Tempting Ad's... Do they belong?

170isreal

Has any one else noticed an over abundance of "bad for you" foods being advertised on MFP? In the past two days I have seen McDonalds & Dominos Pizza. I understand this is a free site but should the creaters gain revenue from companies that have no place on a fitness site? Thoughts please!!!

170isreal

:noway: And I totally just saw a Pizza Hut... OMG

sarabeth120

I don't think the site has any control with what kind of ads show up on here.

But, I use firefox and have the adblock plus add on, so all ads on here are blocked.

If you have firefox, I suggest you download the ad-on so you'll no longer see the ads.

jenlb99

I don't see any ads -- get an ad blocker!

And nope, they definitely don't belong on here!

orange_you_glad

I doubt that MFP can control the ad content. They've made an arrangement with Google to provide ads on these pages -- that's how we get to use MFP for free.

Most ads now have some kind of targeting associated with them, so that if you're talking about diets or food, for example, you might see ads for diets or foods. (Or, if you're looking at expensive shoes on Nordstrom.com, you see ads for those shoes on other sites.) So, given the content of this site, it's actually not surprising that we see ads for pizza or other fast food. It's how it goes.

If you don't want to see ads when you use MFP, install Firefox, and then get the ad blocker plug-in. You can then block ads from specific providers (such as google) on any website you go to.

PositivelyFlawed

I hadn't even noticed and I spend way more time than I need to on MFP. lol

I would be a conflict if MFP charged for membership, but since they do not, they are free to gain whatever advertisement they can get.

Sadly we WERE or ARE the target audience for those types of foods.

nicehormones

My ads are all for cricket wireless. Like all of them.

valerietoxii

Yup. There is a Schwan's add staring back at me now. How rude. That cheesy chicken with lime and tortilla strips almost looks good. Its like having a krispy kreme shop next to the gym.

chuckles217

I believe the ads are done by Google Sense. Google Sense uses the websites themes + any history they have on you to "target" products towards you. Easiest way to resolve is to get a browser where you can get AdBlock such as firefox.

3dogsrunning

From what I understand, MFP has nothing to do with the displayed ads. It is based on your browsing history. I have never seen any food ads on mine, but I do often see Carnival ads. I did a lot of searches for my upcoming trip.

juliekaiser1988

I usually do the mobile app so I don't see it. But been checking more online and currently there's an LG ad I'm looking at. No foods yet. Yikes.

darlilama

From what I understand, MFP has nothing to do with the displayed ads. It is based on your browsing history. I have never seen any food ads on mine, but I do often see Carnival ads. I did a lot of searches for my upcoming trip.

I had wondered about that, myself. It seemed like many times after I'd been searching for something or shopping at a particular site, those ads would pop up. Then, again, other times (like right now), the ads seem totally unrelated to anything I've ever done. I admit, though, I think some of them are in "poor taste" for this type of web site. "Foods to never eat… blah blah" and it's a banana?!

juliekaiser1988

Ok, now it's a Botox ad. Maybe this computer is trying to tell me something...

and an ad for Sundown Naturals Gluten Free Vitamins.

nicehormones

From what I understand, MFP has nothing to do with the displayed ads. It is based on your browsing history. I have never seen any food ads on mine, but I do often see Carnival ads. I did a lot of searches for my upcoming trip.

This makes sense. I have cricket and recently did a lot of phone browsing and I pay my bill online... I get a lot of car ones too though even though I don't own a car, nor have I looked for one.

spottedlee

Yeah,, cinabon,, I was thinking,, HUH?

bubblywine

I have noticed and have been completely annoyed. The foods advertised are things I never buy, so I don't know why I'm targeted except that I'm on MFP. And that dopey ad about what not to eat and 5 simple rules? There's a special place in hell.....

spottedlee

I have noticed and have been completely annoyed. The foods advertised are things I never buy, so I don't know why I'm targeted except that I'm on MFP. And that dopey ad about what not to eat and 5 simple rules? There's a special place in hell.....

key word,, let say,, you were curious about calories of special K,, you googled that,, BAM,, you get special K cereal ads.

IvoryParchment

I've got NoScript for safety, so I only see ads that don't use javascript. MFP doesn't seem to run too many of those. I allow javascript for MFP, but not for every random third-party that might show up on the page.

I don't have any objection to them making money from ads, but if they insist on using animated ads with third party scripts, they will lose out on the business of safety-conscious internet users.

aya619

yup, just had IHOP waffles pop up while I was reading these posts!

bubblywine

I have noticed and have been completely annoyed. The foods advertised are things I never buy, so I don't know why I'm targeted except that I'm on MFP. And that dopey ad about what not to eat and 5 simple rules? There's a special place in hell.....

key word,, let say,, you were curious about calories of special K,, you googled that,, BAM,, you get special K cereal ads.

Except I never do any of that. Why am I getting cinnabun, burgers, etc? Oh, and cruises. I think they are targeting PROFILE information, and making their evil educated guesses on what a person of my sex, age, and location might like? EVIL.

KareninCanada

They're mostly just Google ads. Websites do cost money to maintain, and keeping it updated and current actually does require hours on the part of the website owner. If you want free membership and free use of all the tools on here, the ads are going to be a given. If you REALLY want to support MFP, click on a few of those ads while you're here so that MFP will get some $$$.

librarygoddess2

From what I understand, MFP has nothing to do with the displayed ads. It is based on your browsing history. I have never seen any food ads on mine, but I do often see Carnival ads. I did a lot of searches for my upcoming trip.

The above is what I was going to say.

Except I never do any of that. Why am I getting cinnabun, burgers, etc? Oh, and cruises. I think they are targeting PROFILE information, and making their evil educated guesses on what a person of my sex, age, and location might like? EVIL.

Thanks to cookies (recall your Internet chapter) advertisers can follow our clicktrail and slice & dice our data to serve up ads targeted at us by what we’ve searched for, where we live, our social sharing, our emails! and increasingly our matched realworld data.

One thing you can try is to delete all your cookies and start fresh. If you have your cookies blocked then this could actually be why it's targeting you with this. MFP as quoted above actually doesn't choose what to give you. In order to keep the service free they will get money from an advertising company that will select the ads to give to you. If you have your cookies blocked or disabled then the only way the advertiser can decide what to give you is by classifying the site you are currently on. Because the site will likely be listed under "food" in there main directory the logical ads to push to you are food related. (of course this is only an educated guess as I don't know the settings on your computer or the contract that MFP has with it's advertisers. However, I do know that I never get food advertised but I do get a lot of diet and exercise stuff advertised to me because I search for that type of thing a lot.)

Cheers and hope that helps.

IvoryParchment

Before you delete your cookies, remember that they are what keep you logged in when you move from page to page on a website, and what keeps track of what is in your "shopping cart" until you check out. That information is stored on your computer, not the server hosting the website, and cookies are how the information is relayed back to the website.

You may want to block 3rd party cookies, so visiting one site doesn't give information about you to all their advertisers.

As far as the food ads, it's probably also a question of what the text on the website says. There are lots of mentions of food on MFP, and the advertising bots probably can't distinguish a diet site from a cooking site.