Web Advertisement WTF Moments.

[Saulkar]

So for the past few weeks there have been some interesting stories on The Young Turks about gay rights in the States and I watched just about every one of them however I started to notice a disturbing trend. Youtube is advertising me gay products and services! The most recent one being an exclusively gay cruise! Seriously, who are the shit for brains who interpret gay rights stories as admission of your sexuality and interests?

Now being bisexual I am none too concerned about this exactly however I live in a family and have a couple of... friends(?) that if they saw such adverts I would not hear the end of it until I start yelling at people and then I am the bad guy... what was I talking about again?

Oh yeah!

What in the wild and wacky world of the interwebs has advertisements done that made you go WTF?!

 

[Eleuthera]

I got a Facebook add about "losing those Christmas pounds" at some point, in May?!
Bonus points for the fact that I was still working on gaining weight after chemo-therapy...

Besides that one nothing immediately springs to mind.

 

[Pinkamena]

I once got a sidebar ad that was the standard "Shoot three balloons to win an ipad!" thing. But for some reason this nightmare-inducing thing was in it and following the cursor:

 

[Esotera]

Facebook has been trying to get me to become a sperm donor for literally months now. This is the most WTF advert because if fertility clinics are gathering sperm by the sort of people who spend all their time on facebook, humanity is doomed.

 

[BeerTent]

Facebook has been trying to get me to become a sperm donor for literally months now. This is the most WTF advert because if fertility clinics are gathering sperm by the sort of people who spend all their time on facebook, humanity is doomed.

Hey, if you whack it a lot, you'll be perfect for the clinic. I think they're counting on what else you browse on your spare time.

At work, I get advertisements for a Christian Mingle all the damn time. Have these people never heard of picking up in a church? Really now, what else are you going to do in there?

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't know if it was targetted advertising (and hope it isn't) but on LoadingReadyRun.com a few months ago lots of people in the UK were complaining about being shown rape awareness adverts on the site. Maybe the government think gamers/nerds are just a bit rapey?

 

[kailus13]

Facebook has been trying to get me to become a sperm donor for literally months now. This is the most WTF advert because if fertility clinics are gathering sperm by the sort of people who spend all their time on facebook, humanity is doomed.

Hey, if you whack it a lot, you'll be perfect for the clinic. I think they're counting on what else you browse on your spare time.

At work, I get advertisements for a Christian Mingle all the damn time. Have these people never heard of picking up in a church? Really now, what else are you going to do in there?

Talk about the murders you've committed in confession. They can't tell anyone, it's brilliant.

On topic: The rape awareness adds on sites not commonly associated with clubbing or parties. I don't go out, how can I do anything like that? Psychokinesis?

 

[yamy]

An facebook ad once asked me "Have you heard of Christmas?"

Now I understood that 'Christmas' was probably a page and all adverts of that type followed the syntax "Have you heard of X".

Which doesn't make it any less bizarre.

 

[triggrhappy94]

On the home page for my university's library I once found an ad that read: "English Majors, Do you need some major fun?"
And had a cartoon picture of what I guess is suppose to be Shakespeare, but just looks like a penis.
I still have the picture and I'd post it if I knew how (it is on my Facebook, but I've never gotten that to work).

 

[Zipa]

I don't know if it was targetted advertising (and hope it isn't) but on LoadingReadyRun.com a few months ago lots of people in the UK were complaining about being shown rape awareness adverts on the site. Maybe the government think gamers/nerds are just a bit rapey?

At least they won't be a problem any more as LRR removed site ads with the new build of their site.

 

[spartandude]

I used to get adverts telling me to vote for the Republicans... i live in the UK and have never been to america

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I used to get adverts telling me to vote for the Republicans... i live in the UK and have never been to america

Aren't Republicans just another word for Labour Party? I've never been to the UK before and while our politics are not too dissimilar, it's something I learned from Bill Hicks who, despite starting in America, had good success in England.

(Bill Hicks was a comedian if you don't know about him.)

 

[Adept Mechanicus]

A Facebook ad for a Muslim dating site once asked me if I was happy with Auntie's choice, who was apparently a bucktoothed, cross-eyed old lady in a hijab. I'm not even Muslim or Middle Eastern.

I knew Movie 43 would suck when I realized I had only ever heard of it because I saw ads for it on a porn site. Lo and behold, I was right. 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. That's 10 percent worse than Batman and Robin.

 

[loc978]

...My mother sings in a church choir, I download and burn onto CDs songs for her to listen to and sing along to in the car.

However, I am a bloody-minded, hedonistic heathen... who now gets advertisements for christian dating sites and bookstores from google.

 

[DrRockor]

I listen to Japanese music on youtube a lot and I have gotten an ad for visa in Japanese, the Sony music store in Japanese and what I think is the Japanese version on of yellow pages. It was weird the first time but I now kind of miss you Japanese man singing about town work. It made me want to know what it was you were all so excited about

 

[Jadak]

Seriously, who are the shit for brains who interpret gay rights stories as admission of your sexuality and interests?
!

I don't know, but they are correct, statistically speaking.

I take this as you are making the argument that interest in gay rights news does not indicate that an individual is gay themselves or has 'gay interests'.

You would be correct, but this does not make them wrong. Yes, non-gay people are likely to view those news stories and be exposed to ads that hold no appeal to them. However, who is going to care most about such stories? Gays. Some % of non-gays might give a fuck, I'm not one of them, but it's generally a sure bet that 99% of gay people are concerned with gay rights.

So while the ads will not be best suited for every single demographics that views the video, If I'm in charge of advertising for a company that runs gay cruises, something only gays are likely to be interested in, I'm sure as fuck going to put my ads on videos that every single gay person has an interest in viewing.

 

[shadyh8er]

I keep getting ads directed towards "men over 40." I think it's high time me and my dad stop using the same computer.

Then there was that one time I was waiting on a livestream and I got an ad for Tide (a laundry detergent). Did I mention it was in Spanish?

 

[Saulkar]

Seriously, who are the shit for brains who interpret gay rights stories as admission of your sexuality and interests?
!

THE AD COMPANIES ARE ALWAYS RIGHT!

OH-hohoho! If you were sitting right beside me right now you would rubbing that smouldering bald spot on your head after the noogie I gave you.

Spoiler: You do not want to click this!

Yes, I am only goofing around.

 

[BlackStar42]

I used to get adverts telling me to vote for the Republicans... i live in the UK and have never been to america

Aren't Republicans just another word for Labour Party? I've never been to the UK before and while our politics are not too dissimilar, it's something I learned from Bill Hicks who, despite starting in America, had good success in England.

(Bill Hicks was a comedian if you don't know about him.)

No, Labour are left wing. If you got a Republican and a Labour MP talking, the knives would be out in seconds.

As for me, I can't remember any truly weird ads, they've only been mildly annoying.

 

[Trucken]

I once saw an ad for a porn site. That in itself is nothing spectacular, but the images in the ad was... disturbing, to say the least. The girls in it looked really young, like, 11-13 years. And they were doing sexual stuff. It freaked me the fuck out, I'd hate for the cops to bust down my door and arrest me, believing I've been watching child pornography.