Targeted ads must be targeted purely to annoy me

KingNothing

I get the stupidest targeted advertisements in the world. I get:
-"Discover the secret moms are using to whiten their teeth"
-"Learn how moms are losing 52 pounds by obeying this one rule"
-"Never pay for electricity again, make it simple and cheap from home"


First of all, my teeth are fine, thanks. Second of all, I weigh 165 pounds and have 11% body fat. Third of all, I nearly have a degree in electrical engineering.

I think they'd do better with random ads. Discuss.

mgb_phys

There are worse ones most most use uses keyword matching in the article.
The BBC shows ads on it's site for foreign visitors and managed to show ones for fire proof data safes on a story about the air-france crash black boxes and then for gas safety checks on a story of some politician visiting a former concentration camp.

donotremember

One thing that bugs me is that Ebay has bought almost every keyword and when I'm searching for stuff it always comes up and tells me to go to Ebay to get great deals on whatever I searched for even if its not something you can't buy.

I was on youtube once and searched for 'brain tumor' and it came up with a bunch of search results like: GET GREAT DEALS ON BRAIN TUMORS - low prices on brain tumors at ebay! , Looking for brain tumor, look no further! Shop here for all the latest deals on brain tumor.

Evo

Ahaha, I was just complaining to someone about this. I had googled a friend's name and found that he was for sale on e-bay.

jobyts

The ad software can use only the permitted public information to customize the ads, and that's upto your 9 digit zip code (in USA). Within the 9 digit zip code, there could be hundreds of addresses. So there should be a bunch of beauty conscious mamas in your locality :)

Jimmy Snyder

They got my number. I get innumerable ads for yachts, mansions, handmade Italian sports cars, diamonds, gold, and for some inexplicable reason, ads to enlarge the size of my manhood.

jobyts

The most irritating ad I see recently is the following:

PhysOrg.com science news:

>> Measuring the Speed of Light in Composite Materials
>> Apple says it's fixed iPhone SMS vulnerability
>> Study shows how college major and religious faith affect each other

Pinu7

Did you see the Palm Pre commercials?
I get dumber each time I watch them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z3UEF-paok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OfY...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMj5...eature=related

donotremember

I can't wait to try out my new brain tumor. The old one was wearing out.

Evo

It's not an ad. They are a partner now.

Those are the worst commercials, I can actually feel my brain cells die everytime they come on tv. Too bad, I have used the Pre and it's the most awesome PDA I've ever tried. I'm getting one for the Evo Child. I may even break down and get one for myself.

fileen

I get emails in spanish trying to sell me viagra. I read spansih, but I dont access websites in spanish. I dont know what would make anyone think I need viagra...

TheStatutoryApe

http://yourpollo.com/

Pupil

Does that mean we can get rid of it? I keep thinking we have a new guy posting spam all over the forums every time I see it, no matter how many times I look at it.

I can't *stand* ads. I always loved the internet because it lacked something television had: commercials. 6 minutes of TV show, 4 minutes of advertisements. It was ridiculous, but I could go on Youtube or Megavideo or Youku or whatever and watch whatever I want without ads on the internet. Now video ads are popping up more and more frequently on video hosting websites, banner ads are becoming more numerous, etc. I've been able to stave off the advertisements with Firefox Adblock and the Opera web browser, but it can only do so much.

If the ads weren't filling my head with a steaming pile of crap I wouldn't mind them, but they are. By steaming pile of crap I mean a lot of useless junk and cliches that have nothing to do with the product to be sold. Today's ads rely on how pretty and how much sex appeal the actors/actresses are, boasting the awesomeness of their product over similar products with absolutely no reason (or a stupid reason) for saying it's better, pretty graphics and amusing flashy pictures, motto's, slogans, cute one-liners, witty phrases, BIG TEXT TO GET YOUR ATTENTION, and other steaming crap.

No capitalist country, with it's educated citizens making informed decisions based on empirical evidence and strong use of reasoning skills would ever buy a product based on the caricature Loony Toon excuse for ads that exist today. I'm talking of the US of course. We don't do that. Ever. Not ever.

cristo

Well, that's obviously not true. If adverts didn't work, they wouldn't exist. The real point of an advert is not to show how good a particular product is, but to get you to remember the name of the product so recognise it over its competitors when you're out shopping.

Pupil

+ 1 Absolutely agree.

leroyjenkens

Just be happy they don't know your body fat percentage.

rootX

Palm Pre ads.