Aibu this is freaky

[Bitofnamechanging]

I was at sainsburys earlier. I picked up a medical product to read the packet. Something obscure.

Now I'm home. Thay exact product has just popped up as an advert on MN.

That is definitely freaky

Weird

I swear sometimes I've thought about things and then next day seen an advert for it!

A little while ago I went to the coop and bought a pizza, I was talking to my kids about the pizza then the exact same one popped up on my Facebook page as an advert that evening. I thought it was weird tbh. Literally same pizza same brand.

Is it inconceivable that you've bought this product before, either online in or a store?

Is it impossible that you're part of a demographic or grouping that would look at said obscure product?

Have you made any purchases in the last month or so, that would tangentially mean a marketer for that product would want to reach you?

There are loads of ways to describe how retargeting works online, but my point is that if you were looking at it in the store, and then you saw an advert for it, it means you probably have a large Internet data footprint which means companies know enough about you to be accurate in their advert targeting.

YABU to think it's "woo".

@PumpkinP

Nothing weird about that if your (internet enabled) smartphone with a built-in microphone is lying around nearby.

I was talking to a colleague yesterday, she said her Mother was going nuts because her bath drain blocked. They found that it was from her hair. I told her about a contraption you can buy to pop down drain and last night the ad for it came up on my Facebook!

Of course I had to tag her and she then tagged her um so the advert worked!

Vila because your smart phone was listening. That's not weird at all.

It's different to the op who just looked at it. Unless OP you actually said "oooh Canesten" out loud when you saw it?

Plenty of people talk to themselves walking round the supermarket. I was once looking at the yoghurt when a man reached up for his and sang loudly "Mmmmm Danone" 😂

Did you use a nectar card? I know Tesco use their Clubcard to ‘target’ promotions so it’s feasible that your nectar card could have done it?

The size of our internet footprint is HUGE.

All those posts people scroll through and like; the myriad of pages that people click on when looking for a product, then click off again when they don't see what they like..

People are giving thousands of bits of data per day to advertisers, and not a lot of it goes to waste so to speak.

So it's no huge surprise that if you've ordered from Dominos at the end of a month before, it then becomes close to the end of the next month and you say to your DP "fancy a Dominos" and then an ad pops up an hour later...

..it's most probably because you're a creature of habit, you lived the habit as per usual, and the ad synced with the habits the advertiser knows you have.

DP once texted me to tell me he had checked the tyres on his car and decided they were near needing replacing.

At the time I was outside a Tesco supermarket about 120 miles from home. When I paid inside the Tesco, there was an advert on the receipt for a fast fit tyre place.

OP did you google this product? If so it will be down to remarking on Google Ads.

*remarketing

You don't have the nectar app on your phone do you?

Really spooky earlier, I was thinking I might have thrush (just changed Pill, it sometimes happens). Opened my emails and the first advert I see is for Canesten.

OK, overhearing conversations, search terms I can understand, but is my phone reading my thought now?

@Juliette20

Have you bought Canesten before? are you female, have you bought other associated products, have you bought them at specific times of the month?

Remarketing/retargeting etc is a common practice but it's based on knowing your habits.

If you were thinking something, and you've actively purchased, Googled or thought it at a regular time before, then the internet will serve you ads. It's honestly that simple.

Why did you pick it up, though, OP? Is it because you'd never seen it before? In which case, maybe it's just a new product which they're advertising heavily and putting on the "buy level" shelf so you notice it.

There are loads of similar tricks they do to make us buy stuff, and sometimes two or more of them align!

@Juliette20 - I've been getting adverts for Canesten the last few days - I have no need for it, haven't spoken to anyone about it, haven't thought about it or looked it up. I'm presuming its because I'm female and therefore fall in to the target market for it (which will be a broad 'all women'), and they're obviously running a campaign at the moment. It only feels spooky for you because you'd been thinking about it and then saw the ad, but its actually just a coincidence. Its the same as those companies that ring and say "we're ringing about your recent accident" - you know its a nuisance call when you've not been in an accident and just ignore it, but for a tiny percent of people who have recently had an accident, they assume its legit/their details have been passed to this company etc.
I imagine it is the same for the OP - the advert she's seen has probably appeared to thousands of people, many of whom will have just ignored it because they've no interest. Had the OP not been looking at the product earlier in the day, she'd have ignored it too - but because she was, it has stood out to her and so it seems freaky.

@Pizzaformytea

Exactly this, put it better than I ever could.

@crustycrab That made me giggle!

Take a look at the 'Off-Facebook activity' thing at www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/ You'll be shocked (probably) at the number of places fb gets data from - apps, websites, shops - even things you won't have even noticed. All hidden but 'legal'. That's how they serve up adverts catered to exactly what you've just seen or bought in the shops.

Is it Canesten? Because this is what I see on your thread!

Now then, I'm glad you've brought this up. Earlier in the week I was thinking how on earth are we going to deal with the mould in our bespoke shower screen plastic seals, its an unusual shape and size and after 2 years all the seals around it need replacing.

I was THINKING it. About an hour later an advert for specialist shower seals came up. Not a bathroom advert, not an ad for bathroom cleaner, but a very specific company that sells plastic seals in unusual sizes.

WTAF.

its also the fact that you may have seen an advert for these things many times over the past few weeks but because you need it/have talked about you notice the advert when it pops up.
While Ive been typing this theres been several ads on the side of the page. I couldnt tell you what they are for - just looked and the current one is mecure hotels - now if i'd just booked a mercure hotel or been talking about it would seem weird to me and i would notice it.

PS @BananaRepublic2019 just used that link you recommended, that was really helpful thanks. (Although no shower screen seal companies came up in my browsing history on account of my only thinking it...!!!)

Maybe it's brain washing - that's the reason I picked the product up. Say i saw the advert on mm, didn't think about it and then picked up the product in store because it came to mind.

I didn't buy the product. I didn't say anything. I just looked at the product, put it in my basket and then removed it ten minutes later.