In this issue: Human moderators for LLMs / Jezebel for sale / Hamas atrocity footage screened / Autogenerated hate music videos on YouTube / TwitterX pushing vertical video ads / Political LinkedIn scraping / Google Pmax issues / Negativity in advertising / Jon Stewart clashes with Apple on China, AI / Facebook programmer advert autobanned because they thought python, not Python / Fran Drescher’s eccentric negotiation power / + More!
Welcome to Context Collapse, the world’s best comms newsletter. I’m Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about journalism, public relations, marketing, and advertising.
Halloween’s almost here! I have a spooky, scary request:
Forward this newsletter to someone who would enjoy it.
Ask them to sign up for a free subscription.
There. That’s it. The self-promoter in me loves you for it. (And welcome, new readers!)
On to the links.
-Neal
Share
“(Intuit) is now planning to build a staff of eight full-time moderators to review what goes in and out of the large language model-powered system, including helping to prevent employees from leaking sensitive company data, said Atticus Tysen, the company’s chief information security officer.”
”The owner of Jezebel is shopping the trailblazing website to potential buyers, sources tell Axios. Why it matters: G/O Media putting the online women's magazine up for sale highlights the struggles of niche, digital media brands that are suffering from a weak ad market and a fragmented landscape. Of note: Jezebel was one of the first internet blogging sites to write frankly about issues and topics affecting women.”
”Hundreds of journalists and photographers from media companies all over the world attended today the screening of a film of assorted footage showing the extent of the horrors committed by Hamas. Footage was taken from numerous sources, including from bodycams worn by the terrorists, dashcams, from emergency rescue personnel and Israeli security service cameras. What they saw left many of the reporters visibly shocked and disgusted.”
“The music videos themselves are low-budget. Just static images showing Hindu supremacist symbols and cut-out shots of singers. On occasion, they display photos of leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the Hindu nationalist ruling party in India. But the lyrics speak of the slaughter of Muslims and have been chanted at religious rallies, sparking violence. These songs are part of a genre known as “Hindutva Pop”, named after a nationalist ideology associated with right-wing extremism that advocates for establishing India as a Hindu nation-state. And YouTube, one of the top music streaming platforms in the country, has helped this music expand its reach among young audiences. YouTube not only hosts such songs; it also generates videos for them.”
“Elon Musk’s X is making a big push to sell ads around vertical videos as it looks to reverse declining advertising revenue and seemingly compete against more popular social apps such as TikTok, a pitch deck obtained by Ad Age revealed.”
”Over the last 10 days, a website called anti-israel-employees.com published more than 17,000 posts, which one of the people behind the site said had been taken mainly from LinkedIn. The site, which claimed to be a “global live feed of potentially supportive sentiments for terrorism among company employees,” listed thousands of people and grouped them by their workplaces, in an apparent attempt to shame them for their sentiments on the Israeli-Hamas conflict.”
”Ad buyers are finding that large chunks of impressions spent on Google’s artificial intelligence-fueled product, Performance Max (Pmax), are ending up in less desirable places, like on open web inventory and branded search terms. One ad buyer, who requested anonymity to protect industry relations, found that around 80% of impressions on a Pmax campaign ended up on open web inventory. The rest landed on Google’s owned and operated properties like Search and YouTube.”
”If you’re creating content, don’t have the headline “10 ways to improve your productivity.” We need it to be more negative! So make the headline “10 ways you’re ruining your productivity.”
”(Jon) Stewart and Apple executives had disagreements over some of the topics and guests on “The Problem,” two of the people said. Mr. Stewart told members of his staff on Thursday that potential show topics related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern among Apple executives, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. As the 2024 presidential campaign begins to heat up, there was potential for further creative disagreements, one of the people said.”
”Google is changing how its sales teams work as the internet giant tries to promote an important AI-powered advertising product, according to multiple sources. Some of the ad giant's sales staffers who work with large companies are shifting to sales teams that are dedicated to selling to smaller, less sophisticated advertiser clients, according to multiple sources.”
”In an alarming example of algorithmic bureaucracy with no option for appeal, a Python and Pandas instructor named Reuven Lerner was banned for life from advertising on Facebook. Mystified as to why Facebook had banned him from advertising his programming course, he asked the company for an explanation and reconsideration. He received an opaque automated reply, which read, "After a requested review of your Facebook account, we confirmed it didn't comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards. You can no longer advertise using Facebook Products. This is our final decision.""
”Is Fran Drescher eccentric? Hell yes. And there’s enormous power in that.”