Use our data to buy us drinks!

Why do we think that right now, as 2009 approaches, there can be real progress on privacy? Because some of the most senior marketers in the industry are starting to sound like privacy advocates. Read this comment about advertising on social networks and then click here to see who said it!

“I have a reaction to that as a consumer advocate and an advertiser,” he said. “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

Of course his point, as a large global advertiser, isn’t that ads don’t belong on social networks, but rather that engaging users is more effective than using data simply to “target at” them. We couldn’t agree more. We certainly expect that FaceBook will continue to develop in this direction and that it will succeed in collecting ad dollars by increasingly serving the desires of its users. We never click on banner ads offering us a local date with a hottie in our area, but we do enjoy someone using a FaceBook application to buy us our favorite brand of scotch, even if virtual!