Like Scott Walker? Repeal Obamacare? popups

Factual Questions
1

I’m seeing a lot of popup ads which seemed designed to appeal to conservatives. One of the says, “Like Scott Walker?” Another one shows a hideous picture of Obama and reads, “Repeal Obamacare?”

What would happen if I clicked one on of these ads? I’m not going to try it, I don’t know if they would just direct me to some conservative fund raising website or launch malware on my computer.

I’m a bit annoyed that they manage to get around my popup blockers. Politico.com is one site I seem to notice them from most often.

2

They take you to newsmax.com, a conservative rag. No malware.

IMHO, slimer outlets use it more than respectable ones. I wouldn’t expect this from the NYTimes or the BBC.

3

NYT and BBC respectable? I certainly have no respect for them.

4

I haven’t seen these as popups (I guess Firefox successfully blocks them), but I see a “Like Scott Walker?” ad in this thread right now.

I thought his version of Jaques Brel’s “Jacky” was pretty good.

5

You have to visit politico.com to see them. They come up when you click on one of their articles. I think they take advantage of the fact that the click is user initiated (popup blockers ignore that), so they do some javascript trick at that point to make the pop-up but also produce the article you want to visit.

What an odious tactic for an odious site. Their current top story is birther bullshit.

6

Politico.com? Their current top story is about conservative intellectuals’ dissatisfaction with Sarah Palin. And I wouldn’t call them odious. Editorially, they lean a little right wing, I think, but they have pretty decent coverage of Congress.

Or are you talking about Newsmax? They are pretty odious.

7

The real question is “have neither of these sites heard of targeted ads?” It’s obvious this board leans more to the left than the general public; isn’t posting these kind of ads on the Dope just wasted money?

8

Should you double-click, a page comes up with a charming bearded gentleman, asking: “Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich For Eternity ?”
If you click Yes, then a pop-up shows with a lot of small print, but you can safely ignore all that.

9

Targeted ads target key-words on a page. If you mention Scott Walker in a thread, the ad is for whoever bought the key-words “scott walker”. They pay no attention (nor are they capable of it) to actual context. I’ve been on a site that slams homeopathy, and what ads show up? Homeopathy snake oil salesmen.

ETA: Now that I’ve posted this, just watch. Some of the ads will be for homeopathy.