Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Lying clickbait: Close-but-no-cigar edition

Some photos used with sponsored articles or promoted links are blatantly false. Others are false, but are at least in the general ballpark in terms of time period or geography. They’re still false and should never have been used.
What follows are some examples of lying clickbait that use photos I classify as “close, but no cigar.”
Taboola recently promoted an article titled “37 Woodstock photos that will make your skin crawl.” It featured a photo of a pretty girl in a tie top and shorts selling flowers by the roadside.
The photo was taken in 1973 in Oklahoma, according to posters on Imgur and History In Pictures. As a reminder, the Woodstock festival took place in August 1969 in White Lake, N.Y.


Another Taboola-sponsored link was titled “Vintage photos of Las Vegas that’ll make your skin crawl.” (What is it with all these headlines about photos making your skin crawl?)
The promoted link used a photo of showgirls playing chess between shows at the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York City. The classic photo by Gordon Parks first appeared in Life magazine in December 1958, according to PiqueShow.



A promoted article by Revcontent was titled “‘Jaw-dropping’ secret photos smuggled out of North Korea.” However, it featured a photo taken in July 2008 at the Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea. The photo was the work of Hypnotica Studios Infinite.



A similar article by Taboola titled “These unnerving photos of life in North Korea will blow your mind” featured a picture of women in olive drab T-shirts and black booty shorts trying on gas masks. But again, this photo isn’t from North Korea.
The photo is from a Chinese television program about a female special forces unit of the People’s Liberation Army. (See articles by Lollipop and AsiaOne.)



Finally, a Taboola-sponsored link titled “New ‘Bewitched’ revelations come to light” featured a photo of the show’s star Elizabeth Montgomery. But the racy photo isn’t from “Bewitched” (1964–1972). It’s from the 1963 crime film “Johnny Cool.”
Like I said: close, but no cigar.



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