Very inappropriate Amazon sponsored link on search for children's books

[MiddleEngWoman]

AIBU? typed in 'books for 13 year old boys' as I am searching for a birthday present for my soon to be teenage nephew. On the first 2 pages of the resulting search were 2 sponsored links to crotchless knickers!!!! How on earth does Amazon justify the appropriateness of such items in the midst of a list of children's books. I had always assumed that there were checks and controls in the coding of these sites which would mean that such a search would not link across to such items. Clearly I am very naive. I have clicked on the 'report inappropriate advert button' but are unsure of what exactly happens next and if Amazon actually have the time or inclination to actively follow up all such reports, given they have no means of contacting you back with their conclusion.

Oh this has made me chuckle

I just searched "books for 13 year old boys"
And crotchless knickers came up as well!

They are clearly tagged to come up under that search and it must not be due to previous search history. We aren't all searching for crotchless knickers.

Too funny

I'm getting the crotchless knickers too! And it's been a while since I last searched for any...

"I can feel the OP's burning face from here"

Presumably the other end is nice and cool though.

Made me snigger herotherhalf

I love this site.

@HerOtherHalf 😃😂😃

That well norty of those sellers to tag crotchless knickers to come up under those search parameters!

Hello folks,

We wouldn't usually delete entire threads but we're going to take this down now. The OP has had all of the answers needed.

Thanks!

OP, won't be back. She's too busy screaming down the phone at her other half or 13 yr old son. 😆😂

😂

But we need to start a petition to get this changed!!!!!!

Seems OP/DH/DS are innocent of searching for exotic undies and Amazon is out of order. Sorry for laughing OP

Hello again!

Now that we know this wasn't based on the OP's search history, the OP has asked for the thread to be reinstated.

Eh?

I am both amused and confused now

Yep, it's coming up as a sponsored ad when I search for books for 13 year old boys too.

Gross.

I sense the op has been off verbally haranguing her poor husband (or son) thanks to this thread?

Search yourself and it will come up for you too.

Oh ye of crotchless condemnation

Best...thread...ever..!!

The two updates from lornamumsnet finished me off. I am ROFL....

Oh happy happy days. I needed a good chuckle.

Same crotchless knickers for me when I do that search but when I search for "books for a 6 year old girl" I don't get the ad

Very strange, while a 13 year old boy might enjoy looking I very much doubt he will be purchasing them so what's the point of advertising inappropriate items to them? Or is this some sort of algorithm that shows a person searching for items that. 13 year old boy likes will also search for crotchless pants?

This is a massive faux pas for some digital marketing manager somewhere!

On AMS (amazon Market services) you can target sponsored product ads to keywords that users then search for. If the search matches one of your keywords, the person gets served one of your ads. Alternatively (and probably more likely), that is a product display ad which are targeted by product and interests. Basically you pick a target interest/ topic that people might be searching about and Amazon matches your ad to potential customers that way.

I reckon this company has added every single Amazon topic/ catagory to their product display campaign and now these crotchless pants are going to pop up all over the place

Apologies OP, it's on mine too. How odd!

Can someone clarify what the point of crotchless pants are? If you want an airy fanjo why not just go commando? From a male perspective, I don't find them remotely sexy, quite cringey actually, but I may be unusual.

Too funny. Clearly have nothing else to do so clicked on review to see who buys these things and 4 disappointed buyers report they're not even crotchless!