Targeted advertising can be pretty creepy, in the way that it demonstrates how much these companies know about you, and what their algorithms suggest they think they know about you. Other times, they’re creepy in their choice of photos to accompany the ads. Today, I bring you these, from a page on Heavy.com:
A few of these make perfect sense. Articles about saving on a mortgage have a picture of a smiling woman holding a piece of paper with the word “APPROVED” stamped on it, which probably prompts some positive cognitive response in viewers; and a picture of a $20 bill folded in half in front of the White House, because, you know, money and stuff. An article about “Fitness Enthusiast” Jen Selter is accompanied by a picture of Jen Selter. No big surprise there, although it makes me wonder why the internet thinks Jen Selter and mortgages are foremost on my mind.
The other ads are a bit more of a mystery, and I do mean that completely sarcastically.
We have an advertisement posing as an article about a “testosterone booster,” with a picture of a woman in a tank top—this is presumably intended as a test, based on male readers’ reaction to the picture, to determine need for the product. It’s more interesting than a picture of actual testosterone.
Proceeding in no particular order, a photo of a woman who looks a bit like Salma Hayek, or maybe Maria Grazia Cucinotta, sits atop an informercial for a language course known as the Pimsleur method. I think I catch the algorithm’s implication…..
Finally, we have an ad that teases us with part of a sentence, “Can You Outsmart the Most Dangerous Man in…” The photo appears to be a scene from a movie, and that’s what this is. It’s an ad for a movie called No Good Deed, starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson. It looks like it might be good. Elba plays a “charming but dangerous escaped convict” who threatens Henson. Henson plays the role of the mother who must defend her child from danger—a role that, let’s face it, usually goes to white actresses. Elba and Henson are both phenomenal actors who deserve leading roles and more screen time. The picture displayed on my browser, however, is of actress Kate del Castillo. I don’t know anything about her acting, but I notice that her character in the film currently doesn’t even have a name on the IMDB page.
