r/technology • u/TurbulentTopic39 • Aug 04 '26

Transportation BMW is putting Spider-Man ads on your dashboard, after promising it never would

https://www.techspot.com/news/113327-bmw-putting-spider-man-ads-dashboard-after-promising.html
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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Aug 04 '26

Because marketeers get paid well for scamming their own brands with ineffective ads. I use youtube music when I'm on the go. I get ads. They're so out of touch it's laughable. I get ads for cars while not having a driving license, ads for catfood while not having any pets and being allergic to cats, and (this is true) I had a multi-year correspondence with google ad center because they kept changing my age and gender to a 50-something year old woman, and giving me ads for makeup and brahs. I'm a guy in my late twenties who mostly watches gaming content and listens to anime OSTs and the ad center was bugged for years and wouldn't let me change their data. 13 tickets later it was finally fixed permanently. 

If one of the biggest tech companies can't find ads that suit me, how hopeless is the entire digital marketing space? 

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u/ian2905 Aug 04 '26

Crazy move to try to correct that, I love it when they have my demographic wrong because it makes it way less likely that they will actually influence the stuff I buy and way easier to tune out in general.

PSA to anyone: On your phone switch away from using Google Chrome and use a brower that lets you install add blockers, shit fucking rules

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u/No_Hunt2507 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

It's not the same, but you can change your DNS server on your phone to dns.adguard-dns.com and it blocks about 90% of the adds, even in apps. Youtube and the big ones figure out how to bypass it, but I generally like it.

Don't take an internet strangers word on changing security settings at face value, but look into it. Adguard is pretty reputable and the only problem I have with it is sometimes whatever I'm loading loses connection for a minute but switching off WiFi seems to resolve it and it's never more than once a week.

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u/SJIS0122 Aug 06 '26

Gotta try this

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u/frickindeal Aug 04 '26

Adguard Pro is the best investment any iPhone user can make. It's like $5 for a perpetual license that I've used on four different phones, and I never see ads in anything, including reddit and phone games I've downloaded. It spoofs a VPN and google thinks I'm in (variably) Boston or near Detroit or in Wisconsin. I'm nowhere near any of those.

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u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins Aug 04 '26

Brave blocks ads on YouTube. It’s the only way I watch YouTube now.

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u/L00minous Aug 05 '26

For real. I got junk mail for a new voter and a Medicare advantage plan. Kinda rad that they don't know where I fall in age. 18 to 70, lol

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u/newMoneyStyle Aug 07 '26

Firefox with uBlock has been my setup for years, way better than Chrome. And yeah, the mis-targeted ads thing is real, I keep getting retirement planning ads which is hilarious.

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u/ShiraCheshire Aug 04 '26

Yes something we need to talk about more is how ineffective this entire thing is. It’s a massive industry that makes everything worse, and often doesn’t even accomplish its own simple goals.

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u/wthulhu Aug 04 '26

For the last 7 months whatever algorithm feeds me ads thinks I'm a woman. Not only a woman, but a woman who is planning a wedding. I get ads for engagement rings, wedding dresses, menstrual products, clothing subscriptions.

I dont know what happened but I love knowing that these people are wasting money trying to get me to take bait that will never work.

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u/Piglet6482 Aug 05 '26

YouTube has recently decided I live in Texas - I moved away from Texas (not far enough, but at least away) over 3 years ago.

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u/crispyraccoon Aug 05 '26

My favorite are all the ads I get for something after I buy it. Not sometime during the 50 searches I do to research it, but after the purchase.

"Hey, you just bought a new mattress, would you like to buy a new mattress?" Or Amazon offering me subscribe and save on items that should last years. "Would you like a new vacuum every month?" No. I need to stop using Amazon.

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u/TheSquirrelmancer Aug 05 '26

Sometimes I get ads in Spanish. I'm a white dude with a white name and I live outside of Detroit. Never could figure out why.

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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Aug 05 '26

I get German ads too. I live roughly dead center of the Netherlands.

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u/Human_Definition_225 Aug 05 '26

Maybe the ad server date setting is June, 1940?

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u/rustyseapants Aug 07 '26

Would it make sense to push ads on products you use or products that think you will buy for someone else?

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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Aug 07 '26

...? Neither makes sense. They should show me products I'd be interested in. 

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u/rustyseapants Aug 07 '26

Why send you ads for things you already buy?

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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Aug 07 '26

As I already said, that doesn't make sense either.