Analysis shows content is aimed at working-class over-50s, and plays on fears of crime, stirs anger and pushes conspiracy theories

Are you a cleaner or builder who likes Primark, the pub or reality TV – but doesn’t care about the environment? If yes, the Conservative party wants your vote.

These are some of the interest categories used by the campaign team for the Tories’ candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, to target audiences on social media.

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Willy Gilder thinks the Alzheimer’s Society latest ad campaign is a mistake and would like to see it withdrawn

The chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society has sought to justify its new ad campaign, The Long Goodbye , by saying that it “tells the unvarnished truth about the devastation caused by dementia”. It isn’t a truth that I, as a person with Alzheimer’s disease, recognise. The ad shows a family mourning their mum, and saying that she died several times in advance of her actual death as she realised that she could no longer cook a family meal, or take part in social activities.

This idea of dementia being a “living death” reinforces the most negative stereotypes of my condition, and contravenes guidance for journalists drawn up by the society itself six years ago. I share a dementia diagnosis with the star of Die Hard, Bruce Willis. I prefer to try to Live Well, or as well as I am able. It dismays me that the country’s leading dementia charity seems to want to reinforce the stigma surrounding brain disease.

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Media companies to combine publishing and advertising platforms to target gen Z and millennials

The Independent will take control of BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK and Ireland with the intention to create “Britain’s biggest publisher network for Gen Z and millennial audiences”, the publishers have said.

The two media companies will combine their publishing, data and advertising platforms “to allow commercial partners to seamlessly buy across their sites”.

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Poster for sausage-themed show fell foul of Transport for London rules on promoting unhealthy food

Some comics complain that their craft is under threat from “cancel culture”. For comedians with a sausage-themed standup tour, they might have a point, after Ed Gamble was forced to remove a picture of a hotdog from posters promoting his forthcoming show on the tube network because it breached Transport for London’s junk food advertising policy.

The comic was pictured with the fast-food item in an advert for his show Hot Diggity Dog. When the design was sent to TfL for display on the underground, Gamble was told to alter the poster because it failed to comply with the organisation’s advertising policy on featuring foods high in fat, sugar and salt.

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Readers respond to Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff’s article about her reservations about embarking on parenthood

Re Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff’s article ( I know I want at least one baby. But the more I learn about motherhood, the more terrifying it seems, 12 March ), having survived the trauma of childbirth and managed to scrape enough to pay for childcare and a living, there is another aspect to consider: the immense negative impact motherhood would have on your career.

Having successfully worked in the world of media agencies for 15 years, I have now arrived at a firm stop in my career due to being penalised for flexible hours. I cannot physically work 55 hours a week while looking after my two girls.

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Adverts telling us to take services into our own hands are trying to maintain the delusion that we still have a functioning society

One of the beautiful things about adverts is that each one is a kind of window: into the entire thought process that led to it being produced. The television series Mad Men understood this: although I doubt there was quite so much grief and self-torture behind someone thinking, for instance: “Maybe we could use a guy with a giant head to advertise this online bank.”

I often spend journeys on public transport trying to peep through these windows. For instance, over the past few months, I have been seeing posters that in effect state: “For the love of God, stop bothering the doctors with your minor complaints.” Explicitly, the content is more along the lines of: “Cold? Tummy bug? Nits? Think pharmacy first!” But implicitly , I know what whoever came up with this advert was thinking. “The NHS has no money. We have to find a way to have fewer patients. Please can the less seriously sick people just start taking their medical care into their own hands?” One version of the advert tells patients to “#DoYourBit” and “Don’t just turn up” to A&E.

Tom Whyman is an academic philosopher and a writer

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Call for stricter rules for betting firms to stop use of promotions with references to popular culture that appeal to under-18s

Tougher rules are required to crack down on betting firms’ use of “sneaky” social media postings and campaigns that may lure young people into gambling, warns a new report.

Researchers at Bristol University have reported a rise in gambling promotions that typically blur the line between advertising for a betting company and popular cultural references, from ET to Gladiator .

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They thrived alongside the yuppies in the booming 80s. Now, in tougher times, they have found a safe space to flaunt their carefree lifestyle

Name: Dinks.

Age: The term was coined in the 1980s. Dinks have been around for longer and are, by definition, of working and child-raising age.

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Traditional ad revenue may be suffering – but, crucially, streaming service ITVX is starting to deliver income

It’s been two years exactly since Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, sent the share price crashing by 27% in a day as she announced a plan to ramp up the broadcaster’s adventures in streaming by launching ITVX. The City saw a large investment bill in the offing, plus definitive proof that the days of easy advertising money from old-style linear television were over, and tuned out. The share price has never seen 100p again and was 56p as recently as last month.

But here – finally – comes a hint of better times. The evidence was not the headline numbers from Thursday’s full-year report on 2023, which showed a fall in statutory pre-tax profits of almost two-thirds to £193m and a thumping 15% decline in those linear ad revenues. Rather, it was evidence that the shift towards streaming, which was plainly necessary in the age of Netflix and Disney+, will deliver what it is supposed to do and will cost no more than originally promised.

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