Poor guy links to giant sex lube item on Amazon and ends up a sex lube salesman on Facebook
If there was ever a warning to take to heart when it comes to sharing links to stuff with your friends on Facebook then this is it.
It seems that Nick Bergus recently shared a link on Facebook to an Amazon page for a 55-gallon drum of Passion Natural water-based lubricant; a.k.a. sex lube for the uninitiated, and really thought no more about it, until about a week later when he got an email from a friend about the link.
It seems that his little post that went with the shared link was now running as a Facebook Sponsored Story, meaning that Facebook was being paid by Amazon to highlight Nick’s link to the giant tub of sex lube.
Other people start reporting that they’re seeing it, too. A fellow roller derby referee. A former employee of a magazine I still write for. My co-worker’s wife. They’re not seeing just once, but regularly. Said one friend: “It has shown up as one on mine every single time I log in.”
I’m partially amused that Amazon is paying for this, but I’m also sorta annoyed. Of course Facebook is happily selling me out to advertisers. That’s its business. That’s what you sign up for when make an account.
But in the context of a sponsored story, some of the context in which it was a joke is lost, and I’ve started to wonder how many people now see me as the pitchman for a 55-gallon drum of lube.
So, I am thinking that you really might want to rethink your link sharing on Facebook because you to could end up being a sex ube pitchman, or worse.
via Kottke.org
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About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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