Just to amplify your point, I'm actually seeing a lot of faux-content that's exactly like this, and I'm sick of it already. I've never clicked on it and every time I see them my resolve hardens further.

They don't sound like traditional ads, as they're maybe one or two shades away from "one weird trick." They're just too on-the-nose. "One thing which makes alzheimer's worse," "what cruise lines do to fill empty cabins," "10 signs of an affair." I feel dirty just typing these.

> "10 signs of an affair"

Stuff like that pre-dates "one weird trick" adverts.

Oh, sure. It's not "new" in that you'd see it on magazine covers or whatever. And it's not any more appealing in this context, either.

The book http://trustmeimlying.com/ talks about this and the financial motivations behind this. In the age of the pageview journalism the main distribution channels are social networks and Google News, and on those channels headlines are the only thing that people pay attention to.

Congratulations, you just discovered "growth hacking"!

I've heard the term before but this is the first time I had cause to look it up.

And now that I've read it: shouldn't you be offering condolences rather than congratulations?

lol, epic sixpackshortcuts reference.