Instagram Has Become SkyMall With Flood Of Ads For Garbage Products
https://clivethompson.medium.comIf you flew during the 90s and 00s, you probably remember SkyMall. It was a catalogue of completely loony products — often high-tech gadgets of dubious promise, such as “a vacuum cleaner to catch flies, an alien butler drink tray, a helmet that promises to regrow your hair using lasers.”
Now it looks like Instagram is turning out to the digital version of SkyMall.
It’s pretty clear that Instagram ads are a breeding-ground for the legions of dropshippers who are trying to find some sort of tech thingmabob that they can sell four million of a week so they can “put their income on autopilot”, as per The Four Hour Workweek. It’s also clear that many of these merchants are itchily desperate for attention. Many of the products have “like” counts so risibly high they practically need scientific notation, almost certainly juked into the ionosphere by roboclicks.
