Poll of the Day > Why is the Israeli foreign ministry posting a YouTube ad about Gaza?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive been seeing a YouTube ad showing a buzzing vibrant restaurant and food scene in Gaza city. And then I click on it to see whos posting it and its the Israeli foreign ministry. I dont really have a dog in this race but its pretty sinister, I wont link anybody to it but theyve got the same ad in English, German, and other languages.

a bigger point as well is why tf are YouTube ads so scammy? Like Ive seen flashlights advertised as the most powerful lights ever developed by NASAs engineers. Turns out theyre just USB powered lights that dont do shit.

Water pressure washers that double up as jet packs that can make you levitate. Honestly wtf?

Why does YouTube not vet these ads? Theyre so insulting to peoples intelligence its ridiculous. Almost every YouTube ad I see is either political propaganda, a scam, or just ridiculously exaggerated claims that wouldnt see the light of day as an ad on tv. wtf

Also yes I know ads on YouTube can be disabled but thats not really the point.

The mods have advised me to not comment

Money.

FatalAccident posted...

a bigger point as well is why tf are YouTube ads so scammy?

Almost every YouTube ad I see is either political propaganda, a scam, or just ridiculously exaggerated claims that wouldnt see the light of day as an ad on tv. wtf

I feel like this says more about you and the sorts of videos you watch than it does about YouTube. It tells you exactly what the algorithm thinks of you.

About 90% of my ads seem to be for graphics design or business administration software, insurance, medicine ads, or car commercials. Almost entirely "normal" (except for how hard the tech ads are pushing AI services and products), and nothing I'd be overly surprised to see if it showed up on normal cable TV channels.

Yeah that would make sense but that doesnt really match my video feed algorithm. My feed is literally just basketball commentary, spurs commentary, NBA 2k clips, steak, luxury homes, home renovation, food challenges etc. Wouldnt bat an eyelid if my ad feed matched my video feed that seems very standard.

Funny enough Im not really in the market for this one weird device that big engineering dont want you to know and Im not a Gaza/israel campaigner. So Im not even irked that my ad feed and my video feed are mismatched, its more the quality of ads themselves. Like the most scammy, low grade, bs filled ads that would never pass on TV at least in the UK anyway idk about anywhere else.

Very strange, YouTube must be getting shitload of money from these people.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

About 90% of my ads seem to be for graphics design or business administration software, insurance, medicine ads, or car commercials.

That's weird, mine are all for enlargement pills and pumps

FatalAccident posted...

Yeah that would make sense but that doesnt really match my video feed algorithm. My feed is literally just basketball commentary, spurs commentary, NBA 2k clips, steak, luxury homes, home renovation, food challenges etc. Wouldnt bat an eyelid if my ad feed matched my video feed that seems very standard.

Whether or not you're aware of what the logic is, something about your viewing habits tells YouTube that you are exactly the sort of person they want to send those ads to. If it's not the specific videos, it's the combination of videos. They have built a massive database of demographic info, and it makes connections. "Other people who watch videos X, Y, and Z then go on to watch videos on these other topics." "Your viewing habits tell us that you are a person of a specific age, ethnicity, gender, political alignment, etc, and now we are going to send you the ads we believe are best suited to exploit a person of precisely that age, ethnicity, gender, political alignment, etc."

Basically, there's a good chance YouTube knows more about you than you know about yourself. Or at least assumes things about you that you would never consciously describe yourself as.



FatalAccident posted...

Very strange, YouTube must be getting shitload of money from these people.

Yeah, but see, the thing is, if it was just that, then I'd be getting those sorts of ads as well. And I'm not.

They're not being widecast spammed across the entire platform, they're being narrowcast focused on specific targets. Targets they believe are the perfect audience for them.

Seriously, try to watch YouTube on a different device with a different IP and without logging into your existing account, watch a few videos outside of your usual preferences, and you'll see entirely different ads.





EDIT: Just for reference, my last six YouTube ads have been, in order:

Ad for a shipping-related business support service
Honda ad
Mitsubishi ad
Dyson vacuum ad
Wells Fargo credit card ad
Autodesk ad (business software company)

FatalAccident posted...

a bigger point as well is why tf are YouTube ads so scammy?

Money. They're paid money to host the ads. When someone dumps a lot of money on you, you don't question it.

FatalAccident posted...

Like the most scammy, low grade, bs filled ads that would never pass on TV at least in the UK anyway idk about anywhere else.

Online platforms generally aren't held accountable for the content of the ads they host, instead being able to foist that responsibility onto the advertisers that choose what to run. That creates a whole lot less accountability in general than you see with more carefully curated TV channels, and is one of the major problems with online advertising. Holding platforms liable for the consequences of the ads they run would go a long way toward cleaning things up so adblockers weren't so necessary.

Just for fun, here's some more ads for you, in order:

Tezspire (asthma medication)
An industrial shipping company
A Marvel themed Lego set
Daemon x Machina (video game)
Honda truck ad
GMC truck ad
Mitsubishi Outlander ad
Wegovy ad
Adobe Firefly (AI)
GMC ad
Adobe Express/LinkedIn
Honda ad
Cinnamon Toast Crunch ad
Adobe Firefly
local hospital medical system
Kia car ad

That's pretty much what my ads usually look like. Occasionally they'll go on a run where I'll get a lot more medicine ads, sometimes I'll get a run where the business admin software ads get more common, and sometimes I'll get random ads for stuff like cruises or tourism ads. For a while I was getting a lot of Hankook tire ads for some reason. And occasionally I'll get heating/plumbing ads.

Also there's usually a spate of political ads around election time, with local races spending money on ads for anyone with an IP roughly adjacent to where they're running. And last year the Kamala campaign seemingly spent more than the American GDP to spam the ever-living shit out of YouTube (to the point where I wonder if some people voted against her for that alone).

i've seen those ads too and they feel so slimy

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I feel like this says more about you and the sorts of videos you watch than it does about YouTube. It tells you exactly what the algorithm thinks of you.

I saw an ad extolling the virtues of the BBB while I was watching the south park episode mocking the president on some streaming service a few weeks ago. ads ain't perfect!

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Whether or not you're aware of what the logic is, something about your viewing habits tells YouTube that you are exactly the sort of person they want to send those ads to. If it's not the specific videos, it's the combination of videos. They have built a massive database of demographic info, and it makes connections. "Other people who watch videos X, Y, and Z then go on to watch videos on these other topics." "Your viewing habits tell us that you are a person of a specific age, ethnicity, gender, political alignment, etc, and now we are going to send you the ads we believe are best suited to exploit a person of precisely that age, ethnicity, gender, political alignment, etc."

Basically, there's a good chance YouTube knows more about you than you know about yourself. Or at least assumes things about you that you would never consciously describe yourself as.

Yeah, but see, the thing is, if it was just that, then I'd be getting those sorts of ads as well. And I'm not.

They're not being widecast spammed across the entire platform, they're being narrowcast focused on specific targets. Targets they believe are the perfect audience for them.

Seriously, try to watch YouTube on a different device with a different IP and without logging into your existing account, watch a few videos outside of your usual preferences, and you'll see entirely different ads.

EDIT: Just for reference, my last six YouTube ads have been, in order:

Ad for a shipping-related business support service
Honda ad
Mitsubishi ad
Dyson vacuum ad
Wells Fargo credit card ad
Autodesk ad (business software company)

Tbf the ads I described were me using a VPN based in the US.

My UK based ads are Mous phone cases, Suri toothbrushes, hello fresh, Deliveroo, Google pixel.

But again Im not in the market for any of this shit loo except maybe deliveroo but I just have the food delivery app, Im not YouTubing how to search for it.

regardless I would expect someone with a video algorithm of games, basketball, homes to get ads for games, basketball, homes. Not Israeli propaganda and jet packs lol

Youtube has ads?

willythemailboy posted...

Youtube has ads?

they squeek in every couple months

FatalAccident posted...

My feed is literally just basketball commentary, spurs commentary, NBA 2k clips

Tim Duncan one of the GOATS of BB. Amazing player, extremely underrated and much better then the constant diddy kong party goer Jebron Lames.

willythemailboy posted...

Youtube has ads?

i left a youtube window open for like an hour and ublock reported over 1000 ads blocked

Apparently, since I installed it, ublock has blocked 6.15 million ads. I don't remember exactly when that was (I replaced my OS SSD in 2019, so probably then), but regardless of the time frame it's kind of mind-boggling to consider that I'd otherwise have been exposed to over 6 million ads.

I've blocked 52000 ads since I installed it and started using it more last month, and I'm still kinda using chrome for most things

adjl posted...

Apparently, since I installed it, ublock has blocked 6.15 million ads. I don't remember exactly when that was (I replaced my OS SSD in 2019, so probably then), but regardless of the time frame it's kind of mind-boggling to consider that I'd otherwise have been exposed to over 6 million ads.

Technically it's also counting tracking cookies, malicious websites, and annoyances, depending on your settings.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c18ed2b1.jpg

captpackrat posted...

Technically it's also counting tracking cookies, malicious websites, and annoyances, depending on your settings.

It is indeed more than just ads, but 6 million is still a very large number. Like if that's 6 years' worth, that's something blocked an average of every 31 seconds, and it's actually significantly more frequent than that because I haven't been using my computer 24/7 for that period.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5915e7d7.png
That's since December 30th, 2023, so a bit over 1 years, or about 1 million per year. Which fits in well with adji's count of 6 million over 6 years.

lindaluv posted...

much better then the constant diddy kong party goer Jebron Lames

except he's not though really is he

agree with p much everything else you said but this is just dumb let's not be silly. TD a top 10 player for sure, Lebron is at worst top 2 so let's not go there