I had a bit of a problem with an advert today (well more than one). A government advert popped up on my facebook feed telling me I needed to see a vet six months before I travel. I’ve never been examined by a vet before. And where am I travelling to that needs me to be examined by a vet?
But the advert that really got me today was one for a product that was being sold at a really good price because they don’t use adverts and so save money. Telling an obvious lie is not the best way to persuade me that I want to give you money.
And then there is the Pete Seeger song “Hard times in the mill” being used in an advert for a shiny new Volvo. I think the idea is that living in a nice house with a flash car is difficult with a family to bring up. A long way from what Pete Seeger was singing about.
I remember when Sainsbury started their loyalty card people complained about them building up profiles about you. I deliberately did multiple shops with different types of produce – only using my loyalty card with some selected shops. And I was able to control the free offers I got. I seem to remember they had only got about six different profiles for people.
Having run a couple of campaigns on Facebook I found it really interesting how many ways you could tailor your adverts to hit your target audience. There is a lot of information known about you.
Want to know what sort of information they know about you? Go to settings and privacy then choose settings in Facebook. On the left you will see “Ads” – choose that to see what they know. You can do something similar on google.