How Facebook is digging a grave for online marketing
This morning, as you do when you quietly settle in at your desk and get prepared for a long day at work, I logged in to Facebook to check what my social circle around the world is up to. For whatever reason, my eyes fell on the forbidden spot, the advertising in the right hand corner. Oh wait, I know why. It was ‘speaking’ to me:
Look at that! Not only does it know I am 39 (nearly as old as Tim) but it also knows that I am female, and although I can’t say this for sure, this little ad also seems to have figured out that one of my favourite colours is … pink (No, I haven’t revealed the colour of my bra in my status line).
As it happens, super agency Made by Many is already supplying me with an awesome phone, but I got interested in this deal nevertheless. Not because the offer was appealing, but seemingly offered exclusively to me, I could not resist clicking on the ad to find out more. I wanted to know why this offer was made to 39 year old women… is this for real…? So I clicked the ad…. and…
Hello Vodafone.
Indeed, by clicking the link I landed on a Vodafone page offering a free (pink!) phone, but hang on… the terms aren’t right. As I’m browsing the page in hope of discovering the apparently well hidden and exclusive section for 39 year old women, suddenly there’s a pop up asking me if I want to chat with a representative. Sure..! Let’s save some time and cut to the chase.
But what followed is a miserable story: Not a single one of my 39 years nor my lovely female body make me special on the internet in any way. There’s no exclusive deal.
Furthermore – while you like me expected that any offer based on sex and age is a lie – you might be surprised to hear that the entire offer run on FB was false.
Read the entire hilarious transcript of my conversation with the representative below (click to enlarge). I throw my hands up in despair.
Poor Austin doesn’t seem like the smartest rep in the world (since when did Tweetpic start selling phones?) and he certainly gave me a proper crap customer experience. But I cannot blame him for Facebook’s & Vodafone’s dishonest exploitation of your personal data to lure you into clicking on offers that are not real.
When is this industry going to understand the damage they are causing themselves?
Chat with Austin from Vodafone part 1 - click to read
Chat with Austin & Naomi from Vodafone - part 2 (click to enlarge)