I Finally Did Something About the Weight Loss Ads on Facebook
April 5, 2008
I’ve been complaining for months now about all the weight loss ads that have popped up on Facebook ever since they instituted self-serve advertising. I finally decided to shut the hell up and actually do something about it.
I bought an ad:
If you click it, it takes you to the Love Your Body Day website. I’m going to run the ad through April 7. I’ve set the maximum daily budget to the minimum of $5.00. I targeted it to single women between 18 and 30. I pirated the image of the Reubenesque Barbie doll from the Body Shop’s campaign in the late 90’s. Today, the ad had 12 clicks and 6,590 impressions.
I sincerely hope that it reached even a few women and that fewer people clicked on asinine ads like these:
If you like this idea, why not try it yourself. It’s relatively easy to set up an ad to run for a few days, you don’t need to spend more than $5.00 a day and you can reach thousands of people. If even a few people do this, we can reach a wider audience with the message that we’re all tired of seeing ads on Facebook that try to make us insecure about our bodies.
props..how do i vote this up
?
Nice… For myself, I lothe the ads flashing tities at me all the time telling me that some one out there is interested in me, like there would be these 18 year old nymphomaniacs just waiting to meet some lowly freaking gardener. Myspace is many times worse, with a constant bombardment of supermodels with a keen interest in my poor, non boat owning, ass. Seriously, what have we come too in this once great nation. We say we are fighting a war on terror, but in many ways aggressive advertising is causing more universal harm than a bomb jacket ever could.
I love this!
Subversive + fun + intelligent.
What were the final numbers on clicks + impressions?
Jennifer: Thanks! The final tally was 32,534 impressions and 44 click throughs.
This is the second ad in the series. I’ve set it to run for 4 days to the same audience.
Thanks for doing this, Teresa. I’m miffed at not only the weight loss ads, but also how Facebook seems to target people by different age groups, gender and other generalities. For instance, if you’re over 40, you’d be annoyed daily by seeing Facebook ads about hair loss, eliminating “middle-age tummy fat,” reconstructive surgery, skin moisteners, jobs for people over 50 and other cliches, none of which may apply to me, so why am I subject to having to see them every day? This is advertising without any consciousness at all about how prospective customers might be perceiving these companies.
Good for you—I fully support your effort!
Another really awful ad and my response:
Love it!
Thanks for spending time (and money) on this very important issue. It reminds me of something my mother used to say when I dated someone who was on the plus side: The more she has, the more there is to love.
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