4 ms·

Evidently it's working on SOME front or they'd be putting more profitable ads in. Still brings up the question of whether the extra revenue is worth annoying p

Evidently it's working on SOME front or they'd be putting more profitable ads in. Still brings up the question of whether the extra revenue is worth annoying part of your user base - but from my experience I'll only ever see 1-2 ads even if I scroll for 5-10 minutes.

nukeop 9y ago
That's how targeted ads work - if you bought a product in the past, you must be interested in buying the same type of products, every week, forever, and you'll be interested in seeing ads for these products.
- MBCook 9y ago
  And it works extremely well. That’s why, thanks to Amazon ads, I’ve bought 14 vacuums in the last two months. Sigh. I really wish the algorithms were smart enough to distinguish between things that you might rebuy frequently (bras are closer to this end) and things that you probably won’t buy again for a long time (like vacuums).
- vezirynn 9y ago
  From my experience (engineer at ad retargeting company) the models used for retargeting are very advanced/optimized. They're shown repeatedly because the data suggests that it IS the optimal policy despite the reaction people have to it.
- glandium 9y ago
  I wonder if they take into account that you made the purchase, or even know about it. If you consider that the only information they have is that you were looking for the product, but may or may not have bought one (or may have returned the one you bought), then their strategy starts making sense.
dgoldstein 9y ago
I don't think "annoying" is quite the right word to summarize this blog post. Sure, ads are often annoying, but the point she was trying to make is that this pattern is somewhat harmful.
- notatoad 9y ago
  Displaying pictures of healthy, fit women in advertising is not harmful, nor does the author actually make that point. All she does is say that it's true, without any argument to back it up. We're simply supposed to accept that because she says it's harmful, it is. There's nothing degrading or overly sexualized about these ads. The fact that the models look good does not need to be a threat to anybody. I was with the author as long as it was a complaint about how repetitive and uninspired the ads were, but when it morphed into "pictures of healthy people trigger me" is where she lost me. If you are so insecure you can't see an image of a person who is better looking than you are without freaking out, that is nobody's problem but your own. It's not instagram's fault.
  - skywhopper 9y ago
    There are many other potential body shapes that are healthy and fit. The point is that for most people, the idealized, photoshopped shapes in these ads are actually literally unobtainable. Only a very small percentage of the population can ever achieve these shapes, for a very few years of their lives, and under very specific conditions. And when your media is saturated with only those images of impossible bodies, and the implication that this is the ideal that everyone should meet, even though that’s impossible, then it becomes a problem.
    - cloakandswagger 9y ago
      None of the women I saw in those pictures seem to have particularly unattainable or exaggerated physiques. In fact, they look like average, healthy body types easily attainable by regular diet and exercise. Claiming that "only a very small percentage of the population can ever achieve these shapes" smacks as totally false to me. Do you have any data or sources to back that up? edit: Would the downvoters care to contribute? I asked for some data or, at the very least, some sound reasoning for the claim that it's literally impossible for the majority of people to have healthy physiques.
      - user5994461 9y ago

nukeop 9y ago

That's how targeted ads work - if you bought a product in the past, you must be interested in buying the same type of products, every week, forever, and you'll be interested in seeing ads for these products.

MBCook 9y ago
And it works extremely well. That’s why, thanks to Amazon ads, I’ve bought 14 vacuums in the last two months. Sigh. I really wish the algorithms were smart enough to distinguish between things that you might rebuy frequently (bras are closer to this end) and things that you probably won’t buy again for a long time (like vacuums).
vezirynn 9y ago
From my experience (engineer at ad retargeting company) the models used for retargeting are very advanced/optimized. They're shown repeatedly because the data suggests that it IS the optimal policy despite the reaction people have to it.
glandium 9y ago
I wonder if they take into account that you made the purchase, or even know about it. If you consider that the only information they have is that you were looking for the product, but may or may not have bought one (or may have returned the one you bought), then their strategy starts making sense.

dgoldstein 9y ago

I don't think "annoying" is quite the right word to summarize this blog post. Sure, ads are often annoying, but the point she was trying to make is that this pattern is somewhat harmful.

notatoad 9y ago
Displaying pictures of healthy, fit women in advertising is not harmful, nor does the author actually make that point. All she does is say that it's true, without any argument to back it up. We're simply supposed to accept that because she says it's harmful, it is. There's nothing degrading or overly sexualized about these ads. The fact that the models look good does not need to be a threat to anybody. I was with the author as long as it was a complaint about how repetitive and uninspired the ads were, but when it morphed into "pictures of healthy people trigger me" is where she lost me. If you are so insecure you can't see an image of a person who is better looking than you are without freaking out, that is nobody's problem but your own. It's not instagram's fault.
- skywhopper 9y ago
  There are many other potential body shapes that are healthy and fit. The point is that for most people, the idealized, photoshopped shapes in these ads are actually literally unobtainable. Only a very small percentage of the population can ever achieve these shapes, for a very few years of their lives, and under very specific conditions. And when your media is saturated with only those images of impossible bodies, and the implication that this is the ideal that everyone should meet, even though that’s impossible, then it becomes a problem.
  - cloakandswagger 9y ago
    None of the women I saw in those pictures seem to have particularly unattainable or exaggerated physiques. In fact, they look like average, healthy body types easily attainable by regular diet and exercise. Claiming that "only a very small percentage of the population can ever achieve these shapes" smacks as totally false to me. Do you have any data or sources to back that up? edit: Would the downvoters care to contribute? I asked for some data or, at the very least, some sound reasoning for the claim that it's literally impossible for the majority of people to have healthy physiques.
    - user5994461 9y ago