Ship of Fools: Fooling the system?

Thread: Fooling the system? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :

Commenting on a bizarrely poorly targeted 'targeted ad' on facebook, a friend just asked:

quote:

When google (or FB or whatever) does a horrible job of targeting ads at you, are you excited (that you've fooled the system) or annoyed at being misunderstood?

I have to admit neither of these are my response. My instinct is to disappointed that I've misrepresented myself in some way to the GreatInternetSpyingAdGod. I don't know what these various responses might suggest about different people's personalities!

Anyway, how does the online advertising industrial complex misjudge you, and how do you react?

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Adblock is your friend.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I think I have them reasonably confused - medical insurance, cancer detection, gardening, wine, toys and the Super Bowl.

So I am the ill, aging, wine-swigging, muddy-booted mother of toddlers who loves American football.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

Mine is usually pretty accurate.

There is, however, a dating site that advertises on a homebrewing forum I frequent which offers opportunities to meet mature women. The actual wording of the advertisement is "We don't want younger men! We want you!"

I guess some men are so desperate that they will allow themselves to be insulted by the dating service if it might lead to a date.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I get ads for Vietnamese Viagra. In fact, I get a LOT of ads that assume I'm male, and quite a few that get my ethnicity wrong. (I understand I'm a Jewish Hispanic Asian when last noticed.)

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

I don't give a diddly ding whiz: I ignore them all!

Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :

I have never noticed them.

Either I too focused on what I am doing on facebook, or am too boring to show any particular interests while on line.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:

There is, however, a dating site that advertises on a homebrewing forum I frequent which offers opportunities to meet mature women. The actual wording of the advertisement is "We don't want younger men! We want you!"

Ooh, ooh. As if I didn't have enough on my plate (what with the children and worrying about covering my funeral expenses), I need to meet a man on maturedating.com. Probably Og, by the looks of it.

However, leaving aside the exciting prospect of shipboard romance, I find the ads interest the amateur sociologist in me. Most of the time I ignore them, but now and again it amuses me to decode the perceived preoccupations of society (get slim, look young, buy stuff).

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

In the course of researching Victorian middle-class philanthropy in Aberdeen, I read that the Ladies Sanitary Association offered a "new for old" scheme for clothes and bedding from any slum household which had had cholera or typhoid fever, enabling potentially infected items to be burned. In particular, they supplied thousands of an item of underwear called a "landar." Much googling later I discovered that a landar was a type of undershirt, also used as a nightshirt.

It transpires that when you've been googling for unusual items of historic underwear, google assumes you have some sort of a corset fetish, extending to latex knickers and odd feathered items.

[Disappointed]

Posted by Jonah the Whale (# 1244) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
The actual wording of the advertisement is "We don't want younger men! We want you!"

I guess some men are so desperate that they will allow themselves to be insulted by the dating service if it might lead to a date.

I'm not sure why it should be thought insulting to not be a younger man.

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

Oddly enough, I frequently get adverts for retirement homes, funeral planning and such. Nary an advert for viagra. I guess I am past it.

[Waterworks]

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

GreatInternetSpyingAdGod will be after you now you have mentioned viagra!

Oooops - now I have done it!

(testing testing ... )

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

I don't get the viagra ads. I get the offers to either change my physical proportions, or offers to use some of my physical portions with people who speak other tongues. There's something connecting them I'm sure. All of that and apparently I need a man bag or a purse; connection less clear.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

I get the "lose 10lbs of belly fat à la Oprah [or whoever] by eating this super-fruit" (but they never tell you what it is).

My Facebook avatar is a Piglet similar to my Ship one - how do they know that I'm generously-proportioned?

[Eek!]

Yesterday I got a "suggested post" asking for my "love and support of Rob Ford as a human being". As I'm not quite convinced that he is a full human being, they'll have to do without it, but what on earth made them think that I'd be interested?

[ 12. November 2013, 16:09: Message edited by: piglet ]

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:

quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
The actual wording of the advertisement is "We don't want younger men! We want you!"

I guess some men are so desperate that they will allow themselves to be insulted by the dating service if it might lead to a date.
I'm not sure why it should be thought insulting to not be a younger man.

I don't think it is the suggestion that you are old so much as the suggestion that there is something out of the ordinary about a woman who would like to date you.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Some weeks ago I had a bunch of ads inviting me to join the Shropshire Young Farmers, a group called "Death to the French" (!), buy Westcountry Wiffy Cushions, and join a support group for Portuguese-speaking Brazilian boutique owners.

I have no idea why I got these ads, nor why for several days running I was presented with an ad in Estonian asking me to buy a particular kind of bleach.

I have on occasion had a few spates of Polish ads. I don't know why that happened either.

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

Haven't been paying the ads much attention for a while, so I just went ad-window-shopping and came back with sightings of:

One free Psychic reading by Californians
Adventure trip to Macchu Picchu
Billboard space for rent in Toronto
Party Supplies available in Halifax, NS
a book on Episcopal schisms since 1960
Free Canadian samples for her
and a free Brain Analysis

Make what you will of that. The fifth one is the only one that remotely applies to anything have any interest in, and I don't want to know more about that one.

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

I'm quite impressed - I went online last night to have a look at beds and mattresses because I'm thinking of replacing my old bed (the mattress is starting to get unpleasantly lumpy) and this morning there were ads on Facebook for beds.

Posted by Honest Ron Bacardi (# 38) on :

They are completely at sea with me. Today I am being offered piano lessons in Cheltenham, "Miracle Prayer Requests", and two different audio conversion codecs (why?). But I did get a regular string of those mature dating ones for a while, though they seem to have gone away. Due to my less-than-enthusiastic response perhaps.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

It's usually cameras and stuff like that which is fair enough and then I get to check a load of links in AS Posts and get a wonderful mix of stuff from care of the elderly [used to be my job long ago but am now in the target range] to flights to quite a lot of God stuff, which sort of figures and recently, having been dabbling in the Rag Top thread in Heaven, to vintage and collectible cars.

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

Piglet:

quote:
I get the "lose 10lbs of belly fat à la Oprah [or whoever] by eating this super-fruit" (but they never tell you what it is).

That's because it DOESN'T EXIST. If it did I bet the NHS would be dishing it out to everyone.

At least, this is my theory - I've never clicked on those ads either. I keep getting ads for a dating site too. The men all look like axe murderers, so obviously none of them is Og. I suppose I brought this down on my own head by refusing to tell Facebook my relationship status.

Last year I bought something from the Marks and Spencer website. Their ads stalked me all around the Internet for months afterwards, which put me off buying anything else from there...

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
I keep getting ads for a dating site too. The men all look like axe murderers, so obviously none of them is Og. I suppose I brought this down on my own head by refusing to tell Facebook my relationship status.

Not so. I give my status as 'married' and I still get offered my choice of the maturer psychopath.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I'm quite impressed - I went online last night to have a look at beds and mattresses because I'm thinking of replacing my old bed (the mattress is starting to get unpleasantly lumpy) and this morning there were ads on Facebook for beds.

I suspect that the accuracy depends on how much shopping you do online. These days, I will frequently research online before going to the store, especially for home improvement stuff, as there is nothing worse than aimlessly walking around Home Depot trying to tackle one of the "helpful" associates who always seem to be walking around with their eyes on the ground. I will usually end up seeing a lot of things that relate to my project in the following weeks.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

Yes - I bought a pair of boots online last year, I still get swamped with ads for boots.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Yes - I bought a pair of boots online last year, I still get swamped with ads for boots.

Of course, that isn't just an internet thing. I still remember, many years ago, when I bought a new car. About a month or so later, my mailbox was filled with various junk mail trying to sell me a new car. It struck me then (and still does) as really strange that they would consider my buying a car as somehow being evidence that I was still in the market for a car. How many did they think I was going to buy in one year?

Posted by mrs whibley (# 4798) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Yes - I bought a pair of boots online last year, I still get swamped with ads for boots.
Of course, that isn't just an internet thing. I still remember, many years ago, when I bought a new car. About a month or so later, my mailbox was filled with various junk mail trying to sell me a new car. It struck me then (and still does) as really strange that they would consider my buying a car as somehow being evidence that I was still in the market for a car. How many did they think I was going to buy in one year?

This year I went to an academic conference in Vienna. Since then I have been receiving emails from a company that organises conferences in Vienna. They also seem to have missed the point!

Posted by Anglican't (# 15292) on :

For around two or three months now, if not longer, every time I log into Facebook there is an advert for catheters. More recently I've started to get adverts for discreet catheters (how they differ from common or garden catheters, I don't know).

I'm curious as to know why Facebook thinks I'm in the market for these. (For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not.)

Posted by QLib (# 43) on :

You're always taking the piss?

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
For around two or three months now, if not longer, every time I log into Facebook there is an advert for catheters. More recently I've started to get adverts for discreet catheters (how they differ from common or garden catheters, I don't know).

I'm curious as to know why Facebook thinks I'm in the market for these. (For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not.)

Did you, perhaps, make a comment to the effect that constantly posting and/or checking on Facebook was "draining"?

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

I'm always attracting ads for "fashionable hijab." I'm not sure why, other than someone out there takes offense to my very unfashionable hair.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
Of course, that isn't just an internet thing. I still remember, many years ago, when I bought a new car. About a month or so later, my mailbox was filled with various junk mail trying to sell me a new car. It struck me then (and still does) as really strange that they would consider my buying a car as somehow being evidence that I was still in the market for a car. How many did they think I was going to buy in one year?

During the process of buying my first car, one of the questions the salesman asked me was, "And when are you thinking of selling it?" to which I replied, "I haven't even finished buying it yet". His answer was that some people like to upgrade after a year or two and get something newer. I told him I intended to keep mine as long as it kept going.

So I guess there's enough of a market out there of people who are never satisfied and who will start looking for a "better" model pretty quickly after they've just got one.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Targeted Ads???

Try being an organist!

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Here's a new one among the Lose weight/look younger/buy cheap hideous clothes - skip hire.

I think they're just guessing.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
His answer was that some people like to upgrade after a year or two and get something newer. I told him I intended to keep mine as long as it kept going.

So I guess there's enough of a market out there of people who are never satisfied and who will start looking for a "better" model pretty quickly after they've just got one.

Many years ago it made economic sense to buy a new car every two years if you needed reliable transportation. My father was a doctor who made many house calls. He needed his car, sometimes in the middle of the night. A car that needed frequent time-consuming repairs, as older cars did, would have been useless.

Moo

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :

A few of these seem to reveal something that the advertisers seem to be missing. For instance, this summer for the first time since 2008, I rented a car for a week. I think once every five years is roughly accurate for how often I'll end up doing that. So, flooding me with car rental ads isn't likely to entice me to rent a car. Similarly, right after I buy new swim wear (which I do annually, in July) isn't going to make me buy any more until next July, and I'll have forgotten any advertising that may have made me curious enough to switch brands by then.

The model seems to be that if you bought X recently, you're more likely to buy X again soon. True for raison bran, not so true for many other products.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Spot on. I've never had so many ads for boilers since I replace my old one and since that lasted for 40 years the chances of me needing another anytime soon are slim (touch wood).

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Targeted Ads???

Try being an organist!

That was the best of the thread so far!

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

Currently, aside from all the loose weight ads.

I am being offered the chance to win a trip to Israel, I don't even own a passport and haven't been googling holidays at all.

There is also an ad for surveyors, and I haven't used a surveyor for years.

And does anybody really use the ads on their FB page anyway?

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I think they've totally lost it now. Office furniture, gastric bypass and would I like to send money to Kenya?

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

A few days ago I looked up the sales tax rate in Winston-Salem, NC because I was planning to shop there and I wanted to know whether it was higher or lower than the tax here.

Since then I have been getting numerous offers of sales tax tables. I already have all the information I need.

Moo

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :

While in a cinema café with some writers and some laptops today we were talking about a character who resembled Ace Rimmer from Red Dwarf (British TV show of the 80s). I glanced down at Facebook and there he was!

Maybe I just spend too much time on the internet looking up science fiction of the 80s. Wait, no I don't! They're spying on me!

Cattyish. If all the world's a stage. Got to wear more make-up.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

Here's my boring list:

Sunglasses on sale
Oxfam
Free dating for seniors
Experience Paris
Fly to Oz
5 Foods to never eat (strawberry pictured – usually it's a banana).
Is 65 the new 35? 65 year-old women (sic) reveals one simple wrinkle trick that has angered doctors.

I suspect that if I visited either of the last two sites I'd get a spiel that went on and on and on without getting to the point.

GG

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
Here's my boring list:

Sunglasses on sale
Oxfam
Free dating for seniors
Experience Paris
Fly to Oz
5 Foods to never eat (strawberry pictured – usually it's a banana).
Is 65 the new 35? 65 year-old women (sic) reveals one simple wrinkle trick that has angered doctors.

I suspect that if I visited either of the last two sites I'd get a spiel that went on and on and on without getting to the point.

GG

Things I have looked for at John Lewis.
Things I have looked for on Amazon (where I check out order of publication of series before ordering from the library.)
Asian single women (on line now)

The 5 foods doesn't reveal anything. The wrinkle trick is mixing two face creams - couldn't be bothered to remember about it. You can order them from the site - what a surprise.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

If I get just ONE MORE ad for penis enlargement of enhancement (?) I'll go nuts - pun intended.

Also plagued by Ads for "health supplements" which seem mainly to be for body-builders.

WHY [Mad]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

You obviously have a lot raunchier version of Facebleugh than I. It's still banging on about weight loss and skin care. It's even stopped trying to fix me up with a date - maybe it knows I'm not keeping up the beauty regime.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Of course it bangs on about skin care and wrinkles. It's Facebook. Though with the kind of ads some of us are getting, perhaps it ought to be Bellybook or Waistbook.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Or if you're L'organist, Dongbook.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

I don't do Facebook. This is just google.

God only knows what I'd get if I was on the Fbook.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Oh FB is much more genteel than Google.

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

I've just read an FB post where someone pointed out that their profile clearly says Christian so why is FB recommending an atheism page?

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
I've just read an FB post where someone pointed out that their profile clearly says Christian so why is FB recommending an atheism page?

Obviously, the person is a Weak Christian, who might be talked into abandoning his/her faith for a new model.

I am a moderate Anglican, which means that I get offers to investigate John of God by going on tour to Brazil, for The Messianic Bible and for (wait for it)...party supplies in Halifax. On this page, I'm getting a chance to buy Gas Turbine supplies, and/or to go on a Luxury Cruise or a Croatia vacation package. What are the chances that I have ever mentioned any of these in any page I have looked at?

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

The ad least likely to apply to me in the last quarter-hour is from a wedding photographer in Whitehorse, Yukon.

I live within in site of Atlantic tides.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

I have ads for a private Galapagos tour, Virginia B&Bs, North Carolina bike tours, and Medicare supplement plans.

Moo

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Nothing odd as of late but a year ago I kept getting an ad to have my aura cleaned. [Confused]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

For the past few days I've been getting ads wanting me to join groups in Pontefract. I've never been there, don't know anyone who has, and am not even sure where it is. But apparently I'd be welcome to come and reminisce about Pontefract in the good old days, and join a school alumni group.

What with that and the prevalence of Eastern European ads, I'm half beginning to wonder whether I really am an Estonian who emigrated to Pontefract at an early age and completely forgotten about it in later life.

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Graven Image:
Nothing odd as of late but a year ago I kept getting an ad to have my aura cleaned.

Maybe with a Buddhist vacuum cleaner? Comes without attachments.

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