What is targeted advertising and is it a bad thing? 

Most of us use the internet every day for a variety of different purposes: we shop, we read the news, we

post on social media, we surf sites for information as well as many other online activities. We give a lot

of personal information to the websites and social media platforms we sign up to. That information can

end up in the hands of advertisers and political-campaign groups, and enable targeted advertising.

So, why do companies and campaigners use this kind of advertising? It’s because they can focus their

promotions on the people most likely to respond to them positively. For example, a cosmetics firm won’t

be very successful if it sells its brand to most men because very few are interested in cosmetics. But a

lot of women are interested in these products. So, it’s better that the business concentrates on targeting

those who are likely to buy—in other words, women—rather than targeting people at random. In the

same way, political campaigners and activists also want to target the people most likely to respond to

their campaign issues.

One problem with this is that it’s helping to create a society where people only see and read things that

interest them, or relate to them and their own culture. Advertisers and campaigners might be happy with

that, but perhaps we need to ask what effect this is having on our ability to judge different situations and

ideas. Some people think that it is having a negative effect because if we don’t question our own beliefs,

we won’t be open to new ideas, and this could be dangerous for our society as a whole.

Targeted advertising and campaigns are not going to disappear. The only way to become more aware

of their negative effects is through education. If people are taught that they need to question what they

see and read, to think about both sides of an argument, then they will be more prepared to decide what

it is they want to buy, or which campaigns they agree with.