The “F*** You, Pay Me” Internet

Ads and content are now virtually indistinguishable.

I never thought I’d say this, but there’s a part of me that misses those absurd boner pill ads. You know the ones – they'd show up at the most inconvenient times, like in the middle of a presentation, boasting their bold claims and flashy banana graphics, screaming "Big Chucky’s Champion Enhancers” from every corner of your screen.

Back then, ads were ads, and we knew where we stood with them. I miss the clarity, the clumsy straightforwardness of it all; I find it weirdly refreshing to look back on.

Ads were becoming more sophisticated by the time I started my career in advertising. During our weekly pitch meetings, copywriters introduced ideas and divided them into categories: “Fear” or “Greed”. This approach always struck me as crass, and I was shocked when I first heard it. What exactly did it mean to classify a pitch as being driven by “Fear” or “Greed?" Promotions were separated by whether they exploited feelings of lack, scarcity, and the urgency of resolving a problem (Fear), or …