Yukhk. I hate how so many of these services spend most of their efforts on marketing instead of making a decent product or experience. Isn't mullvad one of the actual best VPN providers out there? NEVER seen them run an ad, hell, I only found out about them on accident due to mental outlaw, some ordinary gamers or the linux experiment. Can't remember which tho.

[–] leisesprecher 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

What's really baffling to me is how completely irrelevant most ads are to me.

And I'm not saying "ads don't work for me", I get ads for products that I will never buy. I'm a man and YouTube recommends me tampons, lipstick and perfume. I also won't buy a car anytime soon, yet I get tons of ads for cars.

Even in the mindset of an ad person, that can't make sense. Sure, there is the off chance that I'll buy lipstick for my girlfriend, but how likely is that and how much revenue will materialize from bombarding thousands of men with ads? That cannot be economically viable.

The actually infuriating part is, that we're still paying for it. And the vendors as well. Only Google profits. If a company spends more on ads than necessary, their products will get more expensive, and those who buy their products will have to pay for it. So essentially I'm paying money for being advertised to, so Google can rake in billions.

[–] morrowind@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

That might be because you limit how well google tracks you

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

They probably don't have enough data on you to serve you personalised ads

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Before I started adblocking, I'd get "relevant" ads in that I can understand how someone of my age/gender might like it, but they're never things I'd purchase myself. I just want a mostly empty home with as little visual stimulation as possible, and buying more stuff doesn't help with that.

So yeah, I'm definitely saying "ads don't work for me", but it's probably only because these companies refuse to make ads targeted to people like me.

[–] grandma@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

Yeah mullvad doesnt do the affiliate link and misleading sponsorship shenanigans that make your boomer relatives think they need a vpn