Neither of those are targeted advertising... you are arguing for the opposite point of the parent comment. From the article, the EFF is saying that ads relevant to the content being shown are effective (like you’ve described here) without needing to collect a wealth of information about individual users.

The thing is that Linus has been pretty visionary about when it comes to the state of the internet and creators and when YouTube first started shafting creators he began to look for an alternative way to monetise his content. That's why he weathered the whole BS-carousel around advertising on YouTube pretty well.

He's built a brand based on sponsorships inside the tech industry, a brand where they take care to only lend their name to brands and products that are worth it. I would wager they put a lot of work into selecting what paid product features to do or not. There still is a bit of a difference between sponsored spots in their videos and general upset about the internet advertising industry, however.

I will always gave him a lot of credit for that. It's not possible for all creators to do the same, but the ones that can should follow his example for everyone's benefit.

Linus has been well poised to survive the demonetization apocalypse much better than other shows by building brand sponsorships that are somewhat relevant to his prime content.

That being said, I can't stand most of his content. He tried to build a server, bought the wrong case, and thought he could take a dremel and an angle grinder to the motherboard to fix it. This didn't work, so he RMA'ed it and took another angle grinder to the new one.

His Ubiquiti and Unraid adventures are similarly ill informed, causing him to attempt things that won't work or work poorly for a short time, then fail spectacularly.

Attempted Server Build: https://redd.it/3ktkmr

Yeah, a lot of it is hard to watch. Remember the whole room watercooling project?

That being said, I gotta say kudos to the business end of his operation.

To quote the top reddit post:

"""

This is why I watch Linus for entertainment and not for learning. I enjoy watching these videos because he does things that I cannot afford to do myself and in my opinion the projects are entertaining to watch. The Techquickie videos are great to watch for learning, because they actually spend a lot of time on having correct information.

"""

I wonder if this is similar to how CinemaSins makes up a lot of "sins" to draw in rage clicks. People make entire videos pointing out how catastrophically wrong it is! That's a lot of free press.

Relevant ads through tracking are different to relevant ads because your favourite author thinks "hey, my readers will be interested in this."

I don't mind the latter, too. I usually have a lot of interest in the sponsorships chosen by my favourite writers to include on their sites.

Automated ad networks and tracking though, I just block those.

How are they different? Both are targeted.

Sure the tracking ads aren't as good, but imagine they were just as highly targeted and relavent.

Well, one doesn't violate your privacy. Also it's more relevant.

I could imagine tracking ads to be more relevant, but they're not. So I don't really see the point of that hypothetical.