Press Eats Up 'App' That Helps People Search For Migrant Boats On The Meditarranean... Despite It Not Actually Doing Anything
from the come-on-guys dept
Apparently, last week there was some buzz in the press about a new "app" that was being offered for iPhone users, put together by the charity group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and Grey for Good, a group that's associated with the ad giant Grey Group (itself a part of WPP). The idea behind the app is that it feeds users real-time satellite imagery of the Mediterranean Sea, and if you happen to see a boat full of migrants, you alert MOAS and they'll go check it out. Many in the press ate it up because it hits all the buttons: it's an app (ding!) that lets people feel good (ding!) by pretending they're changing the world (ding!) on a topic of great public interest (ding!). And thus, we got a bunch of stories, though only Reuters went with the most obvious of headlines: Want to save migrants in the Mediterranean? There's an app for that. Other reports appeared at Wired, Mashable, Huffington Post, the Evening Standard and a variety of other, smaller publications.There's just one issue. The app appears to be complete bullshit -- as the wonderful Twitter account SwiftOnSecurity pointed out:
Tried it, the app is completely non-functional. It's a marketing stunt for the developer to get press articles. pic.twitter.com/SubRotl5A3
— SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) June 19, 2016
@SwiftOnSecurity possible reason: enter it for an ad awards show; these sort of "scam ads" are rampant pic.twitter.com/1I7w0NgbKD
— Malika Rodrigues (@ruderigues) June 20, 2016
It's always interesting to see how tech and innovation might help with real challenges, but creating a fake app and a fake campaign, including getting widespread press coverage for something that doesn't appear to actually do anything, seems pretty damn scammy.
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Filed Under: apps, isea, mediterranean, migrants, satellite imagery
Companies: grey for good, grey group, moas
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My suspicion
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Images from which satellite(s)?
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Re: Images from which satellite(s)?
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And now that the scam has been revealed all those that were breathlessly reporting on how amazing it was will be sure to present corrections in the same manner as the original article(from page article means front-page correction), so that they can admit to being wrong and shine a light on the lies of the company that pushed the app out.
... right?
Yeah, while I certainly place some blame on companies that pull scams like this, I'd say I place more blame on the idiotic tools that they use for free PR, so eager to get their clicks/readers that they don't even try to fact check what's handed to them, they just rush it out as quickly as possible.
So long as it remains so easy to fool the 'news' groups, and safe in the sense that those fooled won't call them out on it and admit to having been fooled, individuals and companies will continue to use them for cheap and easy PR.
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Feel good while not having to put down your smart phone.
Fix the world.
Collect kudos for having done "something".
Press a button, donate, consider it fixed.
Seriously, asking for passport numbers and no one said wait WTF until Tay did?
We should pillory the media in this. The race to report first and verify only when a popular enough outsider calls you out keep happening. While they keep paying those on top the big bucks, those bucks seem to have been cut out of research & ethics departments.
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Pictures of earth, from space
See also https://what-if.xkcd.com/32/
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pretty funny really
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Re: pretty funny really
But not reason(s) relevant to this story.
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Re: Re: pretty funny really
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And how does someone tell a migrant boat from a real boat?
how would a random person who actually spotted a boat using such an app be able to distinguish a "refugee" boat from... any other boat?
So, tell us, app-maker, how does a user tell if a "suspicious" speck is a boat of migrants or a fishing boat? Is there a FAQ that covers this? Can people zoom in on the image?
And what happens if enough people report the fishing boat speck? Will the app send out the authorities... to the boat which has probably filed their trip with the local coast guard?
So, yep, someone didn't think this through. However, it's slightly better than "Like and retweet this post if you support migrants".
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They won an award, and the event runners have said once its all over they might review if giving the award was stupid.
The talking head for the office of Grey responsible for this clusterfuck decided it was best to attack Tay, and ignore that lots of experts shredded the idea as faked and impossible.
So why try so hard to get an award? Because thats how you get more business. If you win an award, you are a super star. If your market says lie, cheat, steal to get an award so you can be famous and the industry supports it... you should be in Congress instead.
Waiting for someone to write an ad-blocker than pays extra attention to this companies offerings, maybe press a button and inform the client the shady work of the ad agency means their brand is much less trustworthy.
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