MNHQ are you really advertising pole dancing?

Yes Tee I'm actually an idiot and haven't worked with AdChoices for years on my own company website, both as someone who displays advertising, and as someone who provides advertising to be used on other sites.

You can filter out entire groups of advertising, (i.e., no travel, no entertainment, etc.) but a lot of companies have cottoned on to that, and are tailoring their ads to appear in more than a few categories so they have less of a chance of being blocked, so MN would have to block every category that "strip clubs" could appear in, which massively impacts the revenue that they generate from the ads in the first place.

You sound like the type of person who phones up a tech support person and tries to pretend that you know better than they do when you're the one asking for help in the first place

Yes, MNHQ has the option to say they're unhappy with the way AdChoices works, and they can drop the programme as a whole, but that would lose MN a lot of money, and AdChoices wouldn't pay a second's notice to them leaving, as there are millions of companies who use them.

I know what you mean, it's slightly annoying knowing that you're being "tracked" on every site that you go to, but unless you use private browsing, it's just the way things are...

And, once again, MNHQ have in the past contacted the ad agency and said 'We don't want XYZ ad on our site no matter the cookies a user has'.

HQ can speak to the ad agency and tell them that.

You sound like some of the first line techs I used to work with. Only know enough about this stuff to sound off, not enough to actually know what you're talking about.

Stealth We're not, we're talking about the same thing, I just don't think you're understanding how it works. AdChoices has millions of companies who advertise through them, and you can tailor it personally based on what you want to see ads for. For example, when I'm looking for flights somewhere, I'll enable the ads so I can see offers from travel sites and airlines. The rest of the time, I have ads turned off, so they're "generalised" ads, which have to be appropriate for all-age viewing, so I would be unlikely to see any ads about strip clubs in Budapest.

Unless they want to opt-out of AdChoices all together (which I imagine would lose them a fortune and they probably won't do) then no, as far as my experience goes, there isn't a way for them to tailor the ads because it's based on user-experience, instead of what site you're on.

The very, very simple solution is to a) clear your cookies after each browsing session, and/or b) click the arrow logo on the ad, and choose to opt out.

Once again, it has nothing to do with MNHQ. It is based on the cookies installed on your personal computer. If you searched for a topic about lap dances, or stag dos, or read and responded to a topic about something related to that, the ad tracking software picked up on that. It is completely based on what you have on your computer. If you don't want to see the ad, you have to delete your cookies and block it from your browser.

You can try emailing them if you want to protest against them using AdChoices on a whole, but in regards to individual ads, they won't be able to do anything about it.

That's not true reggie. They have, in the past, spoken to the ad company to have ads removed.

And I'm sure they can block certain ads - can you imagine the uproar if a Nestle ad was shown on Mumsnet?

Could MNHQ confirm if they have any control over the ads?

It's MNHQ who decide to put this kind of advertising on Mumsnet.

Not the ad itself. The type of self-loading stalkery advertising.

I presume it's lucrative, but I don't like it.

They are very careful with other types of ads, not sure why they are going with this product.

I've never seen any ads on MN:S

It's not MNHQ that is responsible for the ads, it's customised to what you have been reading/searching for, so you either have to clear your cookies or opt-out. Reporting it to MNHQ will do nothing...

This is why I don't have ads on my blogs - because you can't be 100% sure that they will be appropriate to the site.

Report to MNHQ so they can Have A Word

I've just clicked onto the 3 day wedding thread and got wedding dresses, very well targeted advertising. I've also got pole dancing - Windsor (seems to be advertising classes). Haven't seen the one you mention though.

I had a pole dancing ad just now, now I have Serbian Language courses!

The way I understand it, the ads come from a third party company who pay MN for advertising space. MN may be able to make requests about things to block, however, so maybe it should be flagged up to the admins.

I know HQ have said previously that that do have some options on Ad Choices. So I hope that's a fluke!

Just install Ad Blocker !

really?

wow. I always thought those were the paid for ads.

Best ask mn? report button or email. I don't think they check AIBU unless a thread is reported. They said they do look through site stuff though