This is a fairly funny, interesting article about the complexity of social ads, and how they can exploit any of your proprietary data for their own ends…. in that you agree it isn’t proprietary anymore by uploading it to the site.  IE:  Complain all you want, but if you are on a social media site, they own you.  Some try to be fairly deferential to the artist’s rights (Flickr, Tribe, etc), but others like Yelp and Facebook seem to have little concern for their single users, and are wholly concerned with users overall (read: business).

That being said, have you heard about any of these wildly incorrect or funny social ad gaffes?

Here are some from Cheryl Smith’s original article:

Husband sees his own wife in a picture for “hot singles”.

Karen said: “Despite having three degrees and no children, I keep getting ads urging ‘Moms’ to ‘go back to school and earn a degree.’”

Rachel said, “none of my friends have come up in dating ads but one of my guy friends – a 20 something with perfect skin, popped up in an ad for a wrinkle cream”

“I saw a Facebook ad that read “Pinecones. In glass. The want is real.” They were advertising just that — pinecones in glass jars. Very odd.”

[The following, I assume, was for a dating ad?] “My picture was posted in an ad for my sister, who then posted a comment in her status on FB, and everyone got to share a great laugh – after a collective: Ewwwww. Cheers!”

“Best one so far was a picture of our church’s pastor next to an ad asking my wife if she were hot enough to be in his sorority!”

These are hilarious… but somewhat frightening.  If you use FB, or most of these sites…. you should simply consider privacy over.  Don’t give up on it, but don’t act shocked.  At least, have a great sense of humour like Cheryl did on her original post.  The fact is – social media is young, and growing.  This will all get hammered out, and someday there will be parity and the new model will synch up.  Until then, please share the weird, wild, or funny things you see or hear about on social media ads!  Cheers!

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13059735

I adore Hulu’s real TV spots… Alec Baldwin deriding us as dimwit orangutangs or what have you.  I prefer Berkeley Breathed’s “Tv Brainmushed Ambulatory Vacuum Tubes”.

Whatever the case, I heard about “Spotify” launching in the UK today.  It is a similar ad model…. basically itunes for free, other than a quick add every 15 minutes or so.  FCC regs sure make it hard to work in the US, but it should be coming.  And it may be revolutionizing how we accept, use, and voluntarily pay for music.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7913959.stm

Of course, with being hacked recently… it is surely that Spotify is relevant that people are spending the time to mess around with them.  Naughty boys and girls at Itunes having off hours fun?

I kid I kid.

Cheers!