Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

May likes to do video blogs, particularly about technology. This is her latest blog post: Ads and us (by May) Maybe you´ve noticed there aren´t any ads on my blog site. Cool, right? When I first started, I did think about leaving some advertising space, but I decided not to because I can earn money in other ways not taking away from the user experience. It does annoy me when you see adverts everywhere. Need some statistics? The average teenage sees four hundred to six hundred ads daily. In the UK, companies spend around 1 billion Pounds every year on marketing to teens. Businesses know that we make up nearly a quarter of the population. So if they want to sell their products or services, they have to get our attention. As ´digital natives´we socialize, shop and entertain ourselves online, while having practical knowledge as users and consumers. We do know we´re going to get blasted with ads for makeup, food, et. every time we check our social media feeds. We see these banner ads and pop-up ads on webpages and blogs, too, past which most of us merely scroll. Not once have I for instance clicked or tapped on one of those ads. Advertisers use lots of tricks, though, trying to infiltrate not only our screens but also our heads. Think about the paid content at the bottom of new sites, blogs and posts - they do look like serious articles with attention-grabbing headlines. The video ads slipped in between the content we watch on video-sharing sites can be more interesting. I click past most of them, but if the music is cool or the ad speaks to me personally, I´ll watch it and even share it with friends. This doesn´t mean we go out and buy the product. What it means for us is enjoying clever content, even if it´s advertising. Some advertising is harder to separate from real content. When a film or TV show character is drinking a popular brand of cola or wearing stylish sneakers with a logo, they call this ´product placement´. Here´s a tip: when you see or hear about a brand or product on social media or anywhere online, it´s probably sponsored. The vloggers we know and love are often sponsored, too, however, they´re a special case. Sure, we know that brands pay them a ton of money to influence our buying choices, but we still watch and listen to them. Maybe because we feel close to them and trust that they wouldn´t sell a product they didn´t believe in. Also, most are open about it - they´ll say, ´I´m getting paid to do this´. It´s casual and personalized, and that makes it more authentic. The best vloggers don´t really want to sell us anything. It´s the advertisers who want our money. Take this advertising mini-survey of mine and leave a comment! Yours, May