I’ll throw a montitor out so fast for pushing ads to me.
Yeah, let’s take this as a lesson huh.
This month, our plug is Heat Up St. Louis! If you would like to donate, please visit their site at https://heatupstlouis.org/
SOURCES
https://gizmodo.com/lg-monitors-fill-pcs-with-adware-and-its-not-just-recent-displays-2000787737
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/advice-smart-devices-data-tracking/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee
https://www.pocket-lint.com/how-to-stop-your-lg-tv-from-spying-on-you/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
The Marketing Gateway is a weekly podcast hosted by Sean in St. Louis (Sean J. Jordan, President of https://www.researchplan.com/) and featuring guests from the St. Louis area and beyond.
Every week, Sean shares insights about the world of marketing and speaks to people who are working in various marketing roles – creative agencies, brand managers, MarCom professionals, PR pros, business owners, academics, entrepreneurs, researchers and more!
The goal of The Marketing Gateway is simple – we want to build a connection between all of our marketing mentors in the Midwest and learn from one another! And the best way to learn is to listen.
And the next best way is to share!
For more episodes: https://www.themarketinggateway.com
Copyright 2025, The Research & Planning Group, Inc.
TRANSCRIPT:
One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Futurama, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s animated follow-up to The Simpsons set in 31st century and starring a cryogenically frozen 20th century schlub named Philip J. Fry. Futurama is well-known for skewering pop culture in many different ways, and if you’ve ever seen that meme where Fry is holding a wad of bills and shouting, “Shut up and take my money!,” that’s from an episode where Futurama took a jab at iPhone mania.
In one early episode, Fry has a dream about standing up in class and realizes he’s in his underwear, but the dream then shifts into a full-on ad for fancier underwear. Fry wakes up, alarmed, but all of his friends and co-workers, who are used to this sort of thing, insist it’s no big deal.
One of his co-workers, Leela, asks, “Didn’t you have ads in the 20th century?”
And Fry responds, “Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky… But not in dreams. No sirree”
I bring this up because one of the places where you would expect to see ads is on a screen, but a computer monitor, you’d like to think that you have at least a fighting chance of controlling the ads that you see by keeping your web browser closed and your internet connection turned off.
Unfortunately, computers are really vulnerable to annoying or even malicious programs that can be injected through all sorts of different means, and that’s why we use programs like Windows Defender and Malware Bytes to limit the threat vectors.
But the electronics company LG has figured out that through the firmware on its computer monitors, it can push software directly to your operating system without your knowledge or explicit consent – hey, it’s all probably spelled out in some terms of service you clicked past at some point! – and while that might be useful for installing drivers or optimization software, LG has also decided it’s a great way to install adware pushing McAfee services which are, of course, supposed to be designed to stop exactly this sort of thing from happening.
That’s some complex irony, to be sure. You’ve gotta love it.
But users really don’t love it, especially because it’s not something they can avoid by simply buying older screens, because LG is able to make those do the same thing through the firmware.
So, let’s take a moment to talk about these literally intrusive ads and why LG’s strategy of rolling them out this way is doomed for failure, and maybe even boycotts or litigation down the road.
I’m Sean in St. Louis, and this is the Marketing Gateway.
The idea of using a banal consumer product to secretly install software on a user’s computer is not a new one, and 20 years ago, Sony BMG found itself embroiled in an incredible scandal when consumers discovered that around 22 million music CDs manufactured by Sony would install copy protection DRM software via an intrusive tool known as a rootkit.
Without getting too technical, what a rootkit does is inject itself into a level of your computer’s operating system where it has access to things ordinary software doesn’t and has a greater amount of access to data as well as more authority to control what you do. Rootkits are also dangerous because they provide an exploitable pathway in your operating system for other malicious programs to take advantage of.
As a result, a rootkit is generally classified as malware and ethical software developers don’t use them without your consent and knowledge. But Sony BMG’s program not only would install itself even if you refused to accept the End-User License Agreement, but also tried to hide itself from the operating system.
This led to an enormous outcry from consumers and regulators and multiple lawsuits. The issue was quite controversial.
Was Sony BMG entitled to try to protect its copyright? Some felt it was reasonable but other people felt that no, they didn’t have the right to do that because consumers were purchasing music CDs with the intent of using them however they wished to, not with Sony BMG’s draconian software limiting them.
Was Sony BMG allowed to install copy protection software on personal computers? Again, some felt it was reasonable if Sony BMG clearly communicated that fact via its license agreement, but others felt Sony BMG had no business installing any software at all without making it optional and at the discretion of the computer user.
Was Sony BMG allowed to harvest data from the software it installed? Most people felt this was a definite intrusion into their privacy, and you have to remember that in 2005, even tracking cookies on websites were a pretty controversial idea. People didn’t like the idea of being surveilled by entertainment conglomerates so they could listen to a lousy music CD any more than they wanted to be surveilled by anyone else.
Obviously, things have changed. Most consumers now accept they’re being tracked by every electronic device they use. But many are still oblivious to the fact that their living rooms and even bedrooms may be snooping on them. Smart TVs, Amazon Fire Sticks, Roku units and video game consoles all transmit a lot of data to their parent companies, and there are many privacy concerns about these devices using embedded speakers or even cameras to collect vast amounts of user data. Smart themostats, doorbells, refrigerators and other appliances are probably also snooping. And that data often winds up being for sale!
And if you think kicking these devices off your home network will put a stop to it, there have been reports that some smart devices will search for open internet connections from your neighbors or connected devices, log on through them and transmit data, even if you’re opted out of sharing it.
This is obviously bad behavior, and unfortunately, LG is one of the companies that gets caught all the time in creating devices that transmit data back to the manufacturer.
One of the most pernicious vectors is the LG Magic Remote, which is a very smart and useful remote controller – you can even control some other devices like the PlayStation 5 with it! – but which also features a microphone for voice recognition. In order to use this device, you have to agree to terms and conditions that allow LG to receive a significant amount of data from your television and remote control.
Privacy experts recommend blocking these devices at the network level to limit their transmission of data, but that’s not something the average person can easily do, nor is it probably reasonable for a consumer who just wants to watch television to have to be suspicious of their remote control or television spying on them.
And yes, it is possible and even probable that these devices have snooped on sensitive conversations or intimate moments or where the TVs have taken screenshots of sensitive information shown onscreen when a computer’s hooked up to the TV.
But what is all this data being used for? Well, it’s mainly to build a profile so they can serve ads. And this is where the greatest concerns tend to come in, because many consumers are not interested in having ads appear on the devices they’ve spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars purchasing.
Well, actually, let me refine that, to paraphrase Futurama’s Philip J. Fry – Not in our device menus and starting screens. Only on TV channels and on websites, and during news magazines, and cable movies, and during ball games, and through product placement on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky… But not in our device menus and starting screens! No sirree.
And, to be fair, if you refuse all the terms of service and don’t hook your TV up the internet and pretty much just use it as a traditional television, you’re probably not being snooped on. Probably. It’s still really hard to know, because these things aren’t installing rootkits on your computer you can detect. No way. And no need. They’re already designed to have root access to their own software.
So let’s now go back to the original topic, which is LG taking that next step of using its privileged status as a computer accessory that can install its own drivers and software on your computer so your devices will be plug and play to then install adware and make you view a bunch of McAfee pop-ups you probably don’t want to see.
And I want to pause here and remind people the founder of McAfee software, John McAfee, was basically a supercriminal in his latter years until he died in 2021. Look it up. It’s in the show notes. Now, he sold his stake in 1994, had nothing to do with the company since and was actually a major critic of what he considered to be their predatory business practices. But still. Sometimes the pot calling the kettle black is worth paying attention to. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Anyhow, LG is now reaping an enormous amount of criticism and badwill from this revelation, particularly since they’re able to install adware through older devices without users consenting to it through purchase. If they’d included a pre-purchase disclaimer that “this device may be used to inject adware into your computer and you must opt out to prevent this,” fine. Let the market decide.
But to retroactively enable older devices to behave badly is a new low for digital privacy, especially since it begs the question of how far back these injections go and whether or not data has been transmitted this whole time when consumers purchasing a computer monitor expected it to be… well, a computer monitor, with no smart features or need to share data with LG.
And I suspect LG is going to find that they’re going to suffer enormously from this situation because the very competitive space of computer monitors also tends to be populated by people who know a thing or two about computers. IT experts will tell their corporate departments to avoid LG monitors because they’ll be worried about threat vectors. Gamers will avoid LG monitors because they’ll be worried about performance issues caused by the adware. Home users will avoid LG monitors because they’ll be concerned about being spied on or annoyed by ads. And retailers may stop carrying the brand as frequently if they perceive it’s tarnished.
And in a competitive market where every inch of share you can grab counts, LG is probably going to find itself on the losing end of a battle that can’t be fought with low prices or good messaging. And that’s of course assuming they don’t get sued or called in front of regulators like Sony BMG in 2005, which they almost certainly will be.
So, let’s learn from this, fellow marketers. Gathering user data is… fine, I guess, as long as the users are aware of it. Using user data to make your products better is also acceptable. And marketing to users through targeted data procured from digital networks is of course the norm today, and if you’re not creepy about it, most people won’t have a problem with it.
But going to incredible lengths to inject ads into a space where someone expects not to have them? It might seem like a dream at first.
But in reality, it’s a nightmare just waiting to happen.
I’m Sean in St. Louis, and this has been The Marketing Gateway. See ya next time!
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