When targeted ads are hunting you down, I can get pretty annoying. A personal experience from 2010/2011 :-)

1. TOO MANY CROSSHAIRS
When targeted advertising is hunting you down.

2. Theoretically, targeted ads are a beautiful thing. If I only
see ads that are relevant to me, then I might actually
welcome them and see them as a valuable part of my
media experience.
Theoretically, targeted ads are also more valuable than
ads targeted to an audience aggregate. Hopefully, this
might allow digital media companies to scale back the
barrage of shitty little annoyers they currently hurl at us.
So, theoretically, I like them.
However, when targeting is both persistent and wrong, it
can get down right creepy. Recently, I was looking for a
short term apartment in Tokyo, and www.sakura- Imagine a Mariachi band that just won't leave your table.
apartments.com is the market leader, offering partments Now imagine that same Mariachi band showing at the
all over Tokyo. In English :-) office, and in your living room. For weeks.
The moment I left their site (with booking), I found myself In the end, I got desperate and decided to try a headfake.
under a steady shelling of Sakura Google Ads, I used a different mail account to send a “departure note”
regardless of where I went on the web. And even after I to my gmail account, hoping that the everwatching
had left Japan for weeks, the avalanche just would not googleeye would recognize the futilty of showing me
stop. further ads.
The following are just a couple of screenshots I started About a week later, the ads stopped.
taking after more than two months of total Sakura
immersion. More than two months filled with constant I am not sure if it was the headfake or my arrival in India.
variations of a very irrelevant offering. But boy I am glad that the other websites I visit aren't as
zealous in their targeting as Sakura.

3. Jan 16, 20:55
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4. Jan 16, 20:56

5. Jan 17, 09:20

6. Jan 19, 07:58

7. Jan 19, 07:58

8. Jan 20, 08:40

9. Jan 23, 05:04

10. Jan 23, 06:14

11. Jan 23, 06:45

12. After more than 2 months...
Desperation strikes!

13. Jan 23, 15:15
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14. It’s not quite over, yet!

15. Jan 24, 08.10

16. Jan 29, 00:09

17. Finally, back to normal :-)

18. Feb 11, 00:37