‘Social is the next tobacco’ is an extreme line, but a fitting one
From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to Twitter’s bot-related fibs, Blonde3’s Nic Hodges believes social media could be headed towards the advertising no-go zone currently occupied by tobacco.
An interesting few weeks in the world of social-not-media platforms. I’ve done a few talks recently where I touch on the idea of social being “the next tobacco”. This idea seems to get a lot of traction, so I thought it worth expanding on.
But first, a recap…
The UN reported on Facebook’s role in allowing groups and content that incited violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar. One of the authors reporting that “I’m afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast”
Then, Facebook was reported to (and then revealed) that Cambridge Analytica and its partners were allowed to misuse the platform to access personal information (under the guise of “research”) of ~50M users. This data was then used in political advertising, giving one side an unfair advantage.
It’s very sweet that you think brands wouldn’t advertise on a pack of smokes if they could.
Most are going to look at Cambridge Analytica as a source of inspiration.