A former tech CEO gathers software designers to test how digital advertising fraud works in Babis Makridis’s documentary Unclickable.
Advertising is impossible to escape. Wherever you go, it’s there to scream at you what to buy, what to wear, how to live, and how to think (I that John Carpenter fella might have been onto something with They Live). Billboards and print are ubiquitous, but as the world becomes more and more digital, advertising and how it works become more complicated. Who makes these ads, who runs them, and, most interestingly, who makes money on them? Not you, that’s who. Unless you’re a scammer with a giant bot farm that is. Writer and above-mentioned CEO, Guy Krief, along with director Babis Makridis, explore this complex puzzle of how it all pays out and for whom in the documentary Unclickable.
Coming out from the other side of Unclickable, I am utterly flabbergasted. It is insanely wild how all the moving pieces connect in the dark world of online advertising. Krief is searching for the answer to the question: how do people make money running advertising on websites? There is a whole network of people who run dozens to hundreds of websites, set up advertising, and rake in passive income as click-throughs give the webmaster a cut. But these are false sites, with repeated, AI-created, or stolen information. So, who is clicking through? Who is paying? Where’s the catch?
In short, without showing the film’s hand but to entice a watch: it’s a tornado of fraud; surprisingly, the second largest organized criminal enterprise in the world, after drug trafficking. Kinda, as regulations are fuzzy at best. Like a twisty spy thriller, groups and persons are continually misinforming, messing with, and profiting from one another. People fraud Facebook and Google (this duopoly of information makes most of their money on advertising, and spends a ton on it too), both of these groups misuse their own information, companies get lost in the process, people lose what they earned, and no one really comes out on top.
I’ve always wondered who clicks on the ads we’re bombarded with. Yes, the ads are designed by our searches, programmed ads are overtaking general ones day by day. But I’ve never looked for shoes online and then clicked on an ad in a blog.
(Who knows how many “Secret” searches are inadvertently shown to loved ones by way of the latest set of targeted ads?) In a surprise, you might have clicked without realizing putting money in someone’s pocket and ruining your data! In a perhaps too on-the-nose reality, after finishing the first draft of this review, the very first digital ad I received was telling me to click if I was scammed by click-through advertising for a class action lawsuit. It’d be funny, if not for the terrifying implications.
In a search to find more about how money and misinformation move, Krieg and team set up a variety of political websites to explain to themselves and the audience how information and money flow in the lead up to the 2020 election. In a modern world, filled with information, it’s an enticing hook, grasping into the real and relatable; a grounding guide group to the terrifying labyrinth. It’s particularly pertinent in how often we see falsehoods, blatant or covert, bandied about, particularly by those less internet- and media-savvy.
It’s a fascinating and deep subject. The flurry of ideas, questions, and musings of advertising and the extension of the fraud is explored as clearly as a murky subject can be presented.. Outside of the main push of the base of the website, dozens of experts are interviewed and opine, putting together the picture, moving the cogs of the fraud for the viewer. The mosaic of mystery sees just how big the issue is, how hard it is to stop, and just who gets hurt: it’s more than just faceless masses such as Facebook and Google, but smaller companies and individuals (Uber, not small, was scammed out of a large chunk of the cash they’ve stiffed from their drivers).
Unclickable is presented as an information piece. For better or worse, it’s a straightforward documentary of a very not-straightforward subject. However, at times, it’s information overload, much like how misinformation and the internet ad blitz function. Maybe my brain just fried with how much can be contained in the time allotted. Details are lost in the fuzz, flattening the presentation. For all that it has to say, Unclickable can often be dull and repetitive. Perhaps too much went over my head, buzzing into white noise in my brain. I consider myself an informed person, eager to soak in more knowledge; I was ready to take it. But I was often lost.
But I think I got the gist! Even with some disconnects and getting lost in the details, the overarching concept is fascinating. Unclickable is eye-opening in the depths of the fraud that exists where one might not think to look for it, with explorations of the dark side of the internet. Click through to the documentary if it strikes your interest.
Unclickable is presented through the Seattle International Film Festival, running in-person screenings May 15th – 25th and selected online screenings March 26th – June 1st. See Siff.net/festival for more.