the very least, leave the engineers alone - after all, what they do is reconnect people's phones and broadband so that they can work from home or call 999 if they fall ill, which are services that are particularly critical at the moment. Anyway, this ad is informational and not trying to sell me anything, so lets move on
The second ad in this break was a musical one, recommending 'I'm Ready', the new single by Sam Smith and Demi Lovato. I'm not really a fan of either of these singers. I couldn't stand Sam Smith's big hit 'Stay With Me' which was ubiquitous a few years ago, although I didn't mind 'Dancing With A Stranger' which came out last summer. I liked Demi Lovato in Camp Rock when I was a teen but find the media narrative about her addiction and personal life really irritating. However, the clip in the ad sounded alright, so I added the song to my queue.
Looking at the artwork, it seems likely that the pair were intending this song to be a big hit in time for the Olympics this summer, which of course have been pushed back a year. It's an uplifting song with the pair each taking a verse and they sound pretty good together, but this is one of those songs that could be performed just as well by one artist and not as a duet. In fact, this feels like a team-up of two moderately successful singers in order to procure as many streams as possible from a combination of both artists' fans. The song itself is fine and the chorus in particular is strong and will be stuck in my head for a while - it's the sort of modern pop song that BBC Radio 2 will play a lot and my mum might end up knowing. In that respect it sounds like a lot of current pop music, at least the family-friendly variety; the intro hints at something a bit more edgy but it quickly becomes the sort of safe song you could sing in the car with little kids.
Overall I think 'I'm Ready' is fine and will probably be all over the radio for the next couple of months but I don't see it occupying 'song of the summer' territory (I wonder what will be the song of the summer when we have to spend it indoors...). I'm not saving it to my Spotify Liked Songs list but I think I can put up with hearing it a few more times before it gets annoying.
App: App Store
Ad: Yoga Studio App
Targeted: not personally, but definitely towards the state of the nation
Hello from quarantine!
I've spent the past week at home, where I'm lucky enough to be able to work from, and I miss interacting with people so much! Since everyone is having to stay in their houses this is a great time for online resources like streaming services, exercise apps and delivery companies to help us fill that void in our new lives, so I'm going to the App Store to see what it wants to advertise to me.
I recently updated my iOS for the first time since getting my phone (in 2016 - I know that's bad but I didn't know how much of an effort it was going to be so I put it off for years...) and the App Store in 2020 is pretty different to what I was used to. It looks almost like a magazine with little features each day recommending different types of app.
Unsurprisingly, today's 'top story', if you will, is alerting me to the fact that Disney+ is finally here. A streaming service owned by Disney, which means it has the classic cartoons and Disney Channel content but also Marvel, Star Wars and The Simpsons content, it's impossible not to know that the app has arrived in the UK this week. I've seen TV ads and news stories about it, but mostly I know it's out there because almost every British person I follow on social media has been posting about it. Now, I love a Disney cartoon as much as the next girl but I can definitely do without Marvel movies and I'm not a Star Wars person either (in fact, I watched it for the first time the other week). I've already said that one TV/movie subscription service is more than enough for me to be getting on with so I won't be signing up for this one.
The next item is called "Find Your Zen" and it's all about meditation, yoga and relaxation apps. It recommends 10 different apps in this category, some of which have an upfront cost and others that feature 'in-app purchases'. The first app on the list is 'Yoga Studio', and now that I'm trapped in the house for at least three weeks along with the rest of the country, it seems like a good time to download an app like this - in fact, my friend text me earlier today suggesting we take up yoga.
I do the occasional yoga class on YouTube (shout-out to Yoga With Adriene) although not nearly as often as I think I should. It looks like this app is going to send me notifications to try to get me to practice, which might be a good thing. The first question asks what sort of level I'm at and I'm still very much a beginner. As soon as I was done registering it tried to sign me up for a year's subscription which is not a commitment I want to make with them right now so I somehow made that go away and I was presented with a list of all of the different videos they offer.
The first 'collection' advertised on the homepage was called 'Beginner Essentials' and features 10 different videos. First, 'Beginner Balance' which is a 30 minute practice. I thought it would be a case of clicking on the image and starting a video but in actual fact you have to download each practice and all of the different poses that it includes (this one has 114 poses) and only then can you hit Play. I was disappointed to find out that there was no Chromecast connectivity for the videos, only mirroring to Apple TV (I have an iPhone but none of the other Apple products), which means watching the poses on my tiny phone screen. Nevertheless, I gave it a try.
The session was narrated by a soothing American female voice which might have been a real person but had that slightly creepy AI vibe. I managed to get through the entire 30 minutes of poses, but some of them were not very well-described so after peeking at the screen I realised I was way off. Of course over time as you learn the poses alongside their names this will get easier but as a beginner some of them were a little confusing. The other complaint I have is that there wasn't enough time to breathe in between some of the poses. I think the videos might be stitched together poses rather than filmed as one continuous practice which might explain why there isn't enough of a break between some of the exhales and inhales but it did mean that the experience felt a little bit rushed in places. At one point I was instructed to 'take a few deep breaths' in a pose but there was only really time for one inhale and exhale before it was time to move.
I think it's fair to call this a beginner's exercise as there were no poses that I really couldn't do. There were a few, like Tree Pose, that were a bit wobbly but the narrator suggested ways to stay balanced which helped. I made it through the whole session without having to sit out any of the moves so I'd consider that to be a success even if there were times when I thought about quitting and watching the other half tomorrow. I'm going to keep the app for at least a few days to see what sort of notifications it sends me but if I'm asked to start paying for it (and I have a feeling I only have a 7 day free trial before I'm going to be asked to subscribe) then I'll be getting rid of it.
Overall the Yoga Studio seems like a good resource for doing some exercise from home but I think I prefer the personal touch offered by YouTube yoga teachers like Adriene who are doing the routine from start to finish along with you. I recognised a lot of the tips on Yoga Studio from Adriene's videos (like imagining a string pulling your leg towards the sky) so I don't know who stole from who but if you want to take up yoga I'd recommend YouTube over paying for an app subscription.
This app wasn't targeted towards me specifically but Apple have clearly placed wellness apps on their homepage to help people cope with lockdown and I think that's a good thing, even if they're profiting from the horrible circumstances we've found ourselves in at the moment. Of all of the things that the internet has made me try so far, this is probably one of the ones that's healthiest for me as a person and I appreciate that.
App: YouTube
Ad: Angel Rock Leap by Ellen Weisberg
Targeted: No
At this point I'm pretty sure that the advertisements at the top of my YouTube feed are random but today it suggested a book to me. As we all know by now, I love to read - my very first TIMMTI post was for a reading challenge - but despite that fact, I'm pretty sure this is coincidental. The book in question is a YA novel called 'Angel Rock Leap' by Ellen Weisberg.
The ad itself was a video filled with reviews, set to a cover of 'Shake It Out' by Florence + the Machine. I didn't watch it for long before heading to Goodreads, where the book has a 4.12/5 rating. That, however, is not enough to convince me to read this book. Between the title and the artwork I get a feeling that this book is not a standard YA novel but a Christian one, and after reading through the reviews on Goodreads my suspicions were confirmed.
The book doesn't sound bad - it's apparently about taking ownership of your situation after your life plans change (the main character, Sarah, fails college and goes back home to confront her past, or something) - but I'm not up for being preached to. I thought, if this book is free on the Apple Store, I'll read it. It turns out that it's £7.49, a price I rarely pay for new physical books, never mind virtual books that I can't display on my shelf. What Apple does have, though, is a free sample chapter. So I read that.
The writing is alright, but a couple of things put me off reading the whole book. Firstly, the professor who just failed our protagonist is called Dr. Weinstein and even though this character isn't one I'm supposed to feel kindly towards, I struggled to get past that name. Next, everything in this chapter was negative - I haven't retained any description about Sarah except that she was upset, and I think she loved writing but for some reason was doing a medical research degree? Finally, a lot of the chapter was taken up with a description of some greasy old man cowboy who starts talking to her at the train station and then follows her before letting her go when she gets off at her stop. Between that and the name Weinstein, I felt uncomfortable, but honestly confused. If this is what the story is about, the author hasn't done a great job setting us up - we're straight in the action. If this is a prologue to the action, I don't feel like she really helped me get to know the character that I'm supposed to be sympathetic for.
I'm not going to find out what happens in the rest of this book as I won't be purchasing it. I'll stick to secular YA.
You may remember that on New Years Day, the internet made me sign up to the Penguin Reading Challenge, where I elected to read some classic novels and was initially sent a list of 10 (I picked Persuasion by Jane Austen and loved it). I got my first February newsletter on the 7th, which came with some new suggestions.
The newsletter is mostly a way for Penguin to get me onto their website and read articles about books and literature - this month there's links to pieces about love stories and 'book crimes', along with quotes, tips for writers and, of course, a lot of advertisements for their books and literature-themed merchandise.
What I expected from the reading challenge was for 10 new book recommendations each month, or for me to be able to tell them which books I'd read so that they could tailor suggestions as time went on. However, there's actually only one 'reading challenge' book suggestion in each newsletter which takes away the joy of choosing my next read from a selection of blurbs. This month's selection for the "read the books you've always meant to" challenge is Love & Mr Lewisham by HG Wells, which I don't have a copy of, and in fact have never even heard of. It sounds like an okay read, and I like the seance-y cover, but it's not something that I can easily pick up in a charity shop - which is why I picked the classics category in the first place. Instead, I zeroed in on another of the books in the photograph:
It's the book of the month for a different challenge category, but I bought a copy of Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton on my last shopping trip of 2019 - I found it for £1 on the damaged books shelf in Waterstones and I've enjoyed Dolly's work on podcasts and in the media so took a chance on it. This past weekend I've been to see The 1975 in three different cities so a lot of my time has been spent on trains, and I thought this would be a good book to keep me company over these four days.
In truth, I ended up reading it in two days and I was completely engrossed in it. The book starts out with Dolly's teenage experiences of meeting boys on MSN Messenger, a world I remember well despite being five years younger than her, so I expected that I was going to relate to her story and mirror a lot of her experiences. However, after that point our lives are drastically different - she talks frankly about her experiences with alcohol, sex and her close-knit group of female friends which she has in abundance and I have little to none of. Even though our lives are so different, I didn't want to put the book down and ended up having to buy another to keep me company on the remainder of my journey.
There's a ton of glowing reviews printed on the book jacket but one compares this book to Caitlin Moran's 'How To Be A Woman', another of my favourites, and I think it's fair to say that if you like Caitlin's work then you'll probably like this too. It's both heartwarming and heartbreaking, sometimes at the same time, and I'm glad Dolly has put all her mistakes down on the page for me, and hopefully a generation of girls, to learn from.
Even though I didn't read the book that was recommended to me, I'm glad the Penguin newsletter prompted me to pick this out of the growing pile of paperbacks in my bedroom. I've moved on to a book about Prince's Purple Rain and an Irvine Welsh short story collection to tide me over until next month's recommendation, join me again then!
It's been a little while - I've been off following The 1975 on tour so this entry is a little late. Last month I followed Facebook's recommendation and ordered a box from the fashion subscription service Lookiero, which was due to arrive with me on 11th February. Hermes actually brought it to me on the 12th and it looked like this:
I've never used a fashion subscription service before so I was itching to get into it and see what was inside. Remember, I'd done a survey with all my measurements and preferences, plus I wrote a little note to my personal stylist letting them know what my likes and dislikes were.
Inside, everything was neatly packaged up in tissue paper with a note on the top from my personal stylist, Kerry, which explained the outfits she'd picked out for me.
I was worried that the selections would be very generic and not my style, but the note touched on a lot of the things I'd said I was interested in, which was promising, so I carefully unwrapped the first parcel. As you can probably see in the above picture, the first item was leopard print:
This camisole is from 'This Film's A Must', who I haven't heard of - actually, I haven't heard of any of the brands I got sent. I do wear this sort of top fairly often and I thought the pattern and the trim were cute, but when I tried it on it was a bit too big. I intentionally didn't look at the prices of the items until after I'd tried everything on and was surprised to find that the cost for keeping this cami was £29.70, which seems very steep for a basic item like this! Since it doesn't fit, this one isn't a keeper.
Next in the package was this Soyaconcept velvet t-shirt. It looks grey in the photo but is actually khaki, a colour I like but don't own. I definitely told the site that I love velvet - I have enough black velvet clothing to make a few head-to-toe outfits - but when I tried this on I wasn't sure about it. I think I see velvet as a fancy fabric (even though I wear it to work all the time) but t-shirts are more casual and a t-shirt made of velvet felt a little bit strange, like it was too decadent to wear to the shops but not formal enough to wear on a night out. It was the cheapest item in the box at a sale price of £16.03, but as I can't see myself wearing it, I'll be sending it back.
I was very apprehensive about the next item, these Tiffosi jeans. They're 'one size fits all' and, looking at them, I laughed at the suggestion that I'd be able to wrench them over my thighs. However, incredibly, they made it! As someone who exclusively wears black jeans I was surprised that I liked the dark blue - I've tried blue jeans on periodically over the last few years and decided I wasn't ready to accept them into my adult life. The only problem was the waist; I'm a super high waist kind of girl and these are regular fit so I'd feel really uncomfortable in them. At £49.99 I'd have kept a high-waisted version of them, but I'm reluctantly returning these. Tiffosi do sell on Amazon though and it's possible that they do these in different shapes so I think I might order a pair in my chosen style and see what they're like.
The next item didn't photograph well but I was excited about it. It's a black leather jacket (although it almost looked grey in the box) by Carmakoma. I definitely told my stylist that I wear a lot of black and leather jackets are very much my style; in fact, I've been willing this horrible winter weather to end so I can put mine on again. There was a lot that I liked about this jacket, especially the 80s-style square shoulders that appeared when I tried it on. It looked cool with the zipper undone and the sleeves pushed up, which is how I wear my leather jackets. What I didn't love was the two poppers at the collar - they was annoying when they were flapping around unbuttoned at my neck and I wasn't so fond of how the jacket looked zipped up. I was definitely in two minds about this one but I thought about the jacket I have hanging in my wardrobe and decided that I don't like this one enough to have both. The price was fair at £45 and I'm now on the look-out for the perfect square-shouldered soft leather jacket with the lapel shape I like, but sadly this isn't it.
The final piece is this sequined pencil skirt from The Bohck. Kerry the stylist said she'd picked this to match with the jacket and camisole for an 80s-inspired look - I'm sure I said I liked 80s and 90s fashion. The sequins are a little scratchy but the skirt is stretchy and comfortable. When I put it on I wasn't sure whether it suited me or whether it felt like it was announcing my stomach to the world but I liked the way I felt in it. I usually wear a dress if I'm going on a night out - I have a couple of 'nice tops' but I usually just pull my jeans on with them, so this skirt will be a welcome addition to my event wardrobe (not that I go to many events). It cost £34.70 which is double what I'd normally pay for something like this on the high street but I decided that this was the thing I would most like to keep.
Overall, the Lookiero stylist nailed my style - there was nothing in the box that I didn't like, and most of my issues with the items were little things like details and slight size problems rather than being clothes I would never ever wear. If I'm being honest though, I think I might be keeping the skirt because I feel guilty about someone picking out things for me only for me to send everything back - I wanted to like something enough to keep it. I think that guilt complex might be one of the reasons that fashion subscription boxes like Lookiero (and Stitchfix, which Facebook is advertising heavily to me since I clicked on Lookiero) do well. I'm not sure I like that feeling and if I continued ordering boxes like this I could see myself amassing a collection of clothes that cost more than I would normally pay, which I won't wear as often as things I've picked up in Primark or uncovered in a charity shop. For that reason, although it's been fun filling out the survey and having someone send clothes they think I'd love for me to try on at home, I'm not going to get involved in fashion subscription boxes again.
Let me know if you've ever tried a service like this and how it turned out!
Back on the 18th of January I ordered a set of pens that Buzzfeed thought might 'turn my frown upside down'. Today I came home to this package:
At first I thought, "that's weird, I don't remember ordering anything from Wish", but once I picked it up and realised what was inside I remembered these pens. If you haven't ordered from Wish before, this is what all of their parcels look like - my thumb is covering my address and home phone number which they print on the label for some reason because I guess China doesn't care about GDPR.
Anyway, this is what was inside:
They're not exactly the same as the pens in the Amazon listing as the patterns are different but very much in the same cutesy family (and they match my sheets!). As you can see, they came in plastic wrapping and not the sturdy box that some of the Amazon reviewers mentioned, but luckily none of them are missing or leaking. The colour names are not immediately obvious from their casings but the lids have the colours listed on alongside a cute message:
There are 10 different colours, although that includes 'blue', 'light blue' and 'dark blue'. As for how they look on paper, here's a demo:
A few of the colours took a minute to get flowing - you can probably see where the ink wasn't coming out and I've gone over the lines again in a few places. Once they had a chance though they all look pretty good. The 'blue' and 'dark blue' look pretty similar but other than that there's a nice selection of colours and I'll get good use out of them if they last, although I don't have high hopes for them lasting very long. If they run out quickly I'll drop back in and let you know how much writing I actually managed to get done with them!
Overall I think they're nice pens but I'm not sure they're worth the £3.59 I paid for them. They're certainly cheaper than the name-brand fineliners on the market here but you can pick up set from The Works or the supermarket that work just as well, although their casings aren't as cute as these!
I copied the original layout and washi tape shapes but changed the colours to match the serene pool image I picked for the facing page. I think it came out looking quite pretty!
On to today's app, and I'm going back to Buzzfeed to see what other sponsored content it has to offer me.
Today's top story is about how Boris Johnson is hiring a Daily Mail journalist as his new Press Secretary, which is.... a worry. Despite the feeling that it would probably upset me, I read through anyway and found no ads embedded in it. The next article is a listicle about YouTuber Jenna Marbles' dog which is of no interest to me - I'm not really a fan of her content, or of dogs. Next up, an advertisement for Buzzfeed's "Quibbles & Bits" newsletter. Let's see what that's about.
Buzzfeed has a number of different newsletters that it often advertises in this spot on the homepage, and this one is about "grammar, linguistic tidbits, and word facts you need to know". It prompts me to "enter my email address below" but I guess there's some sort of glitch with the app because there's nowhere on the page for me to enter any information. I've noticed that there are sometimes bits of embedded content on this app that doesn't show on my phone so I guess this is one of those times and I'm going to have to pass on this recommendation.
Next up is a quiz called "What Should You Eat For Dinner?". It's not an ad but I might be persuaded to change my dinner plans depending on the outcome...
It's one of those quizzes where you're asked to pick favourite things that have nothing to do with food (colours, numbers, that sort of thing) to get to an outcome, so I guess it's not going to make a suggestion based on what I'm in the mood for but is more random. After 5 short questions, Buzzfeed says I should have tacos for dinner, which sounds delicious but unfortunately my mum is cooking tonight and tacos are not part of her repertoire. Next time I'm home alone though, I think it might just be taco time.
The Internet Made Me Try It
App: Facebook
Ad: Lookiero
Targeted?: Unsure
Today we're back to Facebook, where I started on day one of this experiment. I've had to scroll through a lot of my feed to find an advert that I can use, as the ones at the top of my feed are for the broadband supplier I already have and a Government awareness campaign. I tried the 'stories' but there was only one ad on there and it was for expensive art software which is not in my budget. The marketplace in my area only seems to be for selling beds and houses, which are definitely not in my budget!
The first advert I ended up seeing that I could use was for a site called Lookiero, which is a clothing subscription box service. I've not heard of this particular company but I've seen Safiya Nygaard get some of these types of boxes before from social media ads, and since this one is offering me a box of 5 items with no purchase necessary, I'm going to give it a go.
Lookiero works like a lot of other clothing subscription boxes in that you fill out a questionnaire and then a stylist picks out items and sends them to you. There were a variety of different types of question - they asked for my clothing sizes, obviously, but also about my hair and eye colour and which features I like to accentuate. They also asked me to pick my favourite from a selection of pictures of different clothing styles, allowed me to link my Pinterest board and let me make a comment to my stylist explaining my style. Doing the questionnaire was quite fun and the idea of a personal stylist picking out some items to suit my answers is intriguing. I suppose what they're offering is the feeling of being a celebrity with a professional to pick your clothes out for you.
The box isn't going to come until next month so it'll be a while before I can review what they send me but I'm looking forward to it - the order was completely free and I will apparently only pay for the items I decide I want to keep, with the rest to be mailed back free of charge.
I'll be back next month to blog about what I receive but in the meantime if you want to place an order and join me on this journey into the unknown, the site is www.lookiero.co.uk . If you've ever ordered from a fashion subscription service let me know what your experience was like!
App: Buzzfeed
Ad: 44 Things Under £4
Targeted?: No
First off, let me apologise for my absence - I've been travelling for work so the hours I usually reserve for blogging have been taken up with fancy meals claimed on expenses and a trip to the cinema to see Jojo Rabbit (both funny and heartbreaking) in a theatre that had sofas instead of standard seats.
Also before I get into today's app/ad I need to return to day one and the Penguin Reading Challenge. I finished reading Persuasion last night, which is the book that was recommended in the first challenge email, and I absolutely loved it! As I said in my previous entry, this was my first time reading Austen and I feel like I've wasted too much time not having picked up any of her novels before (Pride and Prejudice has been on my shelf for the best part of a decade, still unread). I've had another email from Penguin that wasn't reading-challenge specific - remember the January 1st email had ten suggested books to choose from - but there was a recommendation for Jean Rhys' Good Morning Midnight in case I needed it. I've never even heard of this book before but the synopsis was intriguing so I'm on the look-out for it to add to my 'to-read' pile. The rest of the Penguin email featured new books and quizzes and other fun bits and pieces which I enjoyed reading through. Since I don't expect another reading challenge email until February, I'm now reading Claudine At School by Colette to keep me going for the rest of January.
On to Buzzfeed. I mentioned them the other day when I was looking at the 'Buzzfeed Quiz' Twitter page, and their quizzes are the main reason why I have the app on my phone - they're a fun way to kill a few minutes on my commute or while I'm waiting for my tea to be ready. However, I do also read the news and articles on there and while they don't have adverts as such, they do have sponsored articles. The top story on the app right now is about what's happening in Iran, which is obviously not an advertisement, but the next thing I see is a sponsored post, called "44 Things Under £4 That Might Just Turn Your Frown Upside Down". It was actually published a week ago but is up at the top of the page because it's advertorial content - there's a disclaimer at the top of the page saying that Buzzfeed may receive some compensation from sales made by following the links in the article. I admire this transparency, as I know a lot of sponsored articles and posts online will result in revenue for the writer but I don't always see this being declared outright; Buzzfeed's sponsored posts are good in that respect.
I like that they're offering me products that are under £4 as well because that's definitely within my budget for this experiment. The suggestions are mostly cute little trinkets with animals or positive slogans - there's jewellery, stationery, socks and the sorts of things you might put in a Christmas stocking. One of the items on the list is a set of Stabilo pastel highlighters which I actually already own so while this isn't a targeted ad, it ended up being relevant to me anyway. There's lots of things on this list that I like but no one thing that I feel like I must have, so I'm going to purchase item number 1 on the list which is a set of pens.
They're patterned which made me think that they'll all be black or blue ink pens but there's also a little notebook showing different coloured lettering so it's possible that they are coloured fineliners. Clicking the link takes me to Amazon where they're listed as "Korean Cartoon Kawaii Stationery Gel Pen Cute" and the price has gone up in the past week from £2.70 (the Buzzfeed listed price) to £3.09 plus 50p delivery.
The delivery date is 3 weeks away so I guess they're probably coming from Asia and there's not much in the way of description of the product, aside from "Ink color: 10 color" but the reviews and questions state that each pen is a different colour. Speaking of reviews, they're mixed. Some people give them five stars saying that they're cute and that they work well and came in a sturdy box, while others say that they received them in plastic wrapping with pens missing or leaking. I'm willing to take the gamble and see what they send me, especially since I got an Amazon giftcard for Christmas so technically this purchase isn't going to cost me anything.
The estimated delivery states these pens should be with me by Valentines Day so check back next month and hopefully I'll be able to try them out!
App: YouTube
Ad: Saturday Night Live
Targeted: Yes
Last week, YouTube tried to make me buy sofas and watch long movies. Let's see what it wants this week!
The top of my feed is an ad from 'Quixotic Blog' and it's a promoted video. It's in one of YouTube's most popular genres: gaming videos. I'm not a gamer - we had a Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure when I was a little kid and I have Guitar Hero now which I occasionally play on easy mode, but that's all my video game experience - so I've never been able to understand the appeal of watching other people play games online. Looking at this video, I've got no idea what the game is or what I'm supposed to be looking at. Rather than advertising the game itself, I think it's meant to be an advertisement for the channel itself. As the ad means nothing to me, I'm not going to click through and try to make sense of the channel. By the way, if I do get games advertised to me, and I'm sure I will, I won't be buying them since I don't have a console to try them out on...
On to the videos YouTube is recommending to me. Today it's not one of the daily mixes that's at the top of my feed - instead it's a compilation of Ricky Gervais' intros and monologues at the Golden Globes. I clicked and there's no ad, but I'm not actually sure why YouTube thought I'd want to watch this video anyway since I don't like Ricky Gervais. I guess it's probably because I'm interested in movies and comedy in general.
While I was typing this my phone actually went on standby which closed the YouTube app, and when I reopened it the feed had refreshed, so I won't ever know what else was in store for me originally. Upon reopening, I've now got a sponsored video called 'Nail Your Maths GCSE'. Definitely not targeted, since I took the Scottish equivalent of GCSEs 12 (!) years ago. The first non-sponsored video on my feed is a Saturday Night Live sketch called 'Floribama Shore', which is a parody of terrible reality show Jersey Shore set during a hurricane.
I watch a lot of Saturday Night Live clips on YouTube and there are so many of them that I'm not surprised YouTube is always throwing more into my recommendations. This one in particular makes sense today as I just watched their Love Island parody sketch, which I suppose is the British version of America's trashy reality TV. As far as SNL sketches go I'd rank it somewhere in the middle - it didn't really make me laugh but it was a pretty spot on recreation of the type of show it was lampooning. I watched the episode when it came out - the host was Saoirse Ronan - but I didn't remember anything about it, probably because everything else in that episode is overshadowed by the song from Saoirse's monologue about how to spell and say her name (which is one of those songs that's stuck in my head all the time!).
There wasn't an ad attached to the clip but under the video I was invited to buy Season 36 of SNL (not the season that this video came from). Season 36 is the one that ran from 2010 to 2011, which is a couple of years before I started watching the show so I don't think I've seen any of these episodes but it's possible I'll have seen some of the sketches from this era on YouTube. Rather than follow their suggestion to buy the whole season, I thought it would be fun to pick an episode from this run and review the sketches. Looking at the names of the hosts is like a time capsule of the era - there's Bryan Cranston while Breaking Bad was on, Jane Lynch at the height of Glee-mania and Jesse Eisenberg promoting The Social Network. As for musical guests, this season has Katy Perry and Lady Gaga at their chart-topping peak, debuts from Ellie Goulding and Florence + The Machine, plus legends like Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and Elton John.
I've chosen to watch Episode 5, which was broadcast on 30 October 2010 and hosted by Jon Hamm with musical guest Rihanna. I picked this one because I'm interested to see what sort of Mad Men parody they do with Jon Hamm - he's promoting the series of the show where they introduce Megan to the cast - and also because Jon Hamm is hot so I'd like to spend an hour looking at him. This is also the year that Rihanna put out 'Loud' which is one of my favourite Rihanna albums and aesthetic eras so I'd like to see which songs she sings and of course what she wears to perform them.
The cold open to this episode sets the scene politically with Jason Sudeikis playing Vice President Joe Biden. He talks about an election, which I assume must be midterms as we're in the beginning of Obama's first term, before giving a lot of his time to talking about the rescue of the Chilean miners. I don't know about you, but I can't believe that the Chilean miners story was ten years ago! A lot of my understanding of US politics comes from the SNL opening scenes so even on new episodes I miss a lot of the jokes, so even though this one is from a decade ago I don't feel like I'm watching something that I don't understand because of the time period.
Next up we're introduced to the cast, which at this point features stars like Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg. The only cast member from this season who is still on the show is Kenan Thompson but there are a few who I remember seeing when I've watched the show in the last few years, and a couple of faces in there who I don't remember but who I've seen in sketches. The one thing that did strike me is that there are far fewer women in the cast in 2010 than there are in 2020.
Jon Hamm is hosting the show for the second time and for his monologue he calls on the power of Don Draper to come up with advertising slogans for common household items. It's a fine introduction; not hilarious, but he's very charming.
The first proper sketch is an 'SNL Digital Short', which they don't do very often these days but they were big when Andy Samberg was in the show. To my surprise, Rihanna is in this one and it's a music video where she and Samberg play "Ronnie And Clyde". Rih is a confident gun-slinger robbing a bank with Samberg's 'Shy Ronnie' whose part of the song is an incoherent mumble which confuses the tellers and customers. Rihanna's Clyde gets away with the money (and Jon Hamm) while Ronnie accidentally shoots himself. It's no 'Natalie's Rap' or 'Dear Sister' but it's alright - Rihanna singing phrases like "they can't hear you, use your outside voice" was the highlight.
The next sketch sees Bill Hader impersonate Vincent Price for a Halloween sketch, "Vincent Price's 1960 Halloween Special". Celebrity impersonation sketches are probably my favourites on SNL and this one was particularly fun. Along with Price, we get Wiig doing a spot-on Judy Garland, Hamm playing a sexually-inappropriate Presidential candidate John F Kennedy and an even more inappropriate Liberace from Armisen. It's early days but I suspect this might be the highlight of the show.
I'm spoiled by a second celebrity sketch immediately after, which is a screen test reel for Back To The Future. Aside from Jay Pharoah's impression of Eddie Murphy, I don't think much of the impersonations, but it's cool to see that they've been doing the screen test skit for this long - there are versions of this sketch where the movie is Fifty Shades Of Grey and Star Wars (which also features Jon Hamm) and I've watched them more than once.
Next up, Kristen Wiig plays an unhinged woman auditioning for a play, with Jon Hamm as the husband called in to defend her when she doesn't get the role. Again, it's a fine sketch, but I have noticed that so far Kristen Wiig is the only woman in the cast who is getting to do any acting. We get a second part of the Back To The Future screen tests after this sketch and Taran Killam stands out this time with his impressions of Gilbert Gottfried and Pee Wee Herman.
Finally it's Rihanna time. The stage is lit up in red to match her hair and her band launches into a cool dancehall rhythm that I didn't recognise as 'What's My Name?' until she started singing. This version omits Drake's verse at the start of the song so we just get Rihanna, dressed in a bra and hotpants, with her backing singers. I'd forgotten how good this song is so it was a pleasure to see Rihanna singing it and looking like she was having such a good time on stage.
As is tradition, after the musical guest comes Weekend Update. In 2010 it was presented by Seth Meyers alone, and he goes through some political and quirky news stories. It was weird for me to see Meyers hosting the segment by himself, as I'm so used to the current duo of Michael Che and Colin Jost taking turns to cover each story. Some things in 2010 are the same as 2020 though - this edition poked fun at former New York Mayor (now Trump advisor) Rudy Giuliani. Hader came on to do a political impression and Wiig and Armisen did a turn as their characters Garth and Kat, who are singers that never prepare their songs ahead of the show so make up something terrible on the spot. Recognisable, but not the most iconic characters of the era.
After a saucy picture of Jon Hamm in the shower, we launch into the next sketch, 'I Didn't Ask For This', which is a talk show starring people who have become the subject of viral videos. Bobby Moynihan plays the host of the show, who has been the victim of a jumpscare and punches through his computer, Wiig plays a woman who gets hit by a hammer while trying to avoid a bee sting, and Hamm is a man who does a weird cry when reunited with his son. As good as she is, I'm sick of the sight of Kristen Wiig at this point. Jon Hamm is the star here and watching his face crumple as he does the cry which made his character internet famous is the first time I've really laughed during the show.
Another sexy shot of Hamm and then we're into a parody of a 70s buddy cop show. In this one, Hamm has to ride on the back of Sudeikis' motorbike and instead of going out to crime scenes they end up on romantic rides out in the countryside. The writing is so-so, but we do get to see the pair kiss at the end.
I expected Rihanna next but again, Kristen Wiig. This time, she and Hamm are playing a couple of lounge singers/comedians who keep arguing and then telling the audience these are fake arguments to draw in the crowd. Again, it's fine, but the chance to see any other woman from the cast would have been so welcome at this point.
Luckily Rihanna re-appears next to sing 'Only Girl (In The World)'. This time she's wearing a red prom dress and a big red bow in her hair and she twirls around the stage looking like an all-red version of Madonna in the mid-80s. The song is usually heavy on the electronics but it's being played by guitars and keys on the SNL stage which gives it a different sound. Unfortunately Rihanna can't actually sing it the way it sounds on the record, which has some soft falsetto in the verses. The chorus and middle-8 parts sound pretty good but, despite this being another great song, it doesn't work for her live.
There's one last short sketch, which is a cartoon chihuahua voiced by David Spade making cutting remarks about his owner and the celebrities at a party. I've never seen a cartoon on SNL before and I have no idea what this one is doing here; presumably they had a minute to fill and needed something short to fit the space, but as it features none of the cast and isn't funny it really sticks out. After this Hamm signs off with a Happy Halloween and the show is finished for the week.
A few things surprised me about this episode. Firstly, I can't believe they didn't do a Mad Men sketch, given its popularity at the time. Perhaps it was done when Hamm presented last time. I'm also quite surprised that the show didn't feel too dated for something that was ten years old - there was a Bill Cosby impression in there and references to Charlie Sheen and the Chilean Miners but because their celebrity parodies were set in the past it didn't date the show. The biggest surprise, of course, was the lack of female talent in the show. I'm used to seeing Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Heidi Gardner etc. featuring heavily so to have Kristen Wiig supported by one other female cast member (who got maximum of one line in a couple of sketches) was shocking. Vanessa Bayer joined the cast for this season and she became a bigger star later but isn't even seen in this episode except for in crowd scenes.
The best part of this episode was Rihanna's performance of What's My Name, with the Vincent Price sketch and the Jon Hamm interstitials coming in as runners-up. Despite the number of big names on the cast I was disappointed by the lack of variety - not nearly enough Andy Samberg moments - and I'm thankful that the show is a lot more diverse ten years on.
I took a day off yesterday but I'm back and ready to see what Twitter has to offer. I see sponsored tweets mixed in with my timeline and I've interacted with them only to vote if there's a poll, but I don't think I've ever clicked on a Twitter ad.
The first sponsored tweet on my timeline always comes immediately after the most recent tweet (i.e. it's the second tweet on my feed) and right now it's for HSBC UK. Their tweet is a video ad about inclusiveness and home - obviously trying to show themselves as being pro-immigration and togetherness with the slogan "we are not an island". It's bold to be advertising that on Twitter where people have so many arguments about Brexit but I admire it. The replies are mostly people insulting the bank and being pro-Brexit, mixed with some pro-Brexit parody and a few people calling out racism. A mixed response, then. Even though I liked the ad, switching my bank account to a company who don't have a branch nearby just for the purposes of a personal experiment seems like a big effort, so lets move on.
The next tweet on my timeline isn't an ad but it is promotional. It's from Buzzfeed Quiz, who I'm a little ashamed to say I follow. Buzzfeed quizzes are another of my guilty pleasures - even though the results are meaningless, I like answering the questions. My favourites are the ones where you 'build a playlist' from the list of songs they offer in the questions, but sometimes I do the polls and the 'would you rathers' and the general knowledge and star sign ones if I'm bored.
The one they've just tweeted about is called "Which member of these K-Pop groups has the best vocals?". I do not listen to K-Pop at all and while I could name a handful of groups, I couldn't name a single member of a K-Pop group. I considered listening to some K-Pop and making an informed judgement so I could take part in these polls but you guys, there are 12 questions and so many members in most K-Pop bands that it would take me days to listen to them all and come to a conclusion. If you're a K-Pop fan the quiz can be found here but I simply cannot commit the time to this on a work day!
I don't feel great about looking at 2 different promotional tweets and not actually trying either of them but I'm going to consider this to be a bit of an education about Twitter content. When I register sponsored tweets as being such it's usually because they're surreal (not as surreal as Tumblr though, more on those when I do a Tumblr day), so it was interesting to see a real trusted company putting themselves on everyone's timelines and opening themselves up to abuse like that. I don't think the HSBC ad was targeted; I tweet about being left-wing and in favour of as much unity between nations as possible, so they've mirrored my political opinion, but the replies to the tweet suggest that it was also seen by people who do not share my views.
The Buzzfeed Quiz tweet, by its nature, can't be targeted, aside from the fact it tweets the content I followed it for. It's a shame that in this case it was promoting a quiz that I'm not qualified to take part in, but I'm sure I'll get to indulge in my Buzzfeed Quiz pleasure with my readers sometime!
