I remember the early days of Instagram, when it was an iOS-only app for simple, filtered photography. Fast forward to the current day and it has become a (mostly) narcissistic cesspool that is cluttered with ads. Much of this ‘sponsored content’ is supposed to be tailored to our own personal interests.

I have included two ad examples from my own feed that show how crude and idiotic some of these algorithms must be. (1) I have spoken out online against Coles for caving to angry consumers and reintroducing free plastic bags. (2) I have also shared my dissatisfaction with Medibank’s customer service and then left shortly thereafter.

If such content targeting is based purely on mentions and interaction online, then it worked. Given that these were negative interactions, these ads ultimately fail.