I imagine all of us are hit with targeted advertising somewhere or other (IG tends to be my one), so here's the thread.

List the last ad that was thrown at you?
Have they got your number? That is, would this thing be up your street?
Any chance of you actually taking the plunge? If so, maybe you can review the algorithmically-recommended tat down the line.

IG just hit me with Supply shaving gear. Already got my shaving tackle sorted. You don't know me IG. Loser.

My son will send me blind links to stuff he'd like me to buy for him, and I usually look at them on my work computer, where I don't keep myself logged in to Amazon or wherever. Last week I clicked on a couple at home, and since I am always logged in to those sites on my private machine, I then got to enjoy targeted ads seemingly across the entire spectrum of my usual internet haunts for stuff that was triggered by a G.G. Allin book and a documentary about serial killers. My girlfriend was a little confused when we were trying to book a place to stay for an upcoming trip and Allin's face covered in shit kept popping up.

I actively fight the whole ad thing. I use multiple adblockers, and have a pc running piHole to block ads at home in addition to browser based adblockers. The only social media site I'm on is facebook, and I don't use the app on my phone, I use the mobile site, specifically because it's easier to manually "hide" advertisers. I spend way too much time actively trying to hide every advertiser that shows up on that list, and changing any and every ad topic to "see less" of.

As far as getting my number, it happens every now and again, but it's rare. One that stands out was a monthly dog toy subscription box for heavy chewers, which my dog absolutely is. I think another that worked was less an ad and more a suggested page which I did end up joining. If they get me actually interested, I navigate to that company manually instead of clicking the ad, 'cause fuck the ads.

Semi-related, a friend posted this today, which is a long, but worthwhile read on the subject of the internet ad economy, and it's potential unsustainability.
https://onezero.medium.com/the-ad-based ... e31d648a35

One February I decided to purchase a special someone some nice lingerie from an online boutique. Years of ads celebrating the female form followed. Oh well, better than diet pill ads.

Anytime one of yous post a "look at this dumb fucking guitar" thing and I click on it, I get Reverb side ads with more of the same dumb fucking guitars.

losthighway wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 5:11 pm One February I decided to purchase a special someone some nice lingerie from an online boutique. Years of ads celebrating the female form followed. Oh well, better than diet pill ads.

LOL, not the worst consequence...

...though you may need to be careful when sharing your screen on Zoom calls for work if you did this on your work laptop.

(Yes, I have done something that stupid.)

penningtron wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 5:51 pm Anytime one of yous post a "look at this dumb fucking guitar" thing and I click on it, I get Reverb side ads with more of the same dumb fucking guitars.

This. It's all Reverb and one sports jacket add that I clicked on 4 years ago.

Shitty bands, church services, real estate, and prescription meds are my usual foes. Truly the bane of my online existence as I actively fight them every time. Does absolutely no good. That said, I have on occasion took mental note of a clothing ad. What I will do is block it, then visit the company online incognito. Bought a pair of recycled kicks that way.

I should really look into that adblock thing as mentioned up-thread.

For some completely inexplicable reason Google is serving me, a single man, ads for women’s swimwear and lingerie. There was even a time when I couldn’t watch a YouTube video without sitting through an ad for Yvette sportsbras. Crazy, right? So I can certainly sympathize with losthighway there.

I guess their algorithms aren’t as well-targeted as they seem to think.

My friend and I regularly tex, email, talk on the phone and IRL about what we lovingly refer to as "trash candy." Nerds Ropes, Hot Tamales, Jujyfruits, Dots, &c. We both pretty much only buy these candies at Dollar Tree ($1.25) now. Occasionally I will buy at Target, but I do not use a phone number (I'm not a "club" member anywhere, or, if I do receive some benefit, I let the checkout person use theirs) when making purchases. Neither of us buys candy online. She recently started receiving Amazon ads for Nerds and associated candies. Now, she may use a phone number when purchasing, I haven't asked. I could swear our phones are listening.