A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece in this very space claiming that I consistently ignored advertising on Facebook. In fact, I barely noticed it. A couple of layout changes later, Facebook ads began to annoy me – especially the ones offering me dates with bimbos, even though my personal details clearly indicate that I am married. (I would not, of course, be the first married man to sleep with a bimbo, but do you really need Facebook for that?)
So I decided to carry out an experiment. I'd noticed that it was possible to delete Facebook ads and tick a box explaining why I'd done so (uninteresting, misleading and – aha – offensive are on the list). That way, Facebook builds a better idea of your likes and dislikes and tailors ads to your personal tastes. Otherwise it just relies on random words in your text. I'm told this is called «contextual advertising». You write about your vacation, it throws an ad for a travel agent at you. Mention a movie, you get a DVD rental service, and so on.
I started brutally deleting ads, starting with the bimbos. Anything involving football and cars went next. It's starting to work. Now I get ads about books, hotels, wine, suits and watches. This is the future of advertising: one day your TV will deliver ads that appeal just to you. If only it were possible at the cinema. I'd love to zap that ad for Oasis.
