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More Facebook ad fun!

For entertainment, I sat and graded the ads I was getting for 15 mins again, refreshing them to see what would come up to replace what I'd marked as 'irrelevant'.

The results, from their headlines:
Rachel Ray diet (twice), 1,000,000 people can't be wrong (Pink Patch ad, this one is particularly repetitive, 8 times out of 12 this replaced an ad I'd removed by rating it irrelevant!), the Pink Patch diet (same as the other one, but different format...this company must have an impressive advertising budget), Floristry courses at Bournville College, the GI patch (yet another diet offer!), free Samsung Tocco, Poor history credit card (multiple), Call worldwide for a month (some sort of phone plan), free PS3 with T-Mobile, Home in Cyprus and Greece, Instant payday loan, free Samsung Soul, Jobs in Oxfordshire (twice), Want a PS3 for £10.92? (auction site ad), The best of Dagenham, A few drinks tonight? (don't know what this advertised, had website link but I didn't go), birthday flowers, Bad credit history is ok, Non fault accident? (Ohhh, I could 'claim today with Jim and Jane'!), Teeth whitening gel sale, Portugal, Sapin, Tenerife (travel company), Are you owed £2,000? (mis-sold loan payment insurance), Ibiza people meet (Ibiza social network).

So, what I've worked out from this is that Facebooks ignores any feedback on the ads it displays for you, and they're mainly in a few distinct categories:

  • Weightloss / diet / cosmetic
  • Mobile phone offers
  • Loan / credit offers
  • Poorly targeted location-specific ads (Dagenham, Bournville, Oxfordshire, Ibiza)

It's like being constantly subjected to mini-spam emails, lurking in the edge of your vision! I suppose it's the price you pay to have a free service, but I wonder if they'll ever offer a ad-free version, for a small fee?

And I still think Facebook's trying to tell me something,in a not-so-subtle way....
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