Google Ads Humor

(Warning! This post is way off topic. I'm just in a mood to bark today.)

I've long been an advertiser's nightmare. The few times I do find a commercial memorable enough to tell someone else about it, I generally have to preface the story with, "I don't remember what it was advertising, but..."

This total disregard for ads has carried over the Internet. On blogs and wikis, I don't notice the Google Ads in the sidebar. I mean REALLY don't notice them-- to the extent that I hadn't even realized that one of MY OWN wikis had Google Ads on it until another teacher complained about them.

Therefore, it surprises me that I eventually noticed that in my Gmail account, the Spam folder lacks the usual Google Ads in the sidebar but does have a single ad just above the message window. Being a Google Ad, it is trying to match the ad to the content of the messages. And since these are Spam messages, the only ads Google can find to put on the page, are SPAM recipes.

For those of you not familiar with SPAM, it is a spiced ham product sold in tins by Hormel, a company based in Austin, Minnesota. Or, you may be familiar with "Spamalot!", the Monty Python musical which features the Spam song.

I've eaten many a SPAM dish and actually enjoyed a number of them, but for some reason, I seem to find great humor in the recipe titles. Each new SPAM recipe title that appears sounds worse than the previous one to me. I grimaced when I read "Spam Potato Casserole" yesterday, but today's "Spam Veggie Pita Pockets" sounds even worse. Or, how about the "Spicy Spam Kabobs"?

You may not find these Google Ads as funny as I do, but it makes me realize that there could be some pretty funny mismatches in other places. based on letter content. I hate to admit it but now I am going to start watching to see if the ads get it really wrong sometimes.

(BTW, someone had WAY too much fun creating the Spam website. Stop by and watch a tin of Spam ascend into the heavens atop cloud radiating light.)