Reflect on the week three reading(s) and studio discussions around targeted ads and ‘dark’ advertising. What were some insights you gained? Was there an idea that was new or surprising, or something that struck you as particularly thought-provoking? Draw links between the readings/discussions to your own experience with targeted advertising (remember to make the distinction between ‘targeted’ ads and ‘dark’ ads).
While l have been familiar with targeted ads, dark ads were unknown and l had never heard of them before. Both of this week’s readings have been extremely useful in fully understanding what a dark ad is, Ashkar Dave’s article about dark advertising coins it as ads that ‘disappear moments after they have been seen, and no one except the platforms know how, when, where or why the ads appear’ (Conversation, 2022). This is extremely different to targeted ads which are directed to a certain audience based on the data of what they have searched recently, dark ads are hyper-targeted and personalised to the person they appear to. What l found to be interesting is how these ads are even displayed and how they are untraceable to everyone except the person the ad is displayed to, whereas, with targeted advertising that l have experienced on Facebook, it is easy to find or see them a few times as they will show up every few scrolls between posts.
From our class l was extremely surprised to find out that Facebook is one of the leading platforms where these dark ads are visible to the audience, but also finding out how harmful some of them can be. In this week’s second reading ‘Shedding light on dark ads’ from Continuum, it mentions some of the harmful dark ads that were shown on the platform, using the 2016 US Election as its prime example. ‘The strategy relied on the ability to use Facebook to serve so-called ‘dark ads’ – non-public posts whose viewership the campaign controls – to targeted audiences’ Is a direct quote from the journal entry, also claiming to have run 50000-60000 dark ads a day on the platform (Trott et al. 2021:761). In my own experiences, I don’t think l have ever seen any dark advertising on Facebook that l know of; l have had multiple experiences with targeted advertising over a few social media that l have. I find that whenever l am searching for something l want to buy in a search engine, over the next hours or days l will start to see it advertised on my social media, for example, weeks ago l was looking to buy a new bed, and for the next week or two almost every ad that l was getting was about beds or bed-related items, this was on Facebook. On TikTok, advertising and targeted ads are different, l find the adverts that l get the most are for things that come up on my for you page, if something that is makeup-related comes up and l watch the TikTok in full, makeup ads will start coming up a few scrolls later.
Dave A (2022) ‘How dark is ‘dark advertising’? We audited Facebook, Google and other platforms to find out’, The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-dark-is-dark-advertising-we-audited-facebook-google-and-other-platforms-to-find-out-189310.
Trott V, Li N, Fordyce R, Andrejevic M (2021) ‘Shedding light on ‘dark’ ads’, Continuum, 35(5):761-774, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2021.1983258.