Facebook targeting ads with hilarious results

I was talking to Jeff Laporte (EQO co-founder and chief architect) and Sanjeev Agrawal (EQO VP of Product Marketing) last week about Facebook. We got onto the topic of ads and as they were looking at my profile page they saw that my ads differed greatly from theirs. I was being served an adult oriented dating type ad that day and I think they were getting a bit jealous. Sanjeev asked why he was getting ads about hair loss while I'm being shown pictures of hot girls. I responded with "they expect me to be having sex and you guys to be losing your hair". Ever since, I've been noting what ads I've been getting, while also checking out the ads of others. Peter, who is engaged (sorry ladies), is getting wedding related ads.

Now today TechCrunch reports that Facebook is experimenting with targeting ads via their new fliers. I'm thinking they've been targeting ads based on user profile information for a while now. How else would you explain the wedding ads for Peter Chandler? Sadly, I can't find any variation today, everything is coming up University of Phoenix. I figured they might change the ads on a per group basis too, but even I Dont care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like A Dumbass is asking me to get another degree. I'm not trying to offend Crocs owners so please don't be offended, just buy new shoes.

Anybody out there getting any interesting ads? I found that after I made my profile more professional (who let the old people onto Facebook?) I started getting different ads, Monster.com and other professional development type sites for example. Let me know if you see anything interesting ad-wise; I'm curious to see if Facebook is starting to deliver on the great social networking promise of ultra targeted advertising.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

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