Blipverts
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used mostly as a joking reference to overstimulating media and attention-grabbing advertising.
What it is
A one-minute clip of Max Headroom's fictional 'Blipverts', ultra-short ads so stimulating that they make viewers explode. It is a snippet of 1980s sci-fi satire about advertising.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites donclark · 2020-04 · on “Is Covid-19 a Geopolitical Game-Changer?”
Is Covid-19 a Geopolitical Game-Changer? I hope and pray that this is the case. This may be the best time for us to make a change in the way the world works. Our lives have been disrupted, and we need to strive to make lasting changes for the greater good. The internet, and our world is over-commercialized. The pandemic causing an economic re-evaluation which may be the best opportunity we have to re-evaluate our position. If not, and you think the advertiser/marketer/retail market was invasive before... you aint seen nothing yet. They will need to try every trick in the book x10 - repeatedly, at lighting speed - and invent new tactics to boot. I know, this type of talk makes it seem like th
Cites narrator · 2021-11 · on “The Max Headroom Incident”
Since we are bringing up Max Headroom, I would like to put a word in for Blipverts. These were part of the fictional subject matter of the first Max Headroom TV Show. They were advertisements that make old people watching them explode. Bryce, the engineer behind these adverts, uses the wonderful line, "I only invent the bomb, I don't drop it." This was amazingly prescient back in the 80s given where we are now in adtech. [this video]