Tweaking Google, Facebook and Twitter’s ad settings can make it easier to change unwelcome habits. Here’s how.
Advertising reinforces products’ attractive associations, so making their consumption seem more desirable.
Google said last month it will make alcohol and gambling ad filtering easier, with a roll out already begun in the US.
But there are already steps we can take. All three big online ad networks already offer significant control.
- Google’s ad personalisation page allows users to turn off ads from individual companies, ads by category, and turn off ad personalisation entirely.
- Facebook’s equivalent (pictured) allows us to disable ads by company, by topic and stop it using other targeting criteria too. The three areas we can control are on the left.
- And Twitter has a similar page. This allows us to turn off personalised ads at the top level or untick whatever categories we wish to filter in the list of interests.
We can only reduce our exposure to ads we don’t want to see not eliminate it. We have no control over broadcast media or in-content promotion.
An event last year explored how alcohol promotions, in particular, find their way into media. ◼