LG TVs are about to show ads based on your emotions — here's how

If you thought ads were intrusive before, you haven't seen anything yet.

LG has recently signed a multi-year agreement with a company called Zenapse with an aim to leverage "emotional intelligence to deliver more meaningful and measurable brand experiences across 200 million LG Smart TVs globally."

To make ads more meaningful, Zenapse uses a CTV (Connected TV) platform called "ZenVision" that watches along with the content being played on the screen to better understand the emotional state the viewer might be in.

LG can then use this information to group users into specific subsets and target them ads based on their emotional intelligence. This information becomes psychographic data. Unlike demographic data, which is simpler concepts like age, location, etc, psychographic data gets more personal, diving deep into your psyche and psychological mindset.

Using this data, ZenVision can better "optimize predictions" and thus target you ads that might satisfy your needs a whole lot more. Not only that, but Zenapse and LG can then sell that information to third parties.

How you'll be categorized

As reported by StreamTV Insider and on ZenVision's own website, data groups include abstract personality definers like "social connectors," "wellness seekers," "goal-driven achievers," "digital adopters," and many more.

Zenapse's AI goes a step further and specifies the user's general proclivities, lumps those users together and pushes ads based on these key factors. It's not just your emotions being targeted, but your goals, principles, political affiliations, and more all wrapped up into one generalized market segment.

How does it work? The AI uses a combination of facets to better derive this data, including its own sophisticated algorithms, existing information on the particular on-screen content (like the script or genre), and even ACR (automatic content recognition) data collated by LG sets on their own.

The next era of TV advertising

LG Ad Solutions made the announcement on Tuesday, however there's very little details about the longevity of the agreement, which TVs might suffer from the agreement, or how much LG spent to leverage Zenapse's tech.

Based on what we know about it so far, though, Zenapse's ZenVision sets a terrifying new precedent in on-screen advertising and gets so much more dystopian the deeper you dive into the rabbit hole.

While LG might just be the first to implement it, Google is already well-acquainted with Zenapse, with Google Ads, Google for Startups, and Google Cloud all having strategic deals with the AI firm.

Though only speculation, it probably won't take long before ZenVision finds its way onto Google TV — if it hasn't already. Google TV commands nearly 270M TVs and it's leveraged by everything from the best budget TVs by Hisense and TCL to some of the best OLED TVs out of Sony.

As stated, Zenapse is ushering in a whole new era of TV advertising and if you thought things couldn't get worse, think again.

...And maybe turn off ACR on your TV while you still have the chance.

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