things

s21e31 · 21 September 2026

You can do anything with technology these days

This issue explores the creeping ubiquity of advertising across digital platforms and services, showcasing how companies are using technology to monetize previously ad-free or ad-light experiences—from streaming services adding ads to paid tiers, to video games getting in-game advertisements, to grocery store screens and restaurant menu boards becoming ad networks. The throughline is less about any particular technology innovation and more about a resignation to the inevitability of ads infiltrating every screen and service we interact with, driven by the economic pressure on companies to extract maximum revenue from their platforms. Interspersed with this bleak observation are updates on the author's podcast series "How People Work, Live!" featuring conversations with people working in tech and media, offering a slight counterbalance to the main theme of corporate encroachment.

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0.0 Context setting

Monday 21 September in Portland, Oregon, where it’s still unseasonably warm. I am also tired. Are you tired? It’s just tiring all over. I am also sore because I am 46 years old and yesterday went roller skating for the second time ever for at a kid birthday party.

0.1 How People Work, Live!

Last Friday I had Anna Pickard on which was lovely because she’s the third person I’ve had on with an English accent. We got to talk about words and writing and how to sell work inside your organization because that’s a thing you have to do.

Anna’s episode is up on the podcast and YouTube now; you can catch up on anywhere RSS works with your podcast app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

(140 subscribers on YouTube now! YouTube still wants me to make more interesting thumbnails and I don’t want to!)

Next up!

Friday 25 September at 9am PT: How People Work, Live! ... with Michele Tepper

Amongst other things, Michele co-founded Archive of Our Own(!!!!!!) and designed mortgage visualization tools at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (RIP), then co-founder of 18F Hillary Hartley on 2nd October, and Jim Ray from Bluesky on 9 October. Check out the show page for the whole list.

Meanwhile, there’s the open How People Work... Does Happy Hour open clinic on Tuesdays at 1pm PT, where you get to bring what you’ve been thinking about and we chat about it as a small group.

1.0 Some things that caught my attention

1.1 You can do anything with technology these days

Here’s three stories that caught my attention:

  1. Disney Plus just proved you won't be able to escape ads on any tier1
  2. Xbox patents new way to inject ads into gaming2
  3. McDonald's tests selling ad space on digital menu boards to unlock new revenue stream3

All I have to say about this is:

You can use software to put ads in anything. Even, say, an ad for Spider-Man in a BMW4. You can even turn ad-free tiers into ones that have ads again5. You can also get ads in your maps! 6

I mean, it’s not like as a customer you’ve got a choice for no ads other than... paying for no ads. The media isn’t fungible, not when you’re talking about exclusives. The Xbox deal (sorry, XBOX) deal is interesting because of course making videogames is expensive and playing videogames is expensive, so may as well try to squeeze some more money out of somewhere. And McDonald’s? Well. It’s just a screen connected to the internet. You can do anything you want with it. The supermarket that I go to for groceries just got a facelift and added a bunch of screens. So they can show ads. (And switched to e-ink price tags).

That’s it. Just ads. Ads everywhere. That’s the episode.

I’m exhausted. Ads ads ads ads ads.

How are you doing? It’s nearly the end of September. Where does the time even go, hmm?

Best,

Dan

  1. Disney Plus Just Proved You Won't Be Able to Escape Ads On Any Tier (archive.is), Ashely Claudiuno, Polygon, 20 September 2026 ↩

  2. Xbox Patents New Way to Inject Ads Into Gaming (archive.is), Elijah Gonzalez, Polygon, 21 September 2026 ↩

  3. McDonald's tests selling ad space on digital menu boards to unlock new revenue stream (archive.is), Seeking Alpha, 21 September 2026 ↩

  4. BMW’s in-car Spider-Man ad is villain behavior | The Verge (archive.is), Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 4 August 2026 ↩

  5. Amazon adding ads to Prime Video in 2024 unless you pay $2.99 extra - Ars Technica (archive.is), Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 22 September 2023 ↩

  6. Apple Maps Ads Are Here, and There's No Way to Turn Them Off - MacRumors (archive.is), Juli Clover, MacRumors, 25 August 2026 ↩