My Advertising Age

It's a well-known fact that advertisers try and target the audience who will most likely buy their products. They pour over TV ratings and demographics, attempting to get the most bang for their advertising bucks. That's why the network news programs, whose viewers average about 65 years-old and usually have higher incomes than most, are filled with commercials for exclusive retirement communities and cruises. I watch a lot of golf which targets older men and that means I'm well-versed in the world of luxury sedans, machines to fix your terrible drive and erectile dysfunction pills. But with the invention of the DVRs, more and more people are able to completely blow passed any and all commercials when they finally get around to watching their favorite shows when it suits them and not the network. Therefore it was only a matter of time before pinpoint advertising, like everything else these days, went viral.

I'm actually amazed at how many people out there don't realise the Internet browsers they use are keeping track of their search history. They think it is just a happy coincidence that yesterday they Googled 'pie recipes' and today all their side banners are filled with cookbook advertisements. Nope, your computer is keeping track of all the websites you look at, everything you browse for, everything you like on Facebook and pulling keywords out of your emails. For the most part this never bothered me all that much, because I go to the same 10 websites every day, so the advertisements I was getting shown were usually pretty spot-on. [Sidebar: if suddenly knowing that Big Brother is really watching you is disturbing, you can click on 'Tools' at the top of your browsers and there should be some sort of "Private" option that keeps your Internet history between you and the four walls.]

For example, you probably aren't shocked to learn that I do quite a bit of Googling and emailing concerning golf. As such I get not only ads for golf trips and equipment, but also the usually golf assumptions for luxury sedans and erectile dysfunction pills - just like on TV. While I'm not planning to need either in the near future, I have decided to simply chalk those banner ads up to coming with the territory. I don't even mind the more liberal of advertising assumptions, such as high-end wines and financial planning sites. However, lately the ads I've been getting thrown my way are making me start to wonder if someone else is coming in and using my computer when I'm asleep.

In the past couple of weeks I've started getting banner ads for background checks, divorce lawyers, cell phones and on-line schools - none of which are things I have emailed about or searched for. They aren't even close. It's like my computer thinks I went from being a retiree to a young street tough. Frankly, I'm not sure if I felt better when I thought my computer was keeping tabs on me instead of now, when I feel as though it has stopped looking at my browsers history and just began making wild assumptions about the things it thinks I will like. This is like when TiVo first came out and it would automatically record things it thought you wanted to watch, most of which were really off. (Honestly, TiVo, what made you think I wanted seven episodes of "Moesha"?) Worse than not knowing what I might actually be interested in, who is my computer sharing this bad information with?

Normally I avoid using the 'secret' browser option because I like to be able to go back and quickly find articles I was reading, but this sudden shift in the tone of my advertising choices has me rethinking that strategy. Maybe it would be better if the Internet didn't have any idea of what to show me for ads. Then again, given what it shows me when it thinks it knows what I like, that could be a dangerous proposition. Who knows what direction it will go in when it is forced to blindly guess on its own? I think the solution to my problem is obvious: someone needs to invent a program that acts like a DVR for the Internet and just blocks out the advertisers completely. That way, everybody wins. (Well, not the people in advertising, but who cares about them?)