Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world Moonrise2473 @feddit.it 3d ago

Who's going to watch departure times on the departure board? Let's use it for ads!

ads instead of useful info

It rotates and after some minutes shows the departure times. But if you're in hurry you want the time immediately, not after a while

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This drives me wild in fast food restaurants. I'm already here, I'm going to give you money, so don't make it harder or more frustrating!
- It's genuinely jarring because some places don't organize it logically so you're scouring the board and it switched and you gotta figure where you were ... makes me wanna slap the person that came up with this idea.
  
  It's gotta be intentional. You and me might walk into a restaurant and make our own decision on what to order, but there must be some sort of market research that shows random ads and rotating items to be effective against a non-zero part of the population.
It's like rotating digital menus at restaurants but now instead of holding up the line waiting for it I get to miss my flight
- I think this kind of shit flies because people honestly assume anything their electronics does is technically necessary.
  
  Remote WiFi anal plugs have entered the chat.
why isn't this banned already?
- Capitalism
We should look at how to fix the "bad exposure is exposure too" approach to advertising. It makes everything worse for everyone.

And personally, i think the effect is vastly overestimated.

Edit: or maybe it fixes itself, since everyone is oversaturated with ads and ignores them at best.
- Blanket advertising is this bubble. Has been for decades. It's nearly impossible to get reasonable campaign data from a billboard. But in the scheme of business it's relatively inexpensive so everyone just buys in.
  
  If it's not targeted, The vast majority of people aren't going to waste their time on it.
bring back split flap departure boards
this is an act of desperation by the digital ad markets. they have to innovate new types of ad to sell because more and more the only ads that actually work even a little bit are personal testimony and billboards, neither of which the digital ad markets actually sell. we are currently experiencing an economic collapse in the advertising space which is driving the ad markets to use their propaganda machines for less and less scrupulous purposes. ever wonder why there's so much right wing bullshit in your youtube ads now? because that shit didn't sell razors or soap or mattresses or whatever. but it CAN make people very scared and upset
- Well, that's simply not true. Ads are very effective and it still holds true that businessses get an almost guaranteed return on investment in ads.
  
  read the subprime attention crisis. ads markets have gotten extremely uneffective
  
  Neither of you are giving proof so I choose to believe that ads work
Line must go up
- I think we severely underestimate how much better life would be if we changed away from this paradigm. There are alternatives.
what country is this
- Italy
  
  Also seen in Mexico - incredibly annoying if you are trying to see where the fuck to go
  
  Edit: and the stupid ads are like a whole minute or two, so you need to stand there like an idiot waiting to see where to go while hating everything this represents
It should be legal to just spray paint over information boards that, instead if actual information, show shit ads.
I prefer when I see BSODs on those.
- I don't
  
  That means that I'm going to be stranded for a while
Actually infuriating.
I'm guessing they are using logic how everyone already using internet for everything so why not squeeze more money. And I know how this logic is flawed
- Somebody came up with the idea, implemented it, saw a jump in revenue, got a promotion or fat bonus, all to make our lives just a little crappier. Unfortunately, it's that simple.
What are they advertising for? Flight information on whatsapp or something?
- yes, they say (weirdly only in italian and not in any other language) that the departure board can be accessed via their chatbot on whatsapp
You can check with an app in your phone too so these days it's not that terrible except for the elderly ofc.

I am not defending this practice just pointing out! When I traveled a month ago I was so tired of the screens not updating that I used an app and got everything and also could check from the gate (poor audio speakers I couldn't understand anything)
- You shouldn't have to download an app to replace the thing that the thing you are looking at is supposed to do.
  
  I agree, but in my experience there aren't screens everywhere (NAIA for example) and having the app is a plus, besides, flight gates can change at any time and having the app allows you to check that on the move.
  
  As I said, not defending putting ads but with the apps is not that big of an issue.
- ...if your phone has reception in this country you've just arrived in and/or if WiFi is available. Of course, you can always pay extra...
Its annoying as hell but I guess I don't really see a meaningful impact. Yes, not everyone has a cell phone. But... I would say anyone who is flying doesn't have an excuse of poverty.

And basically every single airport has "free" wifi these days. So either install the app or open the web page to get up to date info. Because there are countless stories of people who missed their flights because they were waiting at the original gate and somehow ignored everyone around them getting up and walking away when the gate changed.

Also: My excuse with departure boards has always been that EVERYONE crowds in front of it to have long conversations or "just stand there" and it is a shitshow anyway.

So yeah. Would REALLY prefer it to not be just even more ads being shoved down our throats. But this very much feels more like phasing out phone booths than anything else.
- Sorry, no. The freaking board is there for a single purpose – show flights. This bs just adds an extra step for information that should be immediate and, for passengers, is kinda urgent. This is just to grab datapoints for ads like any useless app.

46 comments