Sunday 6 July 2008

I am not a target market


My name is Stanley.

I am a male in the 40 - 49 demographic.

However I am not a stereotype.

I am me.


People who know me know that I have a penchant for Paul Smith socks.

They no doubt know that I am a long suffering supporter of the St Kilda football club.

And they probably also know that I love Japan but am no fan of sushi.

That's why this week people who know me have done the following:

Sent me a txt message to let me know that Paul Smith socks are 30% off at David Jones.

Sent me an email to see if I'm going to the St Kilda v Carlton game on Friday.

And posted an interesting link about Tokyo on my Facebook wall.

These people are my friends. Some are much closer than others, but all of them friends.


Facebook is not my friend.

However it does help me stay in touch with my friends.

If Facebook was my friend it would talk to me in the way I like to be spoken to about things that might be of interest to me.

Instead it serves up with monotonous regularity ads like the ones scattered through this post.

Ads so impersonal and badly targeted that I am writing a blog post about them rather than clicking on them.