Article Summary 2: Advertising and the End of Instagram's Sincerity

Advertising and the End of Instagram's Sincerity

Posted by Matt Buchanan

Summary: For users, there are two kinds of content on ad-supported social networks: real content and advertisements. What generally distinguishes the two for a user is whether or not a post comes from someone or something that he or she cares about. If they care about it, it’s content; if they don’t, it’s an ad. They want to see one but not the other. For brands, that slippage is particularly powerful, as users willingly get caught up in the brands and products they do care about within their relations to people. If someone follows Starbucks on Instagram, they want to see pictures of coffee in the same stream as pictures of their friends. Instagram’s plan from the beginning has been to take advantage of that slippage between content and advertising in a powerful new way, because it is the social network with the greatest claim to a foundation of genuine emotion. Instagram has become what it is because people care about it and what they put on it in a way that is not true of Twitter or Facebook—and which is precisely why Facebook bought it.

Instagram is hoping, additionally, that the ads will be so aesthetically pleasing that you won’t notice, or at least won’t be upset, about seeing them in your feed. They want you to love their ads, even if they are from brands you do not want to follow: “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands.” Instagram ads will be beautiful, suited to the medium, and brimming with brands. The problem that Instagram faces as it starts slowly pouring ads into users’ feeds is that, until now, most everything it has done—except for removing its photos from Twitter—has been in truthful, despite the fact it is owned by one of the most fundamentally skeptical companies in technology. People connect to Instagram and its content, and love it because, as Paul Ford put it, it is sincere. But then again, there’s nothing less sincere than an advertisement.

I think a lot of users will not approve of their Instagram feed being infiltrated with ads. Some users will argue, Instagram is about capturing beautiful moments, and sharing them not shopping in a mall or catalogue. Brands should not bring stock photos to the platform; instead, Instagram's most talented and influential users should be selling the rights to use their content for advertising. On the other hand,  it may be a marketers dream in reaching a broad spectrum of consumers. Possibly increasing sales and social media "likes".