in defense of targeted adverting | the qualified yes

I posted earlier today about an article over on the harvard business review blog concerning privacy concerns and "the creepy factor." the caption I used in pushing the post onto some outlet or another reminded me that I had covered this ground in the past. rather than admit to playing both sides, I will simply comment that when I wrote this last summer, I was talking about personalizing advertising, not one's entire web experience.

let’s talk about root beer. I would rather see and most likely subsequently ignore an ad for root beer than an ad for a miracle root beer absorbing tampon. because I would never buy a tampon, no matter what it claimed to soak up.

on the other hand, I _might_ be interested in buying a new brand of root beer if the offer was right. because I do buy root beer. and unlike diet coke, my brand allegiance is not absolute.

via btrandolph.com (read the whole post - it's all this good)

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