Okay, Facebook. What's going on now?
It seems like everyone has a weird
story to tell about the world's most popular social media site. I
know I've shared my fair share of them. And if you don't mind, I'm
gonna do it again, because the algorithm that determines what ads
you'll see on the site has surprised even me.
According to Facebook, this is
something I should be interested in--
Now, as far as I know, I'm not a woman.
I know I joke in here a lot that I'm not a “guy”, but last time
I checked I did still have all the equipment and chromosomes that
qualify me as “male”, even if I don't act like one. So why
Facebook thought I would be interested in a product designed for,
marketed to, and used exclusively by women, is kind of beyond me.
And that's not even getting into the
fact that of all the problems I have (and we all know there are a LOT
of those), incontinence is not one of them.
I actually have a fairly educated guess
as to why the ad keeps popping up on my news feed. Facebook's weird
advertising algorithm takes into account many variables, including
what your “friends” are interested in. Because I'm, you know,
not a guy, the majority of my Facebook friends (or at least the ones
I follow and interact with) are female. And in the ad, I did notice
that it mentions several of my friends as “liking” the product.
So maybe Facebook thinks I identify as a woman, despite the fact that
my gender is set as “male”.
I know I joke about not being a “guy”
all the time. Maybe Facebook's taking those jokes seriously.
If I was in the marketing department
for Depends, though, I guess I might be a little upset. After all,
they're paying money to have their ads placed on the site. Before
finally blocking it, that ad appeared on my news feed at least two
dozen times, which means that Depends paid Facebook money for me, a
guy, to see the ad at least two dozen times. This is the point at
which I'd usually say “I'm not a marketing expert, but I play on on
TV', but the truth is I DO have a little bit of knowledge into the
marketing business. I know when you're getting a good return on your
investment and when you're not.
And trust me—Depends is NOT getting a
good return on this particular investment. In fact, they're not
getting ANY return on this particular investment, unless you count
the number of times I've mentioned their product in this blog. And
if that's the case, they should be paying me, and not Facebook,
right?
Right.
Like I said, I've blocked the ad, so
I'll no longer see it. However, I do await the next strange ad to
start popping up in my news feed. My money's on nail polish remover.
Or a sundress. Or an IUD. After all, those make as much sense as
Depends for Women, right?
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