Targeted ads misfire

[madbodger]

I was reading credit card tricks and had gone to a a detail page on avoiding "free" gifts which included the warning "To protect your finances, avoid the following offers." Directly below this was

Comments

[dcseain]

Hee! Great ad placement. :D

[merseine]

My husband works for Discover Card (same tree, different branch) and I can tell you, this placement doesn't surprise me. :)

[ratravarman]

One insidious thing I noticed was the change in position of the three types of gasoline at gas station pumps. Typically, Regular, Premium and Super, which range in price from least to most expensive, are arranged in that order from left to right. I have noticed at some of the stations I go to that the order on the pumps in sometimes reversed, making it possible to unwittingly purchase the most expensive gas simply because you assume the regular gas is at the left side from years of conditioning. This happened to me and I was fortunate that I was only filling up a gas can for my lawnmower. I've seen some people suddenly shout and curse nasty when they discover they've been filling up on the expensive stuff and have no choice but to either end it there or top off the tank. I've even seen pumps where the Super grade is placed in the middle. Very clever and perfectly legal.

[cos]

Huh. I've never thought to assume they come in any particular order, because I've always seen them in different orders at different gas stations.