Advertisements in the press

5 July 2015 by S. Moonesamy

Advertisements

It is common to see advertisments in a newspaper. Most of them may go unnoticed if the reader is not interested in the product or service being advertised.

Advertisements on the web

The local web site of a newspaper recently started displaying advertisements to "get a girlfriend" and to get "numbers from women near you".

There might be some complaints if a newspaper in Mauritius were to display those ads prominently on the first page in its printed edition.

Behavioural targeting

Behavioural targeting is used to deliver advertisements which are based on the likely interests of the person. In other words, the advertisement is only displayed if it is likely that the person viewing the web site would be interested in the product or service. It is possible for the person to find out what information the advertising company has about the person even though that person has never disclosed the information to the advertising company. In the example below, a Google advertisment is used as an example to find out which information about the person:

A person can click on the "i" to view the parameters used for the advertisement.

Accuracy of behavioural targeting

The accuracy of the information used by the advertising company can be determined by viewing the gender, age and language parameters.

Epilogue

Did the advertising company accurately determine the your age? What can an innoculous web site which you read tell about you? Does the person sitting next to you know what you are interested in?

During a recent interview the director of a media company in Mauritius stated that the press receives over 50% of its revenue from advertising. Newspaper sales will likely drop as more people in Mauritius read news online instead of buying a newspaper. Is there a future for advertisements in the press?