AOL and Mr. Penguin teach users about target advertising
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ August 12th, 2008 in Media News
Mr. Penguin? What could that possibly remind you of? starts with an L… ends with an X. Was this subliminal advertising for Linux intentional…?
News is, AOL launched a worldwide online campaign that runs through the step by step of what target advertising is, benefits it brings and opting out options.
And what better way to represent it than with Mr. Penguin; he’s friendly, harmless, everyone loves penguins, plus, he loves anchovies.
So, in the quest to make all users understand the concept of target advertising, Mr. Penguin does a great job showing us how the ads that you stumble upon while surfing the web are simply a reflection of websites you have already visited in previous occasions.
In this case, Mr. Penguin visits a deliciously appealing anchovy website, which generates a cookie that records his visit so that next time he accesses the web, regardless of the site he visits, more appealing anchovy ads will pop up on his screen.
To learn more on Mr. Penguin and about private policy or online advertising you can visit AOL.
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Comments
Nick Stamoulis
August 12th, 2008
Hmm I must admit, a Penguin is the perfect most unintimidating creature you could put into this advertising tool…
sexy sofie
August 13th, 2008
keep your stinkin’ anchovy cookies off of my computer. this is why i go thru extraordinary measures to delete cookies and block advertiser cookies with a host file. because i ain’t interested in anchovies.
m.barreto
August 13th, 2008
Hello guys!
I see we have diverse opinions here.. we’ve got an anchovy hater, Sofie. Well Sofie, you know what to do, specially now that sites are getting so picky about the whole privacy ordeal, you won’t have to worry about being bombarded anymore.
and Nick, who loves penguins just like I do. haha!
Jacob Ozolins
August 13th, 2008
I was wondering for how long such targeted advertising will be popular. I know from personal experience that when I am idly surfing the web, I am interested in things which DIFFER from my recently viewed websites.
It’s somewhat like swimming. I would rather swim around freely at the beach, than swim from end to end of a pool, staying in one lane only. Penguins should be able to relate to that.
So for me as a consumer, such targeted advertising might be less successful than something completely random.
m.barreto
August 13th, 2008
Hey,
I guess it applies differently to everyone. Works for some, for others- it doesn’t.
Jacob Ozolins
August 13th, 2008
Perhaps then the next step will be to ‘judge’ whether or not to display similar or dissimilar adverts based on user activity, who knows :)