So this week, as you all know, we gave speeches which rhetorically analyzed advertisements. I found this unit to be especially intriguing, despite the feeling of terror that comes with giving a speech before a class and knowing you will be graded on the speech. Otherwise, this unit has really left me thinking about advertisements in a different way. Yeah, we always see advertisements and we just accept them for what they are, without really analyzing them beyond what is presented before us.
Recently, I've noticed that when I log onto Facebook, along the side there are typically these ridiculous ads about finding a sugar daddy or voting in some type of cutest baby contest. However, I also noticed that with Facebook and some other websites, there are some ads which appear thanks to Google stalking your whole life. I'm guessing Google figured out a way to dominate our internet worlds more than it already does and now, they are strategically placing ads on websites that we visit which are based on some of our searches on Google. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. But then, I noticed that every time I logged onto Facebook, there were advertisements about sororities or Penn State (which I had repeatedly searched on Google during my first couple weeks in school and some time before I left for college). Initially, I thought "wow, Google has reached an all time low" but then I realized just how ingenious this tactic is.
Typically, when we're flipping through a magazine or even surfing the web, we pay little to no attention to advertisements, unless we see something that catches our eye or something we're interested in. By placing ads on the websites we visit that are "specifically" tailored to our interests, we are far more likely to pay attention to the ad and may even click on it to learn more about what's being advertised. Although it does feel a little uncomfortable that Google manages to use, I'm assuming, your most popular searches to direct ads at you, it is a smart way of getting people to take notice of ads!
There's a lot of debate about the appropriateness of these kind of ads, and what kind of authority, if any, users should have to opt out of this kind of advertising. So far the conclusion is: "none." Since we're using their optional services, we have the option to opt out by simply not using it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your FB ads are entirely driven by FB's tracking of your activity. Google and FB are competitors in this area, and definitely do not share information with each other. So somehow your activity on FB was enough for them to target you for sorority recruitment. (And keep in mind that it's the sororities themselves paying for this ad placement.)
It's definitely a different era, and as consumers we need to become more savvy about how we process these kinds of ads, since they're going to be so targeted to our interests.