September 23, 2009 125 Comments

Facebook- Please at least PRETEND to Care

gun ads Call me a prude, but I find these ads offensive on Facebook. I have made zero indications that I think these kinds of games are interesting to me, and yet, I’m logging into Facebook and finding either hot chicks or guns as the ads I get to see. I’ve complained about this in the past, and not because I’m prudish. I love chicks and guns, but not necessarily as Facebook ads.

The question is: for a site that is acquiring 3/4 of a million new users A DAY, is this the kind of ads they want associated with the brand?

How long before we all migrate elsewhere? Maybe not, but maybe. Do you think McDonalds wants to see Mafia ads alongside their pages? I’m guessing not.

Call this a rant, OR call this something to think about: in the future, will we want to join open communities where this is what we get?

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  • http://jenjen.typepad.com/ Jen Strange

    I am CONSTANTLY marking ads as offensive or annoying – I do not want to see half-naked women, and I HATE seeing close-ups of teeth. Yet I keep getting those ads! SOOOO annoying!!!

    Thanks for this post!!!

    jen

  • http://twitter.com/NESocialMedia Seth Resler

    I agree that I am tired of these ads and find them repetitive and mildly offensive. I am also tired of the attractive women who have allegedly been searching for me. Recently, I have also had multi-level marketers that I don't know soliciting me. Time to reign it in.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mcdougherty Michael Dougherty

    Rant or not, I agree. Facebook gives this nice option of clicking if the ad is too repetitive or offensive, but I really think they swapped the text out from when it said “Click here to see this ad ten times more than you already are”.

    Dear Facebook, Please stop treating your product like Beer. We do not need a Lite version. Just give us one tool that we can customize to turn features on or off as we see fit.

  • http://twitter.com/AndrewKS Andrew Krebs-Smith

    The ads are probably targeted to you because of keywords in your profile. I only see ads for musicians and movies…

  • Lancaster

    I was thinking the same thing– how many young kids are on FB? I thought you had to be a certain age to join? I know some pre-teens fake their ages to join. But they are used to video games MUCH WORSE than Mafia wars and the like. Right? Many have grown up with violence thanks to PS2 and XBox. Not that these ads are excusable, but I'm guessing FB is just giving them what they want?

  • http://www.socialocitymarketing.com Tia Nelson

    This conversation reminds me of ones I've heard many times regarding offensive television commercials during family shows. The Sponge Bob Square Pants dancing butt ad comes to mind. Yes, we can always turn the t.v. off but when it comes to a captive audience on a social platform, “turning it off” would have to include your entire tribe. Facebook should be cognizant of this.

  • http://wharton-marketing.com/ Christi Wharton

    Looks like those ads are targeting men. I haven't ever seen them. I get ads for gardening, jewelry and makeup and those sorts of things. It looks like advertisers should be able to target their ads better.

    When I looked at the ad process on Facebook, it says:

    Target Your Audience By:

    * Location
    * Age
    * Sex

    * Keywords
    * Education
    * Workplace

    * Relationship Status
    * Relationship Interests
    * Languages

    Wondering what the “guns and chicks” guys are targeting?

  • http://twitter.com/tealac teala comer

    $ is $; however i totally agree that facebook maybe “shooting themselves in the foot” for future advertisers. great point chris!

  • http://twitter.com/michaeltclark Michael Clark

    Chris – You're exactly right. One of the reasons I stopped using Myspace was that it was unbelievably tacky in the ad dept (never mind a badly-performing, poorly-written, incoherent mess of a platform). I RT'd your link.

    Thanks and keep it up!

  • ronayers

    What if it were the new Halo:ODST, or Call of Duty 5 or Gears of War, or some other game that's played on a console that involves shooting? What if it was the Godfather Trilogy on Blu-Ray

    Is it a question of the substance of the ad, or is it a question of what the product represents to us. I know Mafia Wars bothers me with millions of notifications. Which is why I dropped it after day one.

    When I turn on my video games, McDonalds is advertising *IN* them. There could even be an argument made that gamers are more likely to eat at McDonalds than non-gamers. Maybe the placement is even more beneficial than we realize!

    Brands who are advertising on the Facebook should probably be more concerned about the audience they're pushing to and the content THAT audience is generating, as opposed to what ads they're running next to. That seems to be one of the big places where MySpace fell short.

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  • Peter Jovanovich

    I agree with you…the ads are definitely in bad taste. I believe the ads could be more targeted to the content and personality profile. YES, we should have a say in what is
    advertised on our page.

  • http://jenjen.typepad.com/ Jen Strange

    those who think ads are content-related – I have NOTHING on my profile to suggest I would like to see half-naked women, singles, or close ups of nasty teeth.

    I would love for there to be a PG-13 filter. Why do we use sexualization of women to sell products TO WOMEN? I have marked ads of women in bikini's offensive time and time again, choosing “other” and then writing “I DO NOT WANT TO SEE NUDITY” in the comments – and yet they are still there.

    And why are ads for singles showing up on profiles that are clearly marked as “married”? Content-related, my ass.

    And why does marking ads as inappropriate fail to keep those ads off my page?

    I have tried to “like” ads which I deem appropriate and useful, but then if profile settings aren't adjusted accordingly, friends will see the ad along with a “Jen Strange LIKES this ad.” Nice.

  • kellykearney

    Well said Chris. I'm glad you called this out. There are only so many “thumbs down” icons I can click for these types of ads. The unfortunate part is they don't go away.

    Kelly

  • zanders

    It's not making too big a deal out of it, since Facebook claims to want to be the website that we build real relationships on. They market themselves differently from the type of company that would support those ads. I agree with you in terms of them having to monetize, but there should be a limit on the amount of ads that Zynga, or any one advertiser can publish. It literally starts to ruin the user experience.

  • researchgoddess

    I'm personally just sick of good sites whoring it up with pictures of half naked women. Whether they're ads or profiles (sorry, I don't appreciate slutty girls' profiles either). I know most of the men here would disagree with me but it furthers my love-hate relationship with the Internet. I love it because it brings everything right to our fingertips. And I hate it because it brings everything to our fingertips. Sorry, I don't want to be advertised to about hot chicks. Not my thing. I click off these ads but they keep showing up. I'll once again bring up my favorite line taken from Jurassic Park: just because we can, doesn't mean we should. And people wonder why society is becoming more and more numb to the consequences of pornography and violence. I don't think you're a prude at all, Chris. Touche'..

  • http://www.twitter.com/DJDiG Danielle DiGiovanni

    I try my best to just ignore the ads I see on facebook.

    My part time job is as a Leader for Weight Watchers.

    Just being female has caused so many sickening diet ads to appear that I've given up “x”ing them.

    I began to assume I was being overly sensitive to be offended by Facebook ads. I'm glad to read that I'm not the only one.

  • researchgoddess

    Michael, my boyfriend's profile is the same thing. As a woman in a relationship, it just makes you wonder, even if there's nothing going on. Someone mentioned earlier not wanting their daughter to see this because he didn't want his girl to think that all men are pigs because of this un-targeted “targeted” advertising. Just because you're male doesn't mean you want to see pictures of half naked chicks on your computer screen. And just because I'm a female doesn't mean I want to see pictures of diamond engagement rings or “lose that belly fat today!”. :)

  • http://jenjen.typepad.com/ Jen Strange

    reading through these comments, it almost seems as if the REAL question here is:

    Why does Facebook allow such a huge percentage of ads that are blatantly misogynistic?

    Reflection of American culture, or self-perpetuating cycle?

  • http://www.charlesneville.com/ charlesneville

    The interface to set up an ad on Facebook lets you choose relationship status and 'interested in'. Ads for dating sites and the like not being set up to exclude married people is either a cynical move on the part of the person creating the ad or a sign of extreme laziness. However there's no immediately obvious way to stop showing ads for Mob Wars to people who don't want to see them (though I've got some interesting ideas on that) and it's been shown that no matter how many times you click on the X, Facebook continue to serve them up.

  • http://twitter.com/movements Jason Mitchell

    Because your married does not mean you (and by you I mean the married man) does not like to see half naked 20 year olds. In fact I would bet that 'adult' sites make a huge portion of their money from married men.

    Why are you getting ads with guns and naked girls on them? Because those ads work. Have you ever advertised on Facebook? The same ad with a boring picture probably gets a 0.02 click through rate. Put a hot girl on there and jump up to 0.08.

    Furthermore this isn't an issue with targeting and it isn't Facebook who decides who to target the ads to. It is the advertiser. You are seeing a lot of ads for Mafia wars (guns) and people that want you to download their browser search to make money off of search (hot girls) because these are the people who are effectively making money off of FB advertising. Once other (less web savvy) companies release how to better parlay FB traffic into sales you will see more varied ads.

  • http://www.facebook.com/anthonycerreta Anthony Cerreta

    I agree, their ad logic and/or etiquette is horrible. I've had many qualms with fb ads like the one here ->

    http://ntho.posterous.com/update-your-facebook-…

  • lindywise

    FB has to make money with their ads – its a given. What FB should do is give me the right to choose the types of ads I'd be interested in. Quit assuming what my demographic would like, give me some options, let me choose – the chances are greater I'll click on them. Send me offensive ones, I end up banner-blinding the sidebar so when an ad pops up that I would be interested in, I don't see it.

  • jrep

    I dumped my Facebook account long ago because of stuff like this, so I can't actually check this, but … it strikes me as very odd that your screen snips show what appears to be a voting button for “Like”, but none for “dislike.” The multiple comments indicating that the “X” button doesn't work, or doesn't work fast enough, give the same message, and the message very suggestively seem so be, “No, Facebook does NOT care about you, if you're discerning or ordinary or humane; only impulse shoppers need apply.”

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  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    Micheal, don't be so downbeat on contextual advertising. Online companies such as Google have “harnessed” user's data to great affect on the advertising front.

    It's a matter of tuning those algothirms to be just right, and certainly although Facebook have been publicly shamed for doing such a poor job, it's not to say there isn't some magic switch which could enable a much more relevant and enriched experience with advertisements on Facebook in the near future.

    And, there are continued reports that Facebook is now making a profit, so these ads aren't always likely to be as poorly targeted as Mr.Brogan himself experienced!

  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    Anthony, the one thing I despise of the Facebook “filtering tool” is the hassle. I don't want to click and select from a list of options every single time I click the “X”. It makes me much less bothered about assisting Facebook to “improve” on already irrelevant advertising.

  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    Tim, but MySpace didn't own nearly as much data as Facebook now seems too. There''s a key difference in the two platforms!

  • http://www.marywhitecornell.com marywhitecornell

    Great point Chris and Teala

    One of my restaurant clients – who was thinking about advertising on Facebook – decided against it because of the ads. His thought was “what kind of company would allow this? And do I want my family friendly business to be associated with it?”

  • http://derekpangallo.com/ Derek Pangallo

    It's a bidding war based on keywords, age and gender. Thumbs-down these ads and you will see them less. This is their revenue; offer a solution, get adblock, or deal with it :)

  • Joe Slaughter

    Thanks for your comments about the Facebook ads for Mafia Wars. As a parent, I don't want my kid thinking about acting like a part of organized crime – threatening people they don't like, etc.

  • http://www.kaplancopy.com/blog Jodi Kaplan

    Ouch!

    Facebook also got in legal hot water recently when they had to shut down their Beacon shopping service. It seems they were sharing too much information about what people were buying (and the discounts they received). One poor guy had his Christmas ruined when the service told the world he'd bought a diamond ring at 51% off. Ooops.

  • http://www.thepedestalgroup.com/ Kathy Breitenbucher

    This is exactly why I have distanced my business from Facebook. I can't control the page enough and get associated with things I have no desire to discuss with professional associates. I think more and more people will raise red flags over this and hopefully it will change!

  • RegiSasso

    Chris,

    A thought and possible explanation…

    Maybe FB is experimenting with viral loops or social ads. Just read a fascinating article on viral loops and how they may help to create the future of online advertising in the current issue of Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/139/loop-de…

    The Mafia Wars application is HUGE on Facebook (I don’t “get it,” but I’m amazed at the number of senior level executives in my network who have sent me invitations to join in the fun!). Your blog and Michael Durwin’s comment above about FB’s data makes me wonder if FB is testing a viral loop to measure a user’s “viral quotient” to determine how much that user is worth, in dollars, to a/that particular social network.

    Whether it's a test or not, I'm opposed to anything that promotes violence, period. So, I'm with you, and let's hope FB hears the message!

  • http://www.facebook.com/DanielWBass Daniel Bass

    Chris,

    The problem with Facebook vis-à-vis these ads isn't that they are there … the problem I have encountered is that once I indicate to FB that I find an Ad offensive, irrelevant, or uninteresting FB doesn't do anything to filter these Ads out of my feed.

    If FB is going to ask why I don't like a particular Ad, and I take the time to provide them with my feedback, shouldn't they act upon that information?

  • http://detroit.fwix.com Jamie Favreau

    I use firefox's ad blocker so I haven't seen an ad in a long time.

  • http://twitter.com/melissaleon Melissa Leon

    I agree Chris I see ads on my profile that have nothing to do with me. I understand other people enjoy playing these games but the question still stands does Facebook want to associate themselves with these types of ads.

  • deborahrichmond

    Clearly the ads are being targeted toward us as a demographic group. I can tell you I don't get the guns and hot chicks ads, thank goodness. Which video site allows you to choose which ads you like or don't like? There should be that choice somehow on facebook. Thumbs up or thumbs down. I don't mind you showing me ads for things I like. I know the site needs to make money so I can keep using it for free. But, you're right, let us guide it a bit. Besides, advertisers should like the fact that we're narrowing the focus to view ads for products we really may be interested in. Rant away. Love it.

  • http://storyassistant.com/ Michelle Damico

    Chris, I totally agree. When I worked in Chicago radio, our adult-oriented progressive rock station station didn't accept ads from a bunch of advertisers whose association would have detracted from the brand. It makes sense in life and in advertising — if those you hang out with negatively affect your reputation, then keep a distance. I don't understand why Facebook can't figure that one out, By the way, just got my copy of Trust Agents and I'm thoroughly enjoying the info and your writing style.

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  • Megan

    I'm tweeting it.

    Maybe we need to flinch a little bit to really see what's going on.

    Thanks, Megan

  • craftyballerina

    Nice timing… I was just thinking this morning how much I hate the ads. Every time I log in I see, “Obama asks mom's to return to school” plastered all over. I've stopped using FB as much. The ads get to be too much and they're completely over-saturated. I've only clicked on one ad EVER – obviously their little ad scheme isn't working on me. I'm wondering what's next after FB.

  • http://derekpangallo.com/ Derek Pangallo

    Fact remains, almost any ad is going to offend SOMEone. I don't like that I see ads for dating services with busy women when I'm clearly “In a relationship.” Facebook does care, because they evaluate all ads and keep the malware from flowing, but they're still running a business. Mafia wars makes money, people click on the ads.. . hey, what is the game rated by the ESRB – that could be an argument toward preventing your kids from seeing it.

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  • http://twitter.com/CluelessCrafter Lydia Barry Kutko

    That's interesting you're so bothered. I always thought the margins of FB were a load of crap and I don't think my eye (really) has ever seen one ad! I guess I have some awesome selective vision.

    I'll bottle it and send it to you. Should be the salve to cure your agony.

  • http://twitter.com/conradbuck Conrad Buck

    I agree about getting the algorithm mix right. However there so many factors to take into considering at to why this happens and why FB users get upset. Don't expect Facebook to have a conscience. Targeted ads are targeted ads. They are based on many equations and while FB could obviously work harder, they can't base their advertising campaigns purely based on morals and users beliefs. The day when we don't advertise anything to avoid “offending” is when the whole advertising model breaks down.

    Obviously any Facebook group and company pages need to be aware of these ads more than users, especially if the group focuses on more delicate issues which may be directly related to the theme of the ads.

    We may question why “married” profiles are receiving dating ads but again that's somewhat assuming that married users are completely stuck in the stone age where adultery is punishable by death. What I would like to see is stats on single profiles vs. married profiles and what percentage of each actually click on the singles and girls gone wild ads. We may already know the answer, and just perhaps that's why FB does what it does.

    Google's ads in Gmail aren't much better, actually they are probably worse. a while back that someone received the devastating news via Gmail that a friends mother had tragically died. While reading this email the ad words box on the right side of the email window showed something to the effect of “crematorium services.”

  • MaryKayMan

    I agree that its a little much and unnecessary. I want to do business with my clients on Facebook and violence is not my image. There are games about nice things and I wish there could be a greater focus on that by FB.

  • http://BlastOffpress.com/ BlastOff Network

    nope fckfacebk they dont care they care for money http://BlastOffpress.com

  • http://www.rebeccawoodhead.com/ Rebecca Woodhead

    Can't begin to express how disturbing I find this. What is Facebook playing at? Am thoroughly fed up with the number of people who keep insisting I join their Mafia family or other kind of gang or army too. Am I just odd to think gang violence isn't entertainment?

    Rebecca

  • http://www.omicle.com/ Mel DePaoli

    I completely agree! For the longest time I was getting weight-loss ads, plastic surgery enhancement ads, and mommy ads. I am very comfortable with my looks and my body and I do not have kids.

    For a company that is given credit for such accurate/well targeted advertising, they completely miss the target more than they even come close–when it comes to me.

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