Facebook: Home of the Hypertargeted Ad

While casually browsing Facebook the last few weeks I have been constantly paying more attention to the advertisements on the right side of the screen. I've noticed that about 75% of the time, the advertisement features information that is directly from my profile.


I have seen at least three other advertisements similar to the one on the right, all featuring artists that are mentioned in my Facebook profile. The two artists on the right are the first two listed in my 'favorite music' section of my profile. Obviously, this ad caught my eye. Other ads that are even more targeted have featured one of my Facebook friends, mentioning a recent trip that they went on. Below their picture is a link to a travel company.

Targeted or Intrusive?

Do I enjoy banner ads? No. But would I rather see banner ads featuring my favorite musicians than Viagra ads? Of course. I realize that Facebook needs to monetize some how and banner ads are one aspect of that. I'm sure that a lot of people find this form of targeted advertising intrusive and annoying, but considering all alternatives I don't mind it.

What do you think: Targeted, Intrusive, or Both?

I'm a PC and I'm Finally on Message

Microsoft have been running a series of YouTube ads on their channel for the last two months now. They started off the much-hyped "I'm a PC" campaign with two funny but irrelevant Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ads. They were successful in generating buzz and WOM but there was hardly a message behind the ads.

Now Microsoft is releasing ads backed by different musicians and athletes showing how they use PC's. So far, the three ads released have been viewed over 2 million times. My favorite of the three is below. Although, I'll admit that I'm biased towards the ad since I'm a huge fan of GirlTalk. At least we are now with an ad that talks about what the PC can do instead of an ad talking about wearing leather shoes in the shower.

Music 2.0

Pretty much everyone knows about web 2.0, what it is, and what it allows internet users to do. But what about music 2.0, as in, someone taking something that exists and recreating it into something entirely new?

This is exactly what artist, Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk has done. On his new album Feed The Animals he takes samples from over 300 different songs, fuses them together, and forms an entirely new song. One of the notable "mashups" includes Jay Z's "roc boys" playing over Radioheads "Paranoid Android."

He is hoping to avoid legal problems under the Creative Commons Licensing act, which allows websites and various media to sample 30 seconds previews.

Will he get sued? I highly doubt it, for one reason specifically: publicity.

Any artist who sued him would be facing an angry mob of music fans. Looking back a few years in history, take the example of Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich who led the campaign against Napster. He faced a backlash and that was for people stealing entire songs! Imagine if one person gets sued for using no more than 30 seconds of a song. (see also Prince and YouTube)


Anyways, if music 2.0 intrigues you, I encourage you to check out Girl Talk's Feed The Animals. Personally, I give the CD a 9/10, but it is subjective to whether you really like the genre or not.