Instagram (and other social media websites) gives you the power to report ads. That's right - you, dear user, have the amazing opportunity to help a tech conglomerate moderate their paid content for FREE. If you love pressing buttons and recoil at the prospect of being adverising to, then this is the guide for you!
When you select "Report Ad" you will see the following options:
Why are you reporting this ad?
(as of November 2023)
The meaning behind these options is not explained in the app, so I will walk through each of them with appropriate commentary. Please note that with relatively minor mental acrobatics any ad could fit into any category. Although reporting ads will not stop or slow the onslaught of psychic attacks, it will result in increasingly obscure and desparate tactics by advertisers. In the end, just try to have some fun, go with your gut, and fuck with some facebook employee and business ad manager. Why are you even on this app, again?
Let your skin become so thin it's translucent. When you scroll this vile gram, you are in a disgusting world of cheap flesh, garish marketing gimmicks, engagement bait, and discarded egos. What isn't offensive about that?
Suggested Categories: Ad creative with colors or animation, ads about banking, fitness, and clothing.
We are awash with images, words, videos, sounds that we didn't opt into. Even if you checked a box, did you really have a choice? If you didn't ask to be shown something, that's spam.
Suggested Categories: Ads about employment, education, and dairy.
Tactic one: channel your inner puritan.
Tactic two: heterosexuality is disgusting.
Tactic three: self-repulsed shameful pervert
Suggested Categories: Ad creative featuring people or animals, ad creative with or without an "aesthetic", ads about make-up and self-help (basically masturbation).
Advertising is the art of lying. They're trying to convince to take an action, manipulate you into feeling something, or swindle you out of time/money/possessions/self-respect. General Rule of Thumb: If it's an ad, it's misleading.
Suggested Categories: Ads about investing, self-help, and food.
Amassed wealth is violence, alienated labor is violence, so it follows that all merchansise is violence.
Suggested Categories: All products and services.
The personal is political. If you follow the money, you will eventually trace it to arms dealers, prison contractors, conservative super PACS, and oil companies.
Suggested Categories: Ads about religion, bras, cars, and jewelry.
if it's related to AI, it's probably violating your intellectul property rights.
Suggested Categories: Ads about apps, websites, and all other technology.
Are companies people? No. They're pretending to be us!
Suggested Categories: Ads from corporations, businesses, and organizations.
If you ever engage with an online ad and end up making a purchase, please be sure to go back and report it as "violent or prohibited content."
If you ever engage with an online ad and don't end up making a purchase, please be sure to go back and report it as "scam or misleading."
Now that you're an ad-reporting pro, get out there and report some ads! Instagram will even do you the favor of letting you know if they agree with your report. Think of it as your "ad body count."
You can even try this in real life. If you see a billboard, shout "It's violent or prohibited content" at the top of your lungs. If someone is doing Word of Mouth advertising to you, try and report them to themself.
Related topics: vandalism, non-corporate social media