A few months ago, I did something I’ve never done before. I saw a CTV ad for a product I needed and got so annoyed about it that I bought a competitor’s version out of spite.
Why? Because the ad was for a pregnancy test, and I’m fairly certain it was served to me because, earlier that day, I had searched online for the phrase, “When’s the right time to take a pregnancy test?”
It wasn’t the first time I’d ever seen a pregnancy test ad, of course. About 10 years ago, when I was stuck at home between layoffs (ah, the perks of a career in media!), I saw them on Hulu all the time, alongside ads for all kinds of family products I had no use for – diapers, baby food, toddler toys, etc.
The logic of the modern ad tech industry suggests that I should have resented seeing these ads, because they were not relevant to me at the time. Maybe I did. I’ll be honest, I don’t actually remember. In any case, I knew I was watching during a time of day traditionally reserved for stay-at-home moms and housewives, so it didn’t feel so unusual. Or, perhaps I should say, it didn’t feel so targeted.
I’ll admit that my daily ad exposure has declined since then, despite my current role covering the ad tech industry. I deleted Facebook and X years ago, and my Instagram and TikTok both lie dormant. Almost every TV subscription we have in our household, including YouTube, is ad-free. I switched my default search engine to DuckDuckGo on my personal devices, not for privacy reasons but because it’s easier to hide those annoying AI results.
