# Why do all my Facebook personal ads have women with photoshopped breasts the size of basketballs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 28, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771 "2010-02-28T20:02:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/1 "2010-02-28T20:02:47Z")
My profile is a 51 year old single male. My right hand face book ad bar is suffused with little “Meet women!” “Girls want to meet 51 year old men!” ads featuring women with otherwise normal bodies and breasts that are quite literally digitally inflated to the size of basketballs.
I’m a connoisseur for the luscious female for in all its varieties, but these freakazoids seem almost anti-sexual.
Are 50 something women getting ads with men smuggling kielbasas in their pants?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/2 "2010-02-28T20:10:59Z")
Why do cats like cheezburgers. It’s the internet.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/3 "2010-02-28T21:40:13Z")
Posted on my Facebook page on Feb 24th at 7pm;
“Why are all those women in the ads on the right carrying beach balls in their shirts?”
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/4 "2010-03-02T18:34:03Z")
I used to get that kind of crap and then I just started removing information from my profile to see how it affected the ads. When I removed my age, relationship status, and gender (note: this causes other people to see “Cellphone is no longer listed as male” in your news feed), I started getting ads that were relevant to the interests I listed.
For an experiment, I made my gender setting female (again news feed told everyone “Cellphone is now female” :smack: ) and instead of basketball tits, I got “weight loss, diet, diet, diet” ads, and “how to get a man”.
I’d be pissed off if I logged into Facebook and they basically said “Hi, fatty!” every time. But “Hey, horndog!” wasn’t much better.
To sum it up: the less _general_ information you give them, the less stupid the ads are. Since they are now targeting what few interests I have listed, they are less annoying. Not that I mind basketball tits, but I was getting irked at the assumption that I must be a particularly stupid horndog.
ETA: IIRC, I have removed my gender and relationship status and got decent results.
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### Author:  [@Bayesian\_Empirimancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayesian_Empirimancer)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/5 "2010-03-02T18:56:29Z")
It’s something called shotgun advertising. Basically, the advertiser tries to get as much info “out there” as possible. I noticed the same thing too. When I was dating my ex, I would always get advertisements off to the side with messages like, “Get married, Now!” or ads for discounts on dresses, etc.
When I broke up with her about 5 weeks ago, I noticed a shift in the advertisements. I normally don’t glance off to that side, but now it’s all pointed towards single women, Christian single women.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/6 "2010-03-03T02:33:57Z")
I’ve always wondered what people were complaining about, because I always get the Christian ones. But, you know, the word Jesus is in my profile, so that must override everything else somehow.
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### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/7 "2010-03-03T02:42:20Z")
Because men are supposedly attracted to women with gigantically out-of-proportion boobs.
Me, I favour B-cups.
The real question here is “Why aren’t you using Firefox + AdBlock Pro?” The only time I’ve ever seen ads on Facebook is at other people’s houses. I find the internet a far more enjoyable place without the constant ad bombardment.
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### Author:  [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/8 "2010-03-03T04:17:57Z")
Facebook has ads? I blocked them so long ago that I didn’t even remember they had ads.
I love ABP.
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/9 "2010-03-04T03:39:49Z")
I jumped to the bottom of the thread to say, “there are ads on Facebook?”
Oh, it’s the ad-blocker.
It really works. You should try it.
Redundant post, now, but still have the urge to post it.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/10 "2010-03-04T18:49:58Z")
Because football-sized/shaped breasts would look wrong?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/11 "2010-03-04T19:01:30Z")
American football or rest-of-world football? Though I think the black & white sorta-checkerboard pattern would be kinda weird too.
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### Author:  [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/12 "2010-03-04T21:27:58Z")
Here’s an article from the NY Times about how creepy these Facebook targeted ads can be:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/technology/04facebook.html?scp=2&sq=facebook&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/technology/04facebook.html?scp=2&sq=facebook&st=cse)
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### Author:  [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/13 "2010-03-04T21:34:03Z")
Throw me in the “Facebook has ads?” pile. I had no idea, although it makes sense. I thought they made their money collecting data about people or something.
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### Author:  [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/14 "2010-03-04T21:37:47Z")
I want to know [WTF _this_ is supposed to be advertising,](http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs238.snc3/22551_1372884041603_1216834020_31084563_4231593_n.jpg), and how my profile said “Hey, she’ll dig this!”
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/15 "2010-03-04T22:08:56Z")
I had adblock in place before signing up for facebook. I wasn’t aware that the ads existed until now.
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### Author:  [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/16 "2010-03-04T22:17:35Z")
So wait. When those ads say there are women wanting to meet me, they don’t mean _me_ specifically?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/17 "2010-03-04T23:29:21Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> Because men are supposedly attracted to women with gigantically out-of-proportion boobs.
What about the men who are attracted to gigantically in-proportion boobs?
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/18 "2010-03-04T23:39:13Z")
Although it’s not exactly about Facebook ads, there is (as usual) a [topical article](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/google_responds_to_privacy) in this week’s Onion about creepy invasion of privacy by a major website.
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### Author:  [@Baby\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baby_Driver)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/19 "2010-03-05T00:12:00Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#):
>
> I used to get that kind of crap and then I just started removing information from my profile to see how it affected the ads. When I removed my age, relationship status, and gender (note: this causes other people to see “Cellphone is no longer listed as male” in your news feed), I started getting ads that were relevant to the interests I listed.
>
> For an experiment, I made my gender setting female (again news feed told everyone “Cellphone is now female” :smack: ) and instead of basketball tits, I got “weight loss, diet, diet, diet” ads, and “how to get a man”.
>
> I’d be pissed off if I logged into Facebook and they basically said “Hi, fatty!” every time. But “Hey, horndog!” wasn’t much better.
>
> To sum it up: the less _general_ information you give them, the less stupid the ads are. Since they are now targeting what few interests I have listed, they are less annoying. Not that I mind basketball tits, but I was getting irked at the assumption that I must be a particularly stupid horndog.
>
> ETA: IIRC, I have removed my gender and relationship status and got decent results.
This made me giggle. Thanks, Cellphone. 😃
---
### Author:  [@Bayesian\_Empirimancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayesian_Empirimancer)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-my-facebook-personal-ads-have-women-with-photoshopped-breasts-the-size-of-basketballs/530771/20 "2010-03-06T19:01:15Z")
> [@Ruffian](#):
>
> I want to know [WTF _this_ is supposed to be advertising,](http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs238.snc3/22551_1372884041603_1216834020_31084563_4231593_n.jpg), and how my profile said “Hey, she’ll dig this!”
Looks like an mix between an elf and a evil gnome, what does it have to do with relief?
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