That’s just one side of the problem — but it’s a well documented side.
The Baffler has done quite a few good stories on crap advertising and how it’s being used to fool people.
They go after young people via social media
… there are more sinister implications to an advertising world that sees people not just as targets, but as potential recruits–especially when such recruits are impressionable young people already keen for friendship and recognition.
And — read carefully now — no offense meant to people with conservative political beliefs.
I see credulous people at the edges all around the political circle being scammed by crap advertisers.
The pointer above to the Breitbart ads is just one example.
The ripoff of customers on the conservative side got well nailed by The Baffler in The Long Con.
But don’t freak out if you read that and you’re conservative and feel insulted. It’s only describing one side of a broad ripoff, because it’s a big visible target.
You can find comparable wackywoo bullshit at Huffington and worse the further out you get in either extreme. But they’re smaller, less lucrative targets.
Lots of little publications out there serve narrower, more focused true believers.
Each of them attracts a plethora of advertising aimed at finding people easily fooled by inflated claims and bogus promises.
The advertisers know damn well what populations they’re aiming for.
There are more scammers advertising in conservative publications because those subscribers have more money, they’re older, and more trusting perhaps.
That’s one reason it’s hard sometimes to convince people they’re being scammed.
The ads are in the publications that tell them what they believe is right — and the ads tell them to believe the ads.
Frustrating, when you want to tell people they can do a whole lot better than that.
