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Targeted Ad FAIL (Open Thread)

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EDITED: I’m self-deporting my own post. If you didn’t see it, don’t worry — you didn’t miss anything interesting or any juicy Firebagger-on-Obot combat. It was just a dumb rant about targeted advertising that vomited up for my consideration a TLC show about an unfortunate dude with an awful medical problem.

Being the cynical, self-absorbed jerk that I am, I focused on the prurient shit and passed right over the fact that TLC is exploiting — and I am helping them exploit — someone who may very well have asked to be in a freak show, but only because that’s the only way he could get the help he needs with this country’s cruel and fucked-up healthcare system.

A couple of comments made me think about this in a new way, and I appreciate that. I apologize for subjecting earlier viewers to the original post. Please transfer the “assholes” and “general stupidity” tags from the targeted online marketing team to the author. Thanks.

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  10. 10.

    scav

    Well, that’s one way of helping me go cold turkey on the site for a few hours. The intertubes increasingly provide their own antabuse.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    @flukebucket:
    That unfortunate man needs treatment so he can be up and about and getting on with his life, not to be gawked at. There is nothing that being exhibited as a freak on television can do for him. Pandering to voyeurs is the worst thing you could do to a person in his situation. What has become of The Learning Channel?

  14. 14.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Violet: It is the real thing. The article I read noted that a couple of surgeons declined to treat, one telling him he wouldn’t survive and another suggesting castration was the only option. Not a clue how I got to the article when it was published, but I did. CNN snippet below:

    One doctor told Warren that it might be necessary to castrate him to fix the problem; others told him that he would probably die on the operating table. And the cost of the surgery alone would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. After Warren appeared on the Howard Stern radio show, appealing for help, a fellow scrotal lymphedema sufferer referred him to Dr. Joel Gelman, who offered to do the surgery for free.

    @Amir Khalid: I agree that freak shows are heinous (who doesn’t?), though it does appear that media publicity was helpful in this instance.

  15. 15.

    MattF

    They put your browsing history into their algorithm, and the algorithm chokes, says (in a teeny ‘fly’ voice) ‘help me’. That’s a good thing, actually.

  22. 22.

    shortstop

    @Amir Khalid:

    What has become of The Learning Channel?

    It stopped being a publicly-funded educational channel and is now subject to the glories of the free market.

  23. 23.

    Tone in DC

    I hope that dude gets the surgery. That is one hell of a way to have to be.

    The Learning Channel has been shitty for a while now. As have so many other channels that used to be decent. I’m not surprised, I’m just disappointed.

  24. 24.

    sparrow

    @Amir Khalid: free market programming for over 30 years… but that didn’t stop the washington post from publishing a silly op-ed saying that the government sucks because of TLC. yeah.

  25. 25.

    Morbo

    It looks like the Syrian town of Azaaz near the Turkish border started the day flying Al Qaeda’s flag. And it sounds like negotiations between AQ and the FSA have broken down meaning that fighting has resumed.

  27. 27.

    gbear

    @Matt McIrvin: Same thing happens at Amazon. You buy a greatest hits album by an established artist and suddenly 27 similar greatest hits CDs by the same artist show up on your recommended list. Same thing happens if you buy an album that has more than one version. You buy one – the others show up. Annoying

    As for the actual thread topic: I need brain bleach. Badly.

  28. 28.

    pharniel

    Best (and by ‘Best’ I mean ‘most morally repugnant’) targeted ad fail was when I was reading an article on various tribal bullshit in regards to sexual assault in India and how the police were called in and Were Not Amused.

    Then I notice that the banner adds are for ‘young desperate Asian girls’ and ‘Indian hotties’

    Displeased I am internet. Displeased indeed.

  30. 30.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    I’m trying to figure out how the hell I’ve started getting Christian Singles ads everywhere.

    I figure it’s either the algorithms choking on my browsing history (with tasty oddities added for their delectation) or a huge “we’ll be the default when the algorithm fails” buy.

  31. 31.

    ericblair

    @Tone in DC:

    The Learning Channel has been shitty for a while now. As have so many other channels that used to be decent. I’m not surprised, I’m just disappointed.

    It’s network decay, a well-understood but nasty phenomenon. Warning, tvtropes link, so don’t follow it if you’ve got anything else to do today.

  33. 33.

    john b

    i may be remembering this wrong, but i swear i heard about this somewhere else, that it was at least partially produced by the BBC and that the american version is far more censored than the BBC version. so much for the “TLC is so shitty now” aspect.

  34. 34.

    TooManyJens

    Relevant to a conversation we had the other day about whether Pope Francis would finally change the Catholic Church’s stance against contraception: No, but he would really like to talk about other things for a change.

    “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

    “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.”

  35. 35.

    kbuttle

    I didn’t see the original post, but you’re a classy lady, Betty Cracker. So much of what’s ducked up about the discourse in this country is that once people are challenged on something, they dig their heals in and go instantly defensive even to the extent of doubling down on their original point. May have felt easy, but taking a breath, reconsidering your initial reaction, and falling on your sword for it is so. fucking. rare. Good on you.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    I have a lunch today with someone in a department I desperately want to work for (the department, not necessarily the person — that’s one of the reasons I’m having lunch with him, to see if we could work together). My bosses are fully supportive of this but I really suck at networking, so I’m nervous as hell.

  42. 42.

    Jane2

    @Betty Cracker: As a Catholic by birth (you can leave it, but it never leaves you), and an historian specializing in Catholic social action, I too loathe the Vatican machine, and think this Pope slipped under their radar somehow and either is actually a positive force, or the anti-Christ. I’m hoping for the former.

    And good on you for deep-sixing something…hard to do.

  43. 43.

    Seanly

    It’s criminal that the richest f’ing country in the history of the world can’t make sure that people get the medical treatment that they need.

    Another problem for that unfortunate man is that even if he has his underlying medical issue resolved, most insurance wouldn’t then cover the plastic surgery to remove the stretched out skin (though maybe the cost estimates of hundreds of thousands of $$$ include that).

    RE: TLC – I stopped watching when they went from the silly home improvement shows to the shows celebrating all those over-breeding and multiple wife a-holes. Speaking of over-breeders, WTF is wrong with the Duggars – there’s now these creepy stories them about controlling their 20-yr old daughter’s dating like it’s 1542?

  44. 44.

    The Other Bob

    @Seanly:

    I stopped watching when they went from the silly home improvement shows to the shows celebrating all those over-breeding and multiple wife a-holes.

    Agreed. Although I might tune back in when the guy with the four wives finally gives it up and admits he’s gay.

  45. 45.

    PurpleGirl

    Missed the original post but figured out from the comments what it was about. TLC’s corporate owner — Discover, Inc IIIRC) — also has Discovery Fit and Health. They showed either the show in question or a similar one recently. I’ve seen a man with this same problem on one of the buses I take. I feel so sorry for him and the fact that most doctors are not inclined to help him.

  48. 48.

    Jennifer

    I figured from the edited post that the original was about the 132-lb scrotum. That show premiered 2 or 3 weeks ago.

    And FYI, 132lb scrotum has its own twitter hashtag.

  49. 49.

    johnny aquitard

    Thought that pic was a gag. Guy’s real? Jeez. That poor man.

    That said and despite genuine sympathy, I just couldn’t help thinking of that dude in Ow My Balls.

    That may make me a bad person but I am resigned to it.

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