Top 10 signs 2016 is the year of the advertising apocalypse
The extinction of the advertising industry. It seems that every January, the pundits proclaim that, this is the year! Who's to say 2016 won't be the one that proves them right?
Ad blocking, DVR-ing, premium streaming and cord cutting are all conspiring to make it more difficult for the industry to reach consumers. As a result, advertisers are trying anything they can think of to somehow get back in front of their audiences, no matter how deceptive or intrusive: native content, sponsored Snaps, Meerkat feeds, mobile violators, the list goes on.
Does this truly spell the end, or is this merely another course correction? Here's a handy list that will help you figure out where we stand.
Top 10 signs that 2016 is truly the year of the advertising apocalypse:
10. Wieden and Kennedy announces its new Listicle Department.
9. Lecterns in the shape of giant Febreeze bottles feature prominently in the first presidential debates to allow product placement.
8. Un-skippable drone-vertising debuts. It's essentially a drone fitted with a megaphone that hovers outside your bedroom window and blasts Maxwell House jingles at six in the morning.
7. In a viral stunt, KFC exhumes the body of the real Colonel Sanders on Periscope while Norm MacDonald live tweets the event, decrying it a fraud with various derogatory hashtags.
6. On Heroes Reborn, the newest hero's "super power" is an immunity to the side effects of Cialis.
5. President Trump brokers a deal to create the "Taco Bell Break For the Border Fence."
4. The latest Instagram sensation is a can of V-8 in a wig.
3. In a desperate move to raise funds in the face of ad skipping, networks sell off their naming rights, giving us "Midol PMSNBC".
2. Kraft buys Vice Media for $100 billion. All content soon revolves around novel ways to eat Oscar Mayer Lunchables in a third world country.
1. The Cannes Grand Prix goes to an emoji that orders pizza.
Deacon Webster is chief creative officer at Walrus. He tweets @thori