Social Media Political Ad Wars

Beyond Social Media Show, Episode 287

BL and David discuss the controversy over social media political ads and two of the proposed solutions; The Climate Trail video game that takes place in the climate change apocalypse; Samsung’s selfie satellite fail; Yahoo Groups’ move to email-only; unrest on the Facebook campus; the trend toward video games as spectator sport epitomized with the launch of the Minnesota Vikings’ eSports team; hot dog boy gets a ride in Oscar Mayer’s weinermobile; McDonald’s social media fail; Amazon’s Choice paid reviews; Joe Biden’s domain fiasco; political Twitter; and much, much more.

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes or Google Play or Stitcher or iHeart Radio or Amazon Echo or search the Spotify app. Your browser does not support the audio element.

Audio version of Episode 287 of the Beyond Social Media Show

Best Digital Cases

Twitter Bans All Political Ads

Jack Dorsey announced in a series of Tweets: “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.”

Ban Political Microtargeting Ads

Ellen Weintraub, Chair of the Federal Election Commission, recommends eliminating the ability to microtarget political ads rather than eliminating online political ads entirely.

Samsung Selfie Crashes

As if broken folding phones weren’t enough, Samsung’s Selfie Balloon crashed on a Michigan farm. But their response was interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=115&v=4t0OFZ6TUIg

The Climate Trail

Game developer William Volk developed a video game to show players how bad life can get if we don’t address climate change.

Facebook Employees Stand Up to Zuck

In an open letter, the social network’s employees said letting politicians post false claims in ads was “a threat” to the company.

Yahoo Groups Goes Email Only

Yahoo! has sent an email to Yahoo Groups administrators informing them that the service would be moving to an email-only format, that web boards would be shut down and the content deleted.

Minnesota Røkkr: Vikings eSports Team

The owners of the Minnesota Vikings NFL team have launched an eSports team named the Minnesota Røkkr, which borrows branding from the NFL team and will compete in a Call of Duty league.

Oscar Mayer Treats Hot Dog Boy

The boy whose hot dog costume school photo went viral got a free ride in the Oscar Mayer weinermobile.

Worst Digital Cases

Stupid, Bloody Stupid

McDonald’s apologizes for its Halloween-themed dessert called “Sundae Bloody Sundae,” dessert, blah, blah, blah.

Amazon’s Choice Deception

Many Amazon’s Choice products sold by third-party sellers are not what they seem.

Dear Joe Biden: OK Boomer

Biden’s campaign #FAILs to buy fundamental urls. Trump’s campaign bought one of them. That’s not the only URL Biden’s campaign forgot!

Joe Biden's campaign forgot to buy crucial URLs. Trump got one.

Shiny New Stuff

Google Site Kit

Google’s official WordPress plugin for installing analytics and seeing reports within the WordPress dashboard.

Politics

Clever Interactive Trump Study From Pew Research

https://twitter.com/whatsnext/status/1190785206028062723

The Daily Numbers

Newsflash: Political Twitter is not representative of the American electorate at large.

Chart: Political Twitter

Beyond Social Media Hosts

Beyond Social Media Show