How come

[SSScout]

If the BSA is a non-political, non-partisan organization, and this wonderful website supports and agrees with (most of)  BSA's  policy and activities,  HOW COME we see so many openly political advertising here?   

I don't mind the shoe and fashion and food and cleaning and vacation spa  ads, but is there any way to limit the directly political content?  It's annoying. 

[CynicalScouter]

Most online ads have nothing whatsoever to do with the site owners preferences and therefore, the answer is no.The way ads are offered up is one of three ways:

1) The ad company's automated system scans the site, sees what words the site uses, and matches ads. It is why for example so many ads about the Scouts lawsuit appear on this page. Lots of politics gets discussed on Issues & Politics. The ad company's algorithm then thinks "lots of political talk on this page/website, better send along the ads tagged/keyword politics."

2) The ad company scans your browsing history (the cookies in your browser or IP tracing) and offers you ads. Search Amazon for widgets and then come to this site. Odds are, you'll get offered some ads for either a) Amazon or b) widgets

3) Mass blasts. It is election season and the ad companies are getting lots of political ads. There's no algorithm (1) or search logic (2) you will simply get more political ads because there are more political ads being purchased and therefore have to be placed on websites.

So no, generally speaking when a website owner enters into an agreement with an ad company to put their ads on the website, they have no control over ad content.

Edited July 17, 2020 by CynicalScouter

[SSScout]

Still...….

It's annoying in the extreme.

[Sentinel947]

@CynicalScouter is dead on. I think this site uses Google Ads. I consistently get ads for products I'm researching that are unrelated to Scouting or my discussions here. 

[Thunderbird]

The only way I know to limit the ads is to use pop-up blockers, like Adblocker Ultimate, Ghostery, etc.