Location-based clickbait ads that obviously use non-local photos

Some clickbait ads use your computer’s IP address to localize the text of their promotions. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle. But instead of using generic photos that could pass for anywhere, they use photos that obviously aren’t local.
I’ve written about the topic previously. See the related articles below.
What follows are some recent examples localized for Great Falls and Vienna, Virginia.

A Taboola article titled “Cheap, new senior apartments in Vienna are turning heads” used a photo of the upscale residential portion of the CityLife development in Milan, Italy. (See articles by the Economist, the Sun and Curbed.)

Dating websites often grab photos of sexy women from Instagram, Reddit and Pinterest for their ads. Such was the case with two recent ads posted by Mgid titled “Sexy Asian women in Great Falls.” I couldn’t locate the source for either photo, but both were passed around on photo-sharing websites.

Related articles:

Great Falls, Virginia, as told by lying clickbait (Nov. 12, 2018)

My neighborhood looks exciting and exotic thanks to lying clickbait (Aug. 11, 2018)

Celebrities in my backyard thanks to lying clickbait (June 24, 2018)

Fact-checking clickbait mongers on Woodstock and more

Tech-media-tainment has been fact-checking clickbait purveyors since May 2016. It’s a never-ending job.
What follows are some of the latest examples I’ve seen of lying clickbait.
Among the biggest categories of lying clickbait are articles that promise shocking photos of the Woodstock music festival in August 1969. But these clickbait articles rarely use photos of Woodstock to promote them.
Taboola promoted an article titled “32 photos of just how crazy it got at Woodstock” with different non-Woodstock photos. One used a photo from The Stones in the Park music festival featuring the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, London, in July 1969. (See article by Mashable.) Another used a photo of 1970s Funny Car drag racing icon Pamela Hardy, aka Jungle Pam. (See articles by BreakinBall and Journey Ranger.)

Clickbait firms also like to tout collections of photos supposedly taken before tragedies. Usually these photos are pranks, optical illusions or situations that aren’t what they seem.
For instance, a recent Revcontent article was titled “Don’t blink, what happens next is horrifying.” It used a picture of a woman who appeared to be hanging from a cliff at the Grand Canyon. The woman, Samantha Busch, made the photo as a prank. She’s fine, nothing horrifying happened. (See articles by ABC News and the Daily Mail.)

Other clickbait articles obviously get their facts wrong, probably on purpose.
For instance, a Taboola article said, “Clint Eastwood is nearing 100.” He’s 90.
Another article titled “Remember Chuck Norris? Let’s have a look at him now” used a picture of game-show host Bob Barker.
A Smartfeed article titled “Netflix cancels another round of great shows” used a photo from the series “The Witcher,” which has not been canceled.

Lies and sexy ladies: Two clickbait staples

Posting photos of attractive women online apparently isn’t enough to draw curious web surfers these days. So, clickbait purveyors add lies to their sponsored articles to generate clicks.
What follows are some recent examples I’ve seen.

LiveIntent ran an article titled “Tiger Woods’ ex-wife is almost 50 and time has not been kind to her.” First off, his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, is only 40. Second, the clickbait post used a photo of model Laci Kay Somers. She was the subject of false rumors in 2017 that she was dating Woods. (See articles by CBS Detroit and Sarah Scoop.)

Taboola ran an article titled “This one photo caused her marriage to dissolve immediately.” It used a photo of Instagram model Lillie Artale. The same photo was used for a LiveIntent article titled “Man decides to file for divorce after taking a closer look at this photo.”
Artale told Tech-media-tainment that the clickbait article falsely represented her and that she did not give permission for the use of her image. She also contacted Taboola about the misuse of her image.

Another LiveIntent article titled “Johnny Carson’s daughter doesn’t hold back” used a photo of actress Carol Wayne, who is not his daughter.

Finally, Smartfeed ran an article titled “Rare photos of old Las Vegas show true Sin City.” But the post used a picture of French actress Brigitte Bardot taken in 1953 on the beach at the Cannes Film Festival.

Drug companies have the weirdest product mascots

A few years ago, I did an article on disgusting product mascots from TV commercials. Most were from pharmaceutical companies that wanted to grab people’s attention. They included mascots like Gut Guy, Digger and Mr. Mucus.
After seeing a new mascot for dry-eye treatment Xiidra, I decided it was time for an update. Drug company Novartis debuted the unnamed inflammatory creature in July for Xiidra. In ads, the creature causes people’s achy, burning, itchy eyes. (See article by Fierce Pharma.)

Another weird mascot is named Irritabelle. She is the “irritable (bowel) sidekick” in ads for Viberzi, a drug for the treatment of IBS-D (Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea). The drug is from Allergan, a unit of AbbVie. (See article by Pharma Marketing Blog.)

Finally, there’s the Cologuard box mascot for the Cologuard at-home screening test for colon cancer. In ads, he follows people around and tries to convince them to take a poo test. Cologuard is from Exact Sciences.

Related article:

The 6 most disgusting product mascots from TV commercials (Oct. 17, 2015)

Halls of fame in the U.S., a summary of the latest news on physical and virtual halls

On Tech-media-tainment, I write about halls of fame for all professions, endeavors and pastimes.
What follows is a roundup of my articles on the subject since July 2019, ordered newest to oldest.

Homeless halls of fame for funk music and more (Nov. 24, 2020)

New physical halls of fame in the works for home furnishings, sailing, opera and more (Nov. 22, 2020)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame needs to be less stingy with inductees (Nov. 8, 2020)

Supply Chain Hall of Fame is the nation’s newest physical hall of fame (Oct. 26, 2020)

Halls of fame for optometrists, plastics, trivia and more (Aug. 8, 2020)

Latest physical hall of fame is for U.S. Olympians (Aug. 2, 2020)

Halls of fame for fiddlers, visual effects artists, government and more (Feb. 27, 2020)

Physical halls of fame on the way for U.S. Olympic athletes, Illinois rockers, more (Feb. 22, 2020)

Could solo artists get the shaft from stingy Rock Hall? (Oct. 26, 2019)

Biggest letdown with Rock Hall noms: Just 5 planned inductees (Oct. 20, 2019)

Rock Hall finally acknowledges Pat Benatar, other longtime snubs (Oct. 15, 2019)

Rock Hall proposal: 20 for ’20 (Sept. 2, 2019)

Halls of fame for Clydesdale breeders, pork producers and cattle feeders (July 15, 2019)

Halls of fame for comic-book characters, dermatology and sports betting (July 14, 2019)

Halls of fame in the U.S., an update (July 7, 2019)

Map of physical halls of fame in North America (currently includes more than 475 halls).

Photo: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at night by Mark Migliorelli via Creative Commons.

Homeless halls of fame for funk music and more

Not all halls of fame are successful. Some that are lucky enough to get a physical location end up failing.
What follows is a look at some displaced and struggling halls of fame.

• The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame announced in August that its Georgia Radio Museum in LaGrange, Georgia, has closed permanently. It had been closed since mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (See opinion article and news story from the LaGrange Daily News.)
• The Funk Music Hall of Fame and Exhibition Center in Dayton, Ohio, closed in April 2019. The Funk Center had opened in December 2017. It’s looking for a new home. (See articles in Dayton.com and Facebook.)
• The Wisconsin Polka Hall of Fame is in its death throes from a lack of interest in the music genre, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. The group used to display plaques and awards at the Chandelier Ballroom in Hartford, Wisconsin. But now that memorabilia is in storage.
• The Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame is looking for a new home after losing its space in the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., in May 2019. A limited collection of artifacts is on temporary display in a room at Sahlen Field, home of the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team. (See article by the Buffalo News.)
• The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame is looking for a new home. The organization lost its exhibit space after the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit in West Bloomfield, Michigan, closed its health club. (See article by the Jewish News and the group’s Facebook page.)
• The Minnesota Fishing Museum and Hall of Fame in Little Falls, Minnesota, is struggling and is currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions. (See article by the Duluth News Tribune.)
• The University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame is asking for financial help after canceling or postponing two of its biggest events — including the 2020 induction banquet — because of the coronavirus pandemic. It operates a museum in Coral Gables, Florida. (See article by the Miami Herald.)

New physical halls of fame in the works for home furnishings, sailing, opera and more

For every new physical hall of fame that opens, there are probably a dozen more that are in the planning stages. And most of those wannabes likely will never get enough funding and support to open.
The most recent halls of fame to open are the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in Ellensburg, Washington; and the Supply Chain Hall of Fame in Rogers, Arkansas.
There are more than 475 physical halls of fame in North America.
What follows is a summary of U.S. halls of fame that are working to open brick-and-mortar museums and physical exhibit spaces that people can visit.

American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame

The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame is scheduled to open in 2022 in High Point, N.C. The hall will serve as a showcase for the home furnishings industry and will include exhibits and memorabilia.

National Sailing Hall of Fame

The National Sailing Hall of Fame will be included in The Sailing Museum, which is scheduled to open in spring 2022 in Newport, Rhode Island. The museum also will include a gallery for the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, which is currently housed at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I.

Opera Hall of Fame

In October, the organization Opera America announced the first 10 inductees to the newly created Opera Hall of Fame. The inaugural class of the Opera Hall of Fame will be honored at an induction ceremony in early 2022 in New York City. The Opera Hall of Fame will be located in the Sherrill Milnes Honors Gallery at Opera America’s National Opera Center in Manhattan.

Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame

The Comic-Con Museum dedicated to comics, science-fiction and fantasy movies and TV shows and more will open in 2021 in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Among the exhibits will be the Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame. Last year, Batman became the first inductee. On Nov. 19, the museum chose video game character Pac-Man as its second inductee.

Ohio Air & Space Hall of Fame and Museum

The Ohio Air & Space Hall of Fame and Museum is being built in the unused Port Columbus Air Terminal at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. It is expected to open in late 2021.

Memphis Sports Hall of Fame

The Memphis Sports Experience and Hall of Fame had been scheduled to open this year on the press level of AutoZone Park in Memphis, Tennessee. But the shutdown of sports caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed back those plans. (See articles by Daily Memphian and Memphis Business Journal.)

New Jersey Hall of Fame

The New Jersey Hall of Fame is set to open a museum — its first permanent physical home — at the American Dream complex in East Rutherford, N.J., in 2021. The latest inductees included Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway, Giants football great Eli Manning, Grammy-winning gospel singer Cissy Houston and Noble Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

And here’s a bonus hall of fame located in the Caribbean.

International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame

The International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame is getting a permanent home at the Pedro St. James Castle in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. The exhibit was supposed to open in 2020.

Related resource:

Map of halls of fame in the U.S. and Canada

Actors who have portrayed Santa Claus in movies

More than four dozen actors have portrayed Santa Claus, aka Kris Kringle, St. Nicholas, St. Nick, Father Christmas, etc., in movies.
Some have played the part multiple times. Charles Durning put on the red suit and white beard for a record five movies.
The latest actors to play Santa Claus include action movie stars Kurt Russell and Mel Gibson.
What follows is a list of actors who have portrayed the “jolly old elf” in live-action theatrical and TV films. It doesn’t include times actors have played dress-up as Santa Claus in the movies.

Actors who have portrayed Santa Claus in live-action movies, ordered by date of performance:

• Leedham Bantock, “Santa Claus” (1912)
• Ferdinand Munier, “March of the Wooden Soldiers” (1934), “Lake Placid Serenade” (1944) and “Road to Utopia” (1945)
• Edmund Gwenn, “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)
• John Call, “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” (1964)
• Alberto Rabagliati, “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” (1966)
• Sebastian Cabot, “Miracle on 34th Street” (1973)
• Fred Astaire, “The Man in the Santa Claus Suit” (1979)
• Armand Meffre, “I Believe in Santa Claus” (1984)
• Art Carney, “The Night They Saved Christmas” (1984)
• David Huddleston, “Santa Claus: The Movie” (1985)
• Jan Rubes, “One Magic Christmas” (1985)
• Douglas Seale, “Ernest Saves Christmas” (1988)
• Charles Durning, “It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas” (1989), “Mrs. Santa Claus” (1996), “Mr. St. Nick” (2002), “A Boyfriend for Christmas” (2004) and “Three Chris’s” (2010)
• Lloyd Bridges, “In the Nick of Time” (1991)
• Leslie Nielsen, “All I Want for Christmas” (1991) and “Santa Who?” (2000)
• Richard Attenborough, “Miracle on 34th Street” (1994)
• Tim Allen, “The Santa Clause (1994), “The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause” (2002) and “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” (2006)
• William Hootkins, “Like Father, Like Santa” (1998)
• Arnold Pinnock, “Must Be Santa” (1999)
• Hume Cronyn, “Santa and Pete” (1999)
• Beau Bridges, “The Christmas Secret” (2000)
• Douglas Campbell, “Once Upon a Christmas” (2000)
• Matthew Walker, “Twice Upon a Christmas” (2001)
• Nigel Hawthorne, “Call Me Claus” (2001)
• Dick Van Patten, “The Santa Trap” (2002)
• Ed Asner, “Elf” (2003) and “Santa Stole Our Dog: A Merry Doggone Christmas!” (2017)
• Christopher Plummer, “Blizzard” (2003)
• John Wheeler, “Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus” (2004) and “Meet the Santas” (2005)
• Steve Bacic, “Deck the Halls” (2005)
• Bill Goldberg, “Santa’s Slay” (2005)
• James Cosmo, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005) and “The Santa Incident” (2010)
• George Wendt, “Santa Baby” (2006) and “Santa Buddies” (2009)
• John Goodman, “The Year Without a Santa Claus” (2006)
• Paul Giamatti, “Fred Claus” (2007)
• Paul Sorvino, “Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe” (2009)
• R.D. Reid, “The Night Before the Night Before Christmas” (2010)
• William Morgan Sheppard, “Farewell Mr. Kringle” (2010)
• Richard Riehle, “The Search for Santa Paws” (2010)
• Pat Finn, “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups” (2012)
• Jack Hoke, “Elf-Man” (2012)
• Will Sasso, “Finding Mrs. Claus” (2012)
• Donavon Stinson, “A Fairly Odd Christmas” (2012) and “Santa Hunters” (2014)
• Bill Lewis, “Defending Santa” (2013)
• Jim Broadbent, “Get Santa” (2014)
• Robert Wagner, “Northpole” (2014)
• Donovan Scott, “Northpole: Open for Christmas” (2015)
• Michael Gross, “Becoming Santa” (2015)
• Doug Kaye, “Santa’s Boot Camp” (2016)
• Kari Väänänen, “Kiwi Christmas” (2017)
• Kurt Russell, “The Christmas Chronicles” (2018) and “The Christmas Chronicles 2” (2020)
• Mel Gibson, “Fatman” (2020)

Resources:

List of actors who played Santa Claus (Wikipedia)

Santa @ the Movies: The Timeline (KringleQuest)

Photos: Movie posters for “The Christmas Chronicles” and “Fatman.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame needs to be less stingy with inductees

Now that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted its latest class of performers (Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, T. Rex, The Doobie Brothers, The Notorious B.I.G. and Whitney Houston), attention shifts to who’s next in line.
My biggest complaint with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is that it’s miserly when it comes to letting in new members.
With its growing backlog of worthy inductees, it needs to add more than the usual five or six performers each year. I would suggest seven to 10 inductees for a few years. The hall also should abandon the idea that it can only induct one artist from each subcategory of popular music per year.
Some halls of fame are pickier than others by design. For instance, the Country Music Hall of Fame only selects three inductees per year, but it has a narrower scope than the Rock Hall. Yet, it still has a large backlog of worthy inductees, according to Billboard magazine. They include John Denver, Tanya Tucker and The Judds.
Elsewhere, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is difficult to get into, while the National Basketball Hall of Fame has much less stringent requirements.
The Rock Hall expects to announce nominees for its 2021 class in early April. Jay-Z and Foo Fighters are likely shoo-ins for nominations in their first year of eligibility. And I hope the voting committee doesn’t completely ignore the fan vote this time out.
Below are the artists I hope to see nominated this year. These are not predictions and they admittedly skew toward my own musical sensibilities.
Here’s my list in order of preference for induction. The first year of eligibility is in parentheses, based on data from Future Rock Legends.

1. Pat Benatar (2000)
2. The Go-Go’s (2006)
3. Joy Division/New Order (2004/2007)
4. Phil Collins (2007)
5. INXS (2006)
6. Thin Lizzy (1996)
7. Carly Simon (1997)
8. Bad Company (2000)
9. Duran Duran (2007)
10. The Smiths (2009)

Here are some Rock Hall predictions for 2021 from notable Hall watchers:

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame: 2021 Predictions (Zoot Marimba, The Music Zamboni; Sept. 3, 2020)

Predicted Rock Hall 2021 nominations (Alex Voltaire, Twitter; Sept. 22, 2020)

2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominee Predictions (Nick Bambach, The Audio-Visual Repository; Oct. 10, 2020)

Will Anyone Listen to Me? My Picks for the Nominees List for the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Scott Keller, If My Records Could Talk; Oct. 29, 2020)