Never Gonna Let You Go
I visited Jabra’s website and now I get ads for the headset everyone. Many at some point have noticed this. I can easily make the connecting between the ad and my visit to the site. It’s annoying but at least I know about it.
However, it’s the unexpected following that conjures up weird things. I spoke about x product to a friend and sure enough, it’s in my feed. It would be unlikely that Google or Facebook would risk massive backlash of background recordings to inform advertising in the hope of slightly more effective ads but it makes one feel that way.
It’s likely that there were other behaviours that were telltale signs to start triggering this advertisement to us. A rise in cases of ringworm in a particular geography leads to geo-fencing of display or content ads, or YouTube ads. When these companies get it right, it’s freakish, not convenient.
It might also that background ads “incepted” an idea and only after we discussed them with others did we begin to notice. When Waze or YouTube asked if I noticed a recent ad, I often shrug my shoulders and can’t recall. These background ads may end up influencing our conversations and choices unconsciously.
A tool that we really need to understand advertising’s impact on us would list as much as possible every ad we’ve been exposed to, whether through pre- or mid-roll videos, sponsored content in a podcast, content ads on websites, sponsored posts, sponsored search results, or any other means of exposing us to ads. A daily or weekly report that could help us understand what are the additives of our information diet. Then, we could make informed decisions on whether we’re OK with this or now.
