ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between media advertising, with its attention to microtargeting recipients, tracking the behavior of digital media users, and the public concern about invasions of privacy resulting from standard practices. Users have become creators in the digital world, complicating advertisers’ effort to gain purchase with audiences. The rise of influencers, too, has made this task more difficult. Advertisers understand that people trust other people more than brands or messages themselves, thus requiring new forms of advertising such as the deployment of flash mobs to gain attention. Critics complain about ad creep and, more insidiously, the commercialization of everyday life, which seemingly makes advertising ever harder to identify. Advertisers are increasingly forced to employ unconventional tactics to cut through the clutter of the digital environment, leading to ethical concerns when platforms are seemingly hijacked or people find themselves subjected to blandishments they never anticipated.
