Thursday, March 30, 2017

Clickbait cliche: Photos that almost broke the internet

If you believe lying clickbait, the internet has come close to being broken many times by photos of smoking-hot women.
Content promotion services use some come-on lines so often they’ve become cliches. Among the most common clickbait cliches are articles that promise to show “photos that almost broke the internet.”
What follows are three examples of this cliche from Taboola and one from Yahoo.

One Taboola article titled “20 perfectly timed photos that almost broke the internet” featured a photo of cheerleader MaCall Manor. (See article about Manor by Busted Coverage.)



Another Taboola post, this one titled “25+ perfectly timed photos that almost broke the internet,” used a photo of reality TV star Luisa Zissman from BBC’s “The Apprentice.” (See article by the Express.)



Yet another Taboola post with the same headline used a photo of Cristina Blackwell from when she was a weathercaster for “Despierta America,” a morning show on Spanish-language channel Univision. She is now a host of “Great Day SA” on KENS-TV in San Antonio.



Finally, a sponsored post on Yahoo titled “She almost took down the internet with this move” used a photo of Finnish freestyle swimmer Hanna-Maria Seppala.



Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Clickbait favorites: Sexy female celebrities for sponsored articles

Clickbait purveyors often use unknown or little known attractive women to promote their articles. But sometimes they use celebrities past and present.
I’ve previously reported about the fixation content marketing services have with Brigitte Bardot. She was a ridiculously beautiful woman when she was making movies from 1952 to 1973.
Her photos create curiosity among young male web surfers who likely aren’t familiar with the French sex kitten. (See also “Lying clickbait: Brigitte Bardot photos were never ‘classified’” and “Lying clickbait: Pretty women as the honeypot.”)



The same holds for actress Jane Fonda. She was a striking beauty in her youth and millennials are probably unfamiliar with her.
She also was a controversial figure during the Vietnam War for showing support for the enemy of the U.S. She earned the nickname “Hanoi Jane” after visiting the North Vietnamese troops.




Another popular celebrity for clickbait articles is actress Milana Vayntrub, best known for her AT&T commercials, where she plays an AT&T store employee. (See photo at top.)



Other celebrities used in recent clickbait promos have included models Kate Upton and Gigi Hadid.
A photo of Upton was used for a clickbait article titled “The cameraman just kept recording.” It’s a still image from a sexy Easter video that Upton did for Love magazine. (See it here on YouTube.)



The picture of Hadid was used to promote an article titled “Photos from jaw-dropping actresses from the past.” However, Hadid is a model, not an actress, and she’s very much of the present.



Sometimes the celebrities are of the more obscure variety.
A Taboola sponsored article titled “33 eye-popping photos left out of history books” included a photo of Playboy magazine’s 1969 Playmate of the Year, Connie Kreski. Kreski is pictured with a pink Ford Shelby Mustang GT-500 that she received as one of her gifts for winning the title.



Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Clickbait cuties: Sexy female athletes

A clickbait staple is promoting collections of photos of fetching female athletes.
These collections usually feature women in swimsuits or tight-fitting sports apparel. (See “Clickbait cliche: The crowd got more than it bargained for.”)
Pole-vaulter and fitness model Allison Stokke is a popular subject for these pictorials.


Another popular subject is golfer Paige Spiranac.



A photo of TV personality and golfer Holly Sonders was used to promote a Taboola sponsored article.



Clickbait purveyors also dig chicks in swimsuits.
A Yahoo sponsored article titled “The sports photographer couldn’t believe his luck” featured a picture of Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini.



And finally here’s a picture of an unidentified female swimmer for a Revcontent promoted article titled “She had no idea why the crowd was cheering.”



Monday, March 27, 2017

Clickbait cuties: The sexy sirens of sponsored articles

Content promotion services like Taboola and Outbrain often return to the same sexy women for photos to promote their clickbait articles.
I’ve called Russian glamour model Anastasia Kvitko “the cover girl for lying clickbait” for how often different photos of her are used with lying clickbait articles. But there are other pretty ladies that clickbait articles have relied on repeatedly.
This article will focus on two more clickbait favorites: Claire Abbott and Rachel Wray.

Claire Abbott

Pictures of Claire Abbott were featured recently in several Yahoo sponsored posts titled “Photos from jaw-dropping actresses from the past!” However, Abbott is not an actress and is very much a modern phenomenon.
Abbott is an aspiring singer-songwriter-musician from Canada. But she came to fame for her sexy Instagram photos. She has since deleted her Instagram account, but has active accounts on YouTube and Twitter.
She also has lots of fans online, including a Reddit page and pictorials on SneakHype and Lurk & Perv. Nuff said.



Rachel Wray

Rachel Wray is a stunning former cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs turned mixed martial arts fighter.
She has been the featured photo recently with an Outbrain sponsored article titled “14 athletes who make Kim Kardashian look plain.”
Unlike Abbott, Wray doesn’t have a public social media presence. She currently works as a continuous improvement training coordinator at Tyson Foods and a coach at a UFC Gym in Springdale, Arkansas.




Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Robotic exoskeletons in movies and TV shows

Robotic exoskeletons have been the stuff of science fiction, but now are showing up in industrial and health-care rehabilitation settings.
They are giving extra strength and support for laborers and allowing paraplegics to walk again. Companies building such devices include ReWalk Robotics, Ekso Bionics and Hyundai.
What follows are depictions of powered exoskeletons from movies and TV shows. Many more examples can be found in video games such as “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” and “Fallout 4.”

Aliens (1986)

MANTIS (1994)

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Iron Man (2008)

Avatar (2009)

The Wolverine (2013)

Elysium (2013)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Check out the Wikipedia entry “List of films featuring powered exoskeletons.”