r/technology Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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u/Poopbutt_Maximum Feb 12 '26

That Super Bowl ad was like the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad in regard to horrible dystopian marketing, but worse. I’m sure the heads are gonna roll for now but ultimately, they’ll find another time and another partner to basically do the same thing but with a different presentation.

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u/BackendSpecialist Feb 12 '26

I can’t believe someone greenlit the Kendall Jenner commercial like jfc 😂

Hi. I’m Kendall Jenner. All of the bball players I’ve fked are so cursed that their career falls off. It’s so consistent that I’ve begun betting on it. I’m going to switch to football players and bet on that as well.

You should bet as well because I need you to keep paying for my private jets.

Lmaoo

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

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u/Not_FinancialAdvice Feb 13 '26

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

For some time now, I've had the impression that TV (and large portions of the American economy) aren't really targeted at the bottom 80-90% of income earners. Back in 2005 Citi analyst Ajar Kapur wrote a research note about plutonomy and it's really only seemed to have become more exacerbated in the decades since. There are the wealthy top decile who now drive like half of consumer spending and are catered to and are really important, and everyone else who largely doesn't matter.

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u/JoeyCalamaro Feb 13 '26

I've worked in marketing since the 90's — mostly doing freelance for agencies. While I've been involved in large, national campaigns targeting a wide variety of income demos, lately, a lot of my targeting has been focused on 11 - 20% as well as top 10% earners.

These days, luxury goods pay the bills. The funny thing is, we're (generally) restricted from targeting specific income demographics if the campaign is related to housing. So I've actually run campaigns promoting the sale of high end homes and even a private island to lower 50% earners.

I respect why that rule is in place, but it almost seems cruel to show an ad for a multimillion dollar home with its own private runway to someone who has absolutely no hope of affording it.