NJCubScouter Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 As we have discussed several times, the owner of this site appears to subscribe to an advertising service (or two) that that automatically puts ads on the site, presumably without any active participation by the site owner (or moderators.) Often the ads seem to be "targeted" either to the anticipated "audience" of this site in general, or sometimes to particular words that appear in a thread. For example, I have seen threads about camping with ads for camping stores, outfitters, etc. Or in "Issues and Politics" threads that frequently mention, er, particular demographic groups, there will be ads that seem to target that group, or sometimes political ads that might appeal to opponents of that group. And so on. Sometimes there will be ads that seem to go "right up to the line" of what would be considered appropriate on a "family-friendly" web site. I am sure many of you have noticed the t-shirt ads featuring the 20-ish-year-old women. Well, I just saw one that I couldn't believe. It seemed to go OVER the proverbial "line", but at the same time, made me laugh so much that I almost fell off my chair (hence the title of the thread.) And it certainly appeared to be "targeted" to a demographic that the advertising service must believe is heavily represented in this forum, that being men in their 40's and 50's, and perhaps 60's. And I'd guess they'd be right. And I'm close to being right in the middle there. The ad (which was across the top of the page) had photos of four, shall we say, provocatively dressed women, all of whom appeared to be in the age range mentioned above (the oldest one looked like she might be about 60, but a young 60), and all gazing alluringly at the camera. That was pretty much the part that went "over the line." When I say "provocatively", I do not mean pornographic, but definitely trending in that direction. But the part that almost made me fell off my chair was the tag line on the right: "We DON'T like young men! We want you!" If you don't immediately get the humor, it assumes that the person reading the ad is not a "young man." And the women in the ad don't want young men, they want, well, old men. Like the one probably reading the ad. Like me. I am not quite sure how effective this is as an advertising technique. Nobody really wants to be constantly reminded that they are "not young", even those of us who have long ago accepted that we are, well, not. So as a sales booster, I don't know. As a momentary piece of entertainment, well I guess it did catch my attention. After all that, I can only speculate on what it was an ad for, since I felt it would probably not be a good idea to click on it, and it does not appear on the page right now. In its place is an ad for Campmor ("For all your camping needs!"), specifically the Paramus, NJ location, which is probably a non-coincidence on several levels. So anyway, I just thought I'd share that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn_LeRoy Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Well, the ad I've got on top right now is about restoring the national cathedral...What's up with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 Merlyn says: Well, the ad I've got on top right now is about restoring the national cathedral...What's up with that? And I thought this thread couldn't get any funnier. So how much of a check are you sending them, Merlyn? The ad I have now is for kayaks from L.L. Bean... oh it just switched to Google business web-hosting services -- for New Jersey business owners. Another amazing coincidence. But those aren't very funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenDavis500 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Based on my observations, the ad program is changing to suit YOUR most recent viewing history. Experiment a little. Google hammocks and go to a few of the sites. Then go to scouter.com. What do you see as an ad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS-87 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Mitt Romney Official Site Do stricter gun laws keep us safer? Cast your vote now! Boundary Waters Camping Seems the ad program seems to have a pretty good grasp on what we're more likely to click. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeptic Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 At least if you are using Google, you are given an option to opt out of targeted ads. Just go to this link, review, then decide to either opt out, or simply edit what they already have on your list. http://www.google.com/ads/preferences?hl=en Do not know if there is something similar for other browsers or connected services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 So, what some of you are saying is, the ad-server didn't give me that ad because it figured out that a person reading this site might be a male aged 45-65, but because it looked at the web sites I go to and figured out that I am a male aged 45-65. Is that it? Including this site, I suppose? But the part about looking for love (or the closest immediately available facsimile thereof) in all the wrong places, it made up on its own, I swear. And what sites did Merlyn go to that convinced the ad-server that he might want to donate to the National Cathedral project? Hmmm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Very funny.. So NJCubScouter... Where have you been recently?.. Merlyn???? Have you been visiting more Catholic sites then atheist sites?? I got WhiteWater rafting advertising.. Earlier I had a negative ad on Obama from the Romney camp.. I have been keeping up with the political news.. I haven't looked for WW info, but my son could have looked something up using my computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevorum Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Having just visited skullsunlimited dot com (a very cool place!), I was very dissappointed to see my targeted was merely for online web design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavah Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Yah, for some reason I got a Darwin Fish kissing a Christian Fish a lot in I&P. I got a great chuckle out of that. I keep waitin' for ads for beaver-skinned coats or conservation organizations in beaver areas, but I reckon da AdWords algorithms can't yet parse funny regional dialects in type. I think, it's great to know that Merlyn is really an Episcopalian. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn_LeRoy Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I do comment on e.g. Catholic blogs when they say something stupid about atheists (which is pretty often). Beavah, my dad was raised Episcopalian (IIRC), but he became an atheist at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packsaddle Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I'm getting travel ads and hotels. Could be worse from what I'm hearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSScout Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 So "they" know more about us/me than me/us might. I recently availed myself of an offer of free biz cards from Vistaprint and , sonofagun, there it is in the top line, even as I type, "Vistaprint" offer of free bizcards AND a rubber stamp... But I also worked thru a problem with Black and Decker, but have yet to see them touted here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cchoat Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 I usually access this site during my lunch break at work, so i don't see the ads. instead i get the message: "Access Denied (policy_denied) Your system policy has denied access to the requested URL." Very dull, but then I don't come to this site for the ads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horizon Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Folks, I spend thousands of dollars every month on Google adwords for my company. If you were to go to my company website, my banner ad would follow you as long as you have cookies enabled on your machine. Right now the ad I get is for a consulting firm I am doing business with, for example. They dropped a cookie onto my machine and so their ad pops up on any site I surf. To the right I have a software company that is appropriately tangential to my work as well. It has nothing to do with Scouter.com - I assume that Terry simply uses the Google ad program plus an adult filter to avoid porn and gambling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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