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'Hey Jew' gives ad targeting creepy twist Nowhere on David Berkowitz's Facebook profile does it say he's Jewish. So, he was a bit surprised to see a targeted travel ad with the headline “Hey Jew.” While Berkowitz, an interactive marketing specialist and blogger, is indeed Jewish, he wondered how the advertisement figured that out. Was it based on his hometown? His alma mater? His love of Seinfeld? Maybe, he joked, it was a sign of “top secret Jew-havioral targeting algorithms.” The mystery was solved when he heard back from the advertiser, Katan Adventures: “In order to reach Jews who haven’t listed their religion on Facebook (which, by the way, is the vast majority) we run ads in metro areas with large Jewish populations and try to grab their attention with ridiculous lines such as ‘hey jew’ but we obviously get a lot of wasted clicks with this strategy as well. And some angry emails.” UPDATE: Facebook has now nixed the “Hey Jew” ads. —Posted by David Griner

July 17, 2008 in Griner | Permalink

Comments

I want to know how those shitheads targeted me for rogaine.

Let's sue!

Posted by: Mike | Jul 17, 2008 10:56:34 AM

While I find it reprehensible that this scum has adopted social networking, there's a logical explanation for his lack of omission for the Jewish faith.

He's not Jewish.

He was born Richard David Falco in the Bronx and was adopted by the Berkowiz family. He became a born again Christian while in captivity.

Posted by: victory26 | Jul 17, 2008 12:10:24 PM

To Mr. or Ms. Victory26, only people who know me have the right to call me scum.

Posted by: David Berkowitz | Jul 17, 2008 12:43:29 PM

I'm sure David never gets tired of being confused for the Son of Sam, who is likely doing very little networking from his home in the Sullivan Correctional Facility.

Posted by: David Griner | Jul 17, 2008 2:06:19 PM

Now I'm starting to understand David's passion for the merits of Building Your Personal Brand...

Posted by: Ike | Jul 17, 2008 2:39:53 PM

Ike, that's a huge part of it. It's my grandfather's name too, so in my own small way, I'll do what I can to reclaim it.

Posted by: David Berkowitz | Jul 17, 2008 3:14:06 PM

I'd bet a month's salary that theyre just covering up the fact that they spider facebook for "jewish" surnames, because that would be too blunt.

Posted by: Naor | Jul 19, 2008 11:58:29 AM

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