# What Actually Happens When You Click The "One Weird Trick" Ad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619 "2014-11-25T19:01:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/1 "2014-11-25T19:01:50Z")
This type of advertising has become ubiquitous lately. One Weird Trick to melt belly fat! One Weird Rule to save money on insurance! One Weird Trick to meet singles! I imagine if you click such a link, one (or more) of three things happens: 1. Malware is installed on your computer. 2. The “One Weird Trick” is “buy our product!” 3. You are led through a series of testimonials, fluff, and clickbait before you finally get to the “trick,” which turns out to be “buy our product!” (see #2.) Has anyone ever actually clicked one of those links? What happened? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/2 "2014-11-25T19:16:56Z")
#2 and #3 are correct. The “one weird trick” is to get you to click the ad and view their pitch. > **[How One Weird Trick Conquered the Internet](https://slate.com/business/2013/07/how-one-weird-trick-conquered-the-internet-what-happens-when-you-click-on-those-omnipresent-ads.html)** > > You’ve seen them. Peeking out from sidebars, jiggling and wiggling for your attention, popping up where you most expect them: those “One Weird Trick”... I don’t know of anyone who got malware or viruses by clicking on their ads, but I wouldn’t put it past some unscrupulous parties to do just that. But the ads running on the Straight Dope should in theory be malware-free. But again, some ads do slip through that do indeed contain malware. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/3 "2014-11-25T21:55:39Z")
Commonly #3, a series of testimonials written up (usually very poorly, IMHO) to look something like bona fide news articles or reports. To any reader with at least some substantial fraction of a brain, they are usually blatantly obvious horseshit, just like all those Nigerian scam come-ons are. The same question must arise: Who do they think they’re fooling? And, I must assume, the same answer that is commonly given for the Nigerian scams: That they’re deliberately written stupidly to filter out the more intelligent readers and drill down to their real intended audience, to-wit, the dummies. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/4 "2014-11-26T19:09:04Z")
I suspect a lot are click-bait, specifically, stuff meant to make you click into a web page where the provider gets paid for each visit, by internet ad companies whose ads appear on those sites. So sometimes its just about the traffic level. (Faking testimonials would be a form of astroturfing) I see something similar when I search for solutions to various computer error messages and such. Occasionally, you land on a website that is essentially a massive collection of links to other bulletin boards that discuss computer problems. By incorporating all these different error message texts, they are more likely to be found (and clicked on) by more internet users. Traffic + ads = revenue. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/5 "2014-11-27T01:53:38Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 1. The “One Weird Trick” is “buy our product!” Yeah the one secret to facial skin care goes to page which LOOKS like a magazine. Then it tells the story of someone who lives locally to me, I guess the page uses ip address lookup to determine where I am, to give some strange excitement to the article, they think… Then it says there is a special that ends tomorrow. Funny, I’ve seen it for years now… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/6 "2014-11-27T16:06:07Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Then it tells the story of someone who lives locally to me, I guess the page uses ip address lookup to determine where I am, to give some strange excitement to the article I got one that said “Steelville, MO drivers use this one weird trick to beat insurance companies,” and showed a black guy driving a BMW. 1. I’m 25 miles, as the crow flies, from Steelville (but that’s where my ISP is located). 2. There’s not a black guy to be seen in Steelville. 3. Neither is there a BMW to be seen in Steelville. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/7 "2014-11-27T16:33:49Z")
I see the auto insurance ads but of course for me they’re for Pennsylvania. “New rules for Pennsylvania drivers!” They usually have a picture of a police car. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/8 "2014-11-27T18:33:38Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I got one that said “Steelville, MO drivers use this one weird trick to beat insurance companies,” and showed a black guy driving a BMW. > > 1. I’m 25 miles, as the crow flies, from Steelville (but that’s where my ISP is located). > > 2. There’s not a black guy to be seen in Steelville. > > 3. Neither is there a BMW to be seen in Steelville. These sites use your ISP address to identify where you live and then tailor the ad to fit your location. Like “Single mom in (insert town name) discovers one weird trick that makes doctors hate her!” The ads that target me in this way used to think I live in a town 100 miles to the north in another state. They are getting better, now they think I live in a town 100 miles to the south that is at least in my home state. They are not malware, more like Clickbait. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/9 "2014-11-27T19:27:03Z")
My favorite is the trick to paying off your mortgage. Refinance your house ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/10 "2014-11-28T13:07:33Z")
Unscrupulous marketers don’t want you to read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actually-happens-when-you-click-the-one-weird-trick-ad/705619/11 "2014-11-28T13:12:53Z")
See below.