Twitter Recalls Seizure Inducing Vine Ads
It's the kind of thing that's just on the edge of ridiculous, but somehow happened anyway. Twitter have been more than a little bit excited about their shiny new #DiscoverMusic hashtag campaign. It was set in place to promote new tracks and increase Twitter's worth as a source of new music. Sadly, the flagship ad for it has been flagged for being a massive seizure risk. Yikes.
The Vine, which looped a set of bright colours flashing in rapid succession has since been removed after Epilepsy UK warned that they were 'massively dangerous' to epileptics. Thankfully no cases of any actually fitting as a result of the ad have been reported, but photosensitive epilepsy is common almost the world over, so had Epilepsy UK not jumped on it so quickly, it might have only been a matter of time. It's even worse when you remember that videos autoplay on Twitter.
This is the kind of thing that really underlines the risk of the rapid-fire advertising that's been enabled by things like Vine. You can cobble together an ad so quickly that not enough time is committed to making sure it's safe to be published or promoted. A TV advert containing that kind of content would have never made it past quality control, but online advertising is just one massive open season. Companies have to set their own standards and here, Twitter's slipped.
It's of course a point in Twitter's favour that they pulled the Vine so quickly, only 18 hours after it was first published, but epilepsy risk isn't exactly a secret and anything featuring flashing lights should come with a warning and certainly shouldn't ambush users like some kind of psychedelic gut-punch.
They're being understandably quiet about it, but their international communications director thanked the charity for the information. Just as well, we wouldn't have wanted them to mistakenly think their ad campaign was so good that it had people writhing on the floor from sheer excitement.
.@TwitterUK Your #DiscoverMusic Vines are massively dangerous to people with photosensitive epilepsy. Please take them offline now.
— Epilepsy Action (@epilepsyaction) July 10, 2015
The Vine, which looped a set of bright colours flashing in rapid succession has since been removed after Epilepsy UK warned that they were 'massively dangerous' to epileptics. Thankfully no cases of any actually fitting as a result of the ad have been reported, but photosensitive epilepsy is common almost the world over, so had Epilepsy UK not jumped on it so quickly, it might have only been a matter of time. It's even worse when you remember that videos autoplay on Twitter.
This is the kind of thing that really underlines the risk of the rapid-fire advertising that's been enabled by things like Vine. You can cobble together an ad so quickly that not enough time is committed to making sure it's safe to be published or promoted. A TV advert containing that kind of content would have never made it past quality control, but online advertising is just one massive open season. Companies have to set their own standards and here, Twitter's slipped.
It's of course a point in Twitter's favour that they pulled the Vine so quickly, only 18 hours after it was first published, but epilepsy risk isn't exactly a secret and anything featuring flashing lights should come with a warning and certainly shouldn't ambush users like some kind of psychedelic gut-punch.
They're being understandably quiet about it, but their international communications director thanked the charity for the information. Just as well, we wouldn't have wanted them to mistakenly think their ad campaign was so good that it had people writhing on the floor from sheer excitement.
Callum Davies
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
Twitter Recalls Seizure Inducing Vine Ads
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Tuesday, July 14, 2015
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Reviewed by Unknown
on
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
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Unknown
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