I don't actually notice ads most of the time. I'm sure I'm surrounded by them, but I rarely pay attention. The only time I am really a captive audience is when I go for a run and I listen to Spotify. I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription, so I get ads.
Here's the thing. I'm a married woman in my 40s who lives in a red county. I'm a homeowner in the Midwest. These demographics say something about me. And so it leads to advertisements on Spotify about the following things.
1) Catholic education - This is wrong on so many levels. I do not have a child to enroll in a Catholic school. I am not Catholic.
(My husband did go to Catholic schools growing up. One of his friends from high school had a parent die and requested donations for either a pro-life charity or a Catholic education fund and Dr. BB sent one to Catholic education. If I had been in charge of this, I would have donated money to Planned Parenthood in the dead asshole's name, but I wasn't in charge and didn't even know my name was on this donation until it was too late. Also, fuck off if you're pro-life. Also, I'm getting so mad just typing this. I need to cool off.)
2) Diapers - I do not have children, let alone children young enough for diapers.
(Look, I can't figure out why I get this one. Maybe it's just age and demographics? Although, I'm a tiny bit too old for babies at this point.)
3) Laundry detergent, specifically Tide - For quite some time, I was getting ads that featured Aaron Rodgers, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Ice-T. I would actually find myself irate at Rodgers and his anti-vaccination, putting others at risk stance and turned off Spotify on these occasions. Recently, it's switched to a Tide ad about how much water is in traditional detergent versus Tide Pods. The thing is, we use a very cheap Era detergent because every single time we've tried to switch to other more environmentally friendly detergents, I've broken out into a rash. I'm never going to try Tide and this advertisement is wasted on me.
4) Taco Bell - I legitimately don't remember the last time I ate at Taco Bell. I honestly don't know if I will ever eat there again. I used to get Nachos Supreme and it seems like that's been taken off the menu, so what's my motivation to go there?
Where are my ads for low-cost prescriptions for expensive dogs, Spotify? Or ethically sourced fashion brands? Or local plumbers, electricians and contractors? Those are things I could actually use!
Do the advertisers have you figured out? What's the weirdest things that's been advertised specifically to you recently?
Oh, I'm laughing at this. So many people who blog are too afraid to post anything political or religious for fear of offending people- you, on the other hand actually wrote "fuck off if you're pro-life." Love it!
ReplyDeleteI also use the free Spotify and those ads are annoying! I think mine are less annoying than yours (for a while I was getting a ton of ads about getting the Covid vaccine, and mammograms) but I'll also get some in Spanish, I guess because I live in South Florida- but I don't speak Spanish at all so I have no idea what they're about.
I wouldn't mind ads about mammogram, vaccines, or in Spanish, to be honest. If I got those, I would assume the algorithm had figured me out.
DeleteIt's only Monday and I'm giving you the award for Best Blog Post of the Week. I loved this post.
ReplyDeleteThe worst experience that I had with targeted ads is when I worked for a startup 10 years ago where I did purchasing. The things that I was buying at work were following me home. Idk what the advertisers thought I was into but believe me I do not want to see ads for industrial shelving in my personal life. Adblock took care of that particular situation for me. I don't use Spotify but I have to say that I'm intrigued.
I occasionally get some ads based on my own work searches and they always make me laugh because they're so inappropriate for my personal needs.
DeleteI didn't even realize that spotify ads could be customized! But I do not listen to ads on podcasts or spotify - I love the double-click feature on my airpod pros for skipping ahead - I think it skips 15 or 30 seconds? I hate ads! But I used to get ads in the mail from diaper companies when I was single/child-free and I think it was because I bought a baby shower gift. So they immediately thought I was their target audience. Nope. When I was still on instagram, I was creeped out when I got ads for wall organization systems after having a text conversation about them with some girlfriends... Something similar happened again when I had been talking about something with Phil and then had an ad directed at me related to what we were talking about. I can't remember what we talked about or what was advertised but it was creepy!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you have the free version of Spotify, you can't skip ads. I always skip ads when listening to podcasts, but Spotify won't let you. My husband and I had a couple of conversations about refinancing our mortgage and for weeks afterwards, we were getting ads from financial institutions - it really WAS creepy.
DeleteThis is so odd because I do have a free version of spotify! But I can fast forward through ads! I double checked to make sure I have a free version and I definitely do!
DeleteThis blog post makes me laugh because I work in digital marketing and this is EXACTLY what we do. I don't work in our paid advertising department and one time, we had a meeting where we learned all the ways we can help companies track their companies and target ads to them and I was creeped out, haha. Like how a company can send you a flyer in the mail if you just google their name or land on their website! It's INSANE.
ReplyDeleteIt's creepy, that's for sure. I feel like I've got them fooled, though, and the ROI for those advertisers has got to be zilch.
DeleteOh that's weird.. you'd think they have figured out what ads really appeal to you (just like ads for things that you talked about with a friend randomly pop up on social media ... mmh??!).
ReplyDeleteThey really don't have me figured out at all. I guess I don't mind because if it WERE stuff I wanted, I would be easily swayed to spend a lot of money I don't really need to spend. :)
DeleteI don't get Spotify ads but I do get ones on social media and they mostly do have me figured out. It's usually yoga things, or some kind of health supplement. Once I had a FB messenger chat with friends about candy, which I don't generally eat, and then I had nothing but candy ads for weeks. During the pandemic I kept getting ads for comfortable pants, which still cracks me up.
ReplyDelete"Comfortable pants" - ha! That's interesting marketing.
DeleteAds seem to be pretty well-targeted on FB, but I suppose apps like Spotify are more general. A newspaper that I go to sometimes, interrupts their stories with ads but I just scroll past without really noticing their content.
ReplyDeleteI don't notice FB ads much, but they seem to be more targeted at my husband's interests than mine, so I wonder if FB is really just using IP addresses rather than individual accounts.
DeleteI don't listen to Spotify much but maybe I need to start, just to see which ads I get! Instagram is the space where I really notice ads, and they do have me pegged. Mostly ads for clothing (from stores I like) and ads for fitness programs. Although today I got an ad for Tums. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI cannot think of a single Instagram ad I've ever actually noticed. I think if it's not a picture of a beach, a cat or dog, or someone's face I actually know, it really doesn't even enter my brain. I'm an advertisers worst nightmare!
DeleteThis is hilarious. I see the same thing - but primarily related to *location* - on my ESPN podcasts/shows. I haven't noticed anything about Apple Podcasts (I don't use Spotify anymore) but will start paying attention. IG is really disturbing about how targeted their ads are - last night I read someone's IG post about taking a tree down in their stories...and the next sponsored story advertised a tree business. Scary stuff.... and yet I'm still on there.
ReplyDelete