These couple of past weeks I’ve been getting correctly targeted ads that have nonetheless backfired. There is a particular mid century modern hotel in London that I sometimes go to the website for, and last month I did and I’ve been getting ads for it lately.
At first I was like “wow! Usually I get bombarded with correctly targeted ads for stuff I’ve already bought. This time they actually know what I might be interested in the future and correctly serve me an ad!”
Except that the prominent part of the ad is the London Eye. Not only is it the most visible component of the ad, the tagline of the ad is “stay near the Eye!” But there is a reason that there is a joke “why do people ride the London Eye? Because it’s the only place in London where you can’t see the Eye!”
The hotel already would have been in my top 3 locations to look had would I ever go back to London. Now, I will still probably be interested in it, but knowing that it will be near the Eye is a slight negative.
Since I posted in this thread, the tactical gun ads are gone, and in their place are D&D ads. I have never played D&D in my entire life. Nor do I want to. And I certainly don’t want a 12-sided drinking cup.
I keep seeing ads from the Arizona parks department about being safe while trail riding your ATV. This is great information, but I don’t live near Arizona and I have never owned an ATV.
A number I’ve seen is that there are about 750,000 people in the US receiving structured settlements, with about 20,000 to 40,000 added each year.
A lot of the people receiving those settlements are in highly vulnerable positions such as suffering from physical or cognitive injury. Which means there is a decent chance that their financial situation isn’t the best despite the settlement. Add in high-pressure sales tactics and you’ve got yourself a business model that’s as profitable as it is scummy.
I’m assuming there’s a connection between ads and one’s ISP. When my husband was shopping for E-bikes, I had ads for them popping up on my tablet. Same with tools. And CBD gummies.
I also randomly get ads in French, Spanish, and German. Yes, I studied all 3 in school, but that was half a century ago and I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it anywhere recently.
It could be that they know that your husband is in the same social circle as you. I know that 6 or so months ago I started getting ads for the chain of water park resorts Great Wolf Lodge, even though while I had searched them it was over a year ago at that point. My brother, on the other hand, had been searching for them and we are half the country apart and had not mentioned the resort to me when I started getting the ads.
(Another possibility in my case was that we had recently had a family texting chit chat about water parks, but we hadn’t mentioned that particular water park. Due to the specificity of the ad, I’m more inclined to believe that the advertisers were watching what my brother was searching for than snooping on my texts.)
This is in the mail rather than broadcast, but I am constantly getting offers from Progressive and Amica to sell me auto insurance. I have not owned a car in well over 2 decades and I never plan to again. Surely there is enough big data out there on me to allow their algorhythms to figure out that sending me a mailer is just a waste of money and trees!
It’s the same technique as “saturation bombing”, which was used when weapons were infinitely less precise. Also, though, do you have “location” settings turned off on your device? That might have something to do with it. I keep mine on, and it really helps with searches and information gathering. I don’t have your ad problem, so maybe it’s helping with that, too.
Last year I kept getting ads for Christian Singles and Black Singles on Facebook. I don’t go to dating sites. Even if I was single, I really don’t understand how online dating sites work. I can only assume I was around people who were on dating sites, perhaps at work, and the algorithim figured, “Hey, this dude might be interested in these sites too!”
I get mail on the regular from either of two evangelical Christian organizations, one with a history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy. I’ve asked them many times to remove me from their list but they will not.
A few years ago, I used to get Youtube ads advertising a video of a Star Wars-themed burlesque show called The Empire Strips Back. I was watching a lot of videos about video games, so they certainly had the approximately correct nerd demographic. But how many people are there really out there willing to fork over $20+ for a very specific video of topless women?
I read this thread yesterday and thought to myself “I used to get lots of ads in Spanish, but I haven’t seen one in a while. Maybe the algorithm has gotten better?” And then last night I was watching something on Prime Video, with ads, and as if the universe was trying to prove me wrong, I got an ad in Spanish.
But the worst one was the other day when I got a video ad for some feminine hygiene product. I honestly am not sure exactly what it was, but the ad literally started off with something like “This is what happens to your vagina when…”, and I sort of tuned out after that. For the record, I am a cis man.
But I’ve even seen non-internet ads screw up their targeting. I used to regularly get fliers / coupons in the mail with my father’s name on them, but sent to my address, for a pet supply store in Illinois. Neither of us live in Illinois. I haven’t gotten them in a while, perhaps they’ve realized that mailing fliers to California wasn’t a good use of their ad budget. (Now that I said that, I’m probably going to get one in the mail tomorrow).
Now I get nothing but FB ads for MREs. Which is actually something I’d like to have a emergency supply of, if they weren’t so expensive (and inedible. ) But they don’t know that!
At the end of this thread there is current an add for an event in Chicago. At least it’s related to the home of Straight Dope, but it’s quite a few time zones away from me, so I don’t think I’ll be attending.
I just now got an ad for “Dentures or Implants? Most People Are Never Told of Option 3” — but I’ve never needed dentures and I’ve never needed implants, and I have no reason to think that will change — and I shall apparently remain in the ranks of those who haven’t been told of Option 3, because I see no reason to click on the ad.
Eh, I used to get those before I got a car, too… but a large enough percentage of American adults do own cars that it’s probably easier for them to send those ads to everyone than to figure out which few people don’t have one. And besides, like me, you might someday get one.
) But they don’t know that!