Friday, February 3, 2017

Clickbait cliche: The crowd got more than it bargained for

When content discovery platforms like Taboola aren’t running lying clickbait, they’re often spamming websites with the same sorts of lowest-denominator articles over and over again.
For instance, they’ll promote articles about a public figure’s net worth (“Malia Obama’s net worth left us speechless”) or then-and-now photos of celebrities (Susan Dey, Raquel Welch, Daryl Hannah, etc.)
Another popular clickbait cliche involves running a photo of an attractive female athlete or cheerleader with a headline like “the crowd got more than they paid for” or “the cameraman kept filming.”
The combination of the photo of a pretty lady and a vaguely titillating headline makes people (OK, men) want to click. Did she have a wardrobe malfunction and accidentally expose herself? You have to click to find out.
Here are some examples of this clickbait cliche.

Revcontent carried a post titled “The crowd behind her got a little surprise.” It used a photo of smoking-hot beach soccer cheerleader Marta Gotera of Spain.




Yahoo ran a sponsored post titled “The crowd got much more than they paid for.” It used a photo of Olympic beach volleyball player Irene Verasio of Argentina hugging her teammate.



This twofer post from Taboola used a picture of some beach volleyball cheerleaders and a photo of an unidentified female swimmer or diver.




Another twofer from Taboola shows figure skaters Tanja Kolbe and Stefano Caruso from Germany in one photo and pole-vaulter and fitness model Allison Stokke in the other.




This next clickbait link titled “These cameramen captured more than expected” used a photo of some promotional models for Itaipava beer.



This next promoted link on Yahoo titled “She though(t) they were cheering because of her putt.” It used a photo of gorgeous golfer Paige Spiranac of Scottsdale, Ariz.



And finally another Yahoo sponsored post with the headline “The crowd got much more than they paid for” used a photo of pro tennis player Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.



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