Your Facebook feed is going to be unbearable during the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl, the enormous advertising event that has some American Football between the commercial breaks, takes place this Sunday. If you're not a fan, then you may have wanted to find some respite inside your Facebook feed but, unfortunately, that avenue has been closed off this year. According to Reuters, the social network is hoping to muscle in on Twitter's real-time advertising turf by letting businesses target users depending on what messages they post.
For example, if you post a status mentioning New England, Patriotism or the inflation levels of a football, then a flashy clip sponsored by Toyota might pop up. In many ways, the move is an attempt to capture the instant-reaction adverts that brands like Oreo post to Twitter whenever an event happens in-game. Also, considering that the price of a regular TV spot during the event is around $4.5 million per 30-seconds, targeted advertising gives companies a cheaper, more effective way to reach prospective customers. It's just a shame that no-one asked us if we wanted to be distracted in this way.
