back to article Instagram: You'll LOVE our 'enjoyable' new feature. Yes, it's adverts

Photo-sharing Facebook subsidiary Instagram has announced that it will soon start serving ads to its US users, including photos and videos. "We have big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building Instagram into a sustainable business," a company spokesperson wrote in a blog post on Thursday. Facebook …

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  1. ecofeco Silver badge

    An inferior app

    Instagram is a perfect example of not what you know, but who you know. It is a truly an inferior app compared to others out there. Hell, my Android came built in with pic share.

    1. Cliff

      Re: An inferior app

      I was actually surprised to read the headline, didn't know Instagram were still going. Fashion is fickle, the press darlings become the 'oh I remember...'s quickly, and I genuinely thought their moment had passed and they were working towards wind-down. Maybe carrying Facebook ads will accelerate that.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ap deleted never to be used again...

      One down...

  2. Don Jefe

    I sure hope they aren't looking at their content for creative, enjoyable or any combination of those things. I'm not entirely convinced the folks at Instagram have a real good handle on what those words mean.

    1. andreas koch
      Devil

      @Don Jefe - Re: meaning of 'enjoyable'

      Oh, it'll be enjoyable, no doubt. For MZuck.

      After all, 9 of 10 people enjoy gang-rape . . .

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I wouldn't worry, Instagram users seem to think that uploading a selfie or a photo of whatever overpriced coffee-flavoured whipped cream Starbucks confection they're drinking today, then applying Instagram's canned "pretend degraded Instamatic snapshot from the 1970s" filter to it counts as "creativity" and makes them a Real Photographer.

      I'm sure that Instagram's "creative" adverts will feature bearded twentysomethings in a field, shooting-into-the-light lens flare and music played on a ukelele for that down-to-earth-whimsicality... just like EVERY OTHER F*****G ADVERT just now.

      1. Oliver 7

        Put down of the day for me, thanks! :-D

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Instagram adds ads, says they'll be 'enjoyable and creative' .."

    Translation: We'll enjoy the dumptrucks full of money the ads will create ..

  4. Turtle

    And it therefore follows...

    "Seeing photos and videos from brands you don't follow will be new, so we'll start slow"

    People who "follow brands" need to be euthanized, so as to filter some of the more noxious trash from the gene pool.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And it therefore follows...

      @Turtle - Have you seen the frothing that happens here everytime there's a mention of Apple or Android ?

      You'd have to euthanize half of el reg commentards

      1. Martin 47

        Re: And it therefore follows...

        You seem to be saying that like its a bad thing?

        Where's the confused icon?

      2. Atonnis

        Re: And it therefore follows...

        And Engadget would lose 99.999% of their regular readership...oh gods, it would be so.....good....!

    2. Don Jefe

      Re: And it therefore follows...

      I can see someone following a brand for coupons/freebies. I wouldn't do it, but I can understand why someone might.

      The weirdest thing I've seen people follow though is their insurance company. Why in gods name would you want to follow them? There's nothing to be gained and, going solely by my experiences, insurance types tend to be insufferably boring and/or inane.

    3. ecofeco Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: And it therefore follows...

      Brand followers euthanized? My god man, you're talking world wide economic collapse!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'enjoyable and creative' -- like my last bout of filing taxes, no doubt.

    IRS only knocks once a year, though, and I suspect the adverts will be more frequent.

  6. MrXavia
    Facepalm

    Photography lesson ads maybe?

    Instagram, every time hear that word I hope it is followed by 'has closed down'

    But who knows, maybe they will show ads for photography lessons, and counselling for social media addicts?

  7. DrXym

    The ads I enjoy the most

    Are ones that don't exist. Failing that, the ones I can block. Failing that, ones I can instantly skip. Failing that, ones which are unobtrusive and low frequency.

    Some apps have such annoying ads that I walk out of the room to ignore them. e.g. the 4oD app for android inflicts *minutes* of ads during playback. You can't skip them or trick play past them. So if you want to watch the last 10 minutes of a show you get a dose of ads when you start playing the vid, and another dose when you skip to the point you want to watch from.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So in summary:

    The new iPhone

    The new Hollister/SuperDry/Whatever lame brand is in this year in chav fashions.

    errm, anymore?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So in summary:

      I like how SuperDry pretend to be Japanese, when anyone with a clue knows that they're a bunch of London-based wankers and that "Super Dry" in Japan actually refers to a type of beer.

  9. Stuart Castle Silver badge

    Probably gonna get downvotes for this..

    But..

    Personally I don't mind ads as long as they are enjoyable. I remember some of the TV ads in the past were actually more enjoyable than the programmes they were shown beside (thinking of the classics here, the Heineken ads with Griff Rhys Jones for instance. The trouble is Advertising has changed. Today, it's all about getting the brand in the face of the viewer as many times as possible in as short a time as possible. Even if you offend the viewer. that doesn't matter as long as you are noticed.

    Gone are the days when TV ads were particularly funny or had a storyline to attract viewers. In the past, we even had short soap operas in the form of the the OXO family ads, the Nescafe Gold Blend ads (Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan playing a flirting neighbours) and the "Papa and Nicole" Renault Clio ads.

    Internet ads though have rarely done anything but irritate me. OK, so some of the Google ads are quite amusing but they are the exception rather than the rule.

    1. Atonnis

      Re: Probably gonna get downvotes for this..

      Don't forget the Wine Gums 'Juice is Loose' advert!

      The Nescafe adverts were cringeworthy and awful. They have similar things going today, but today's watcher has a lower attention span.

      The Papa/Nicole adverts were only good because we were all thinking of the other hundred horrific ways those two could have actually bumped into each other (streetwalker/man drives up in car looking for streetwalker, etc).

  10. Tim 11

    "sustainable" business model

    the only sustainable business model for instagram is to sell the company for enough dosh you can sustain yourself indefinitely on the proceeds. shame someone else already thought of that

  11. The FunkeyGibbon

    Whatever happened to...

    Having a business model that worked and then building a rep on it rather than having it the other way around?!?

  12. insane_hound

    Autoplay

    Video Adverts - a sure fire wire to make me never visit a site again.

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