Week 3

Targeted advertising is a smart thing for businesses to do in order to grab the attention of their potentially age appropriate customers. It’s not only age that they target, it’s your interests as well because depending on your search history, especially through an account that you have to log-in to. While standing over my dad’s shoulder this week watching him pick out a golf course online on a website that gave him all the best deals in our area, not only did they advertise the latest and “greatest” golf equipment to try to sell him into buying it, but they also advertised golf courses on the sides of the screen that were fairly close to the area we live in. They made the golf courses look like paradise in order to make you want to play there, but in reality these courses are less green and not as nice as what the picture plays them out to be. There are some that I find to be particularly funny because my mom jokes with me all the time about going to Christian Mingle to find a boyfriend because around here finding a good Christian man that is what I’m looking for in a man is really hard to find. So, while I’m on the internet looking for things, I’ll always see the eHarmony or Christian Mingle advertisement because it’s like they know I’m not with someone. I do believe it is smart that they advertise it to my age group and others that are older and still single because it gives them a chance to find someone without losing hope of never finding anyone to spend the rest of their life with.    

Pandora is something that most of us use. When you create an account you have to create an account, Pandora asks you to fill out some of your personal information such as your birthday and gender. Depending on those factors, it will arrange advertisements for you to come on during your music. I was talking with my sister-in-law about it and our advertisements were different. Since I am underage my advertisements did not consist of alcohol or anything like that. It was mostly shoes and other things pertaining to my age. Since she is almost eight years older than me her advertisements consisted of alcohol, condoms, and shoes. She does not drink and neither do I, so those advertisements were things that I thought were negative in trying to influence negatively upon the audience. I understand that they have to advertise their product but it is something I could care less to watch or hear about. Although, I think it is clever they are trying to target specific ages, I think Amazon does a good job at targeting you with things that you have bought in the past on the side of your screen while you are shopping. Things that you have previously looked at will sometimes show up on the side while you are shopping so it is convenient for you to go back to the item in case you want to look at it or possibly buy that one instead. It is convenient but also tempting to get you to buy their things. It’s pretty smart if you ask me.