are you watching ads, or are ads watching you?
By now we all know how our movements online can be monitored in order to display targeted advertising on our screens. But did you know that this practice has migrated from our desktops into our bedrooms?
New York Times article, “Ads Made by You, in a Click“, by Louise Story, chronicles the new wave in marketing: customizing advertisements according to location, local events, weather, and demographics, where the companies themselves can set up amorphous ads in minutes. It seems though, that some of the tactics used to gather information about customers has gone too far. One company can already stake people out through their remote control clicks. Got cable or satellite? What you watch, when, and for how long, becomes marketing data, which is so advanced that these companies can send spanish ads to latinos, toys and game commercials to kids, and so on.
So, is this good or bad? On the one hand, we, as customers, may get exposed to more relevant commercials, learning about products we may actually want, but on the other hand, our privacy is being compromised, and we play no part in choosing the ads interrupting our tv shows. If it was up to me, I’d opt for watching only the funny commercials…
UPDATE: (4/15/07)
And now that all U.S. households will have to be equipped with digital TV’s (no more old-school antennas after the digital switchover!), this issue will be even more crucial. I’m surprised Google hasn’t already advanced in that (the television) area…or have they? 
