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Thursday, December 03, 2015

Creepy degree of advertising targeting


In the sidebar of CNN.com I saw an interesting thumbnail picture of a cyclist in yellow, and clicked on the advertising link. This led to a Merrill Lynch page, shown above.  I once had a small account at Merilll Lynch, but that was closed in the 1980s.

This is a creepy degree of advertising targeting, or an incredible coincidence.
1. I am a cyclist. Note that in addition to the yellow-clad cyclist in the main picture, there's a cyclist at the bottom of the page.  And they are showing a road bike, too, which is the type I usually ride (although hybrid bikes are probably more common).
2. Yes, I am in the early stage of retirement -- so the ad is more relevant to me than, say, preparing for retirement or saving for college.
3. Note the chess players in the background. I also play chess online.

There's also some science to the handsome guy in the picture. He could be any ethnicity.He looks fit, but the jacket could be hiding a bit of extra belly around the middle (as I am).

So the ad is tailored so well to appeal to me that it's a bit creepy.



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