Accidental Absurdity of Keywords

It’s ironic that whenever I read an article online about fat acceptance or about people living healthily at an above-average weight, inevitably there are ads on the same page advertising gastric surgery and weight loss programs. Hypocrisy much?

I understand this is due simply to the advertising program’s reliance on keywords. It scans the page that it is appearing on and finds an ad that is relevant to those terms. Advertisers often buy specific keywords. So, in an article with the words “obesity” and “overweight” you are bound to get Jenny Craig ads.

It still annoys me though because the point of the article is to accept yourself as a fat person, but the ads only 20 pixels to the right are telling you to get rid of that fat ass if you ever want to be happy. Mixed messages!

I’m really curious as to how many click-throughs these ads get. Even though people are reading an article on fat acceptance, do they still feel the need to check at the Barix clinic? I’m thinking yes, these ads probably get very good click-through rates.