Does Clickbait Work?

[Outdated]

I worked for a research bureau many years ago.

Many years ago I got a phone call from a mob doing a survey for Coca Cola. They asked me if I associate Coke with fun. I said "I normally associate it with cheap scotch.".

The girl tried again - "But do you associate it with fun?". "Sorry sweetheart but I'm a grown man, not a child. I associate Coke with aggressive marketing and Type 2 Diabetes.".

 

[Kisa the tea]

Something you HAVE to know RIGHT NOW

Spoiler

is that it does and thats why many youtube videos/articles are titled this way

 

[RemyZee]

I think it does.

haha the post in and of itself is clickbait.

 

[Princess Viola]

Does Clickbait Work?

The answer will SHOCK you - I couldn't believe it!

 

[Judge]

Many years ago I got a phone call from a mob doing a survey for Coca Cola. They asked me if I associate Coke with fun. I said "I normally associate it with cheap scotch.".

The girl tried again - "But do you associate it with fun?". "Sorry sweetheart but I'm a grown man, not a child. I associate Coke with aggressive marketing and Type 2 Diabetes.".

Kirk: "Spock, do you associate Coke with fun?"
Spock: <Raises eyebrow>
McCoy: "You know what that means, Jim."
Kirk: "Yup."

 

[RemyZee]

There's a lot of content out there that's so deliberately and obviously fake, but if the title catches people's attention many will click on it. And about half of them will believe every word of it true.

[previous video was blocked by user, I'll try again]

This is so obviously ridiculous but has 130,000 views:

That video is painful.

 

[Outdated]

That video is painful.

I never watched the video. I see something like that I don't waste my time.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Just from the Photoshopping (lack of) quality in the thumbnail, I'd doubt anything in that video... even if I were the type to miss "million of".

For both clickbait videos and click-through articles, I just look for keywords and google them. I can get an answer in a hundredth of the time it would take to watch a clickbait video or click through multiple ad-filled pages of some article.

For that video, I just googled, “why did australia send donkeys to the desert” and got a nice summary and a link to a Wikipedia page on Feral Donkeys.

 

[Outdated]

For that video, I just googled, “why did australia send donkeys to the desert” and got a nice summary and a link to a Wikipedia page on Feral Donkeys.

In other words, no such thing ever happened. We've got camels in the desert, and feral cattle. And cats, rabbits, foxes and quite a few other nasty things, but not donkeys. Yes we have feral donkeys, but only in the more temperate regions where we also have feral deer and horses.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Donkeys? Wonder why donkeys? Uhmm...

But I do know how to keep someone in suspense. Though no doubt there are a fair few ways to do this. One of these ways I won't mention now... It is a good way, but the other two ways are better.

 

[Dagan]

So...

We just had a master class and/or a scary moment of things to come in regards to clickbait advertising. For weeks, a story was out, it looked legit, it had cited sources and such supposedly....that David Harbour was given legal documents concerning bullying from Millie Bobbie Brown. All of it was fabricated. None of it was true. It is being considered "an AI response when asked to help promote" the upcoming final season of Stranger Things.

First of all - very, very bad wrong. Not cool at all. Second of all - incredibly scary if true about AI because just like in several sci-fi films, the computers/machines decided how to use and abuse us in an instant.

 

[Captain Caveman]

In other words, no such thing ever happened. We've got camels in the desert, and feral cattle. And cats, rabbits, foxes and quite a few other nasty things, but not donkeys. Yes we have feral donkeys, but only in the more temperate regions where we also have feral deer and horses.

Cats... Clickbait...

 

[Judge]

Tragically it all seems to be getting so much worse. And content creators aren't very picky about doing a good job. Incorrect images not relative to the subject matter and at times terrible spelling.

Worse still are photoshopped images likely using AI to make celebrities appear more aged or more well endowed than they actually are.

These days, bad spelling alone is enough for me to pass on that click altogether.

 

[Outdated]

Cats... Clickbait...

Here the most popular cat videos involve a man with a high powered rifle and night vision.

Here a lot of animals that Europeans think are cute have become feral pests. Cats, rabbits, foxes, deer. If you do a search there's a video of a bloke that dropped 800 feral pigs in 4 hours from a helicopter, great shooting from a moving platform.

 

[Poppy98]

I think the title of this thread should be, "Someone used clickbait, then THIS happened!"

If I see it, no matter who uses it or the content, I skip it. There's a linguist I follow who has some very good content but who uses it for some of his videos. I'll never know what he has to say in those. Sad.

Not a bad idea.
It does work on me although im conciously opposed to it.