Friday, June 19, 2009

Cognitive Dissonance

Google Ads doesn't understand me. I am a liberal. I am very liberal. I do not welcome ads for Newt's newsletter or any other crap Newt's peddling, like a film about Saint Ronnie. I hate the insurance companies and the way they've wormed their way into the medicare system. They have no role to play in Medicare except to suck money out of the system and into their pockets. They game the system and add another layer of bean counting bureaucrats on top of the one that managed quite nicely without their layer of rules and restrictions. I hate the private insurance companies and their lobbyists. Do you hear me google ads? We could work together or I could work against you. But I will not moderate my content to suit your right-wing paymasters. In fact, you're right wing content just makes me madder at what a crappy job the folks you advertise for have done running the country.

Let's take the ads for "Medicare Advantage." There is Medicare and there is the extra layer of fees and paperwork and pencil pushers known as "Medicare Advantage," some bastard child of the Insurance Industry and Medicare. We do not need a private insurance company meddling with Medicare. Medicare is the public option I'd like the rest of you to have. "Medicare Advantage" is some Frankenstein monster that the private insurance companies are trying to turn Medicare into. Not public at all. Publicly financed but disbursed to some monster corporation like United Healthcare which bankrupted me when they didn't like the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. Well fuck you, United Healthcare. I hope you shrivel and die.

15 comments:

themom said...

I've noticed that somehow, the Google ads seem to run in sync with the basic them of the blogs. It appears that you have pissed off the Medicare sector. Way to go!! Give it to them, with both barrels.

Joe said...

Great post. My ads seem to alternate between home security systems and New Orleans hotels.

Joe said...

Hey, on an unrelated note I had been wondering why you weren't posting, and I just realized that you had somehow slipped off my blog roll. I apologize. I got you back up there now.

Commander Zaius said...

I did Google ads for a short time and after a rant against McCain I ended up having a pro-McCain as on my site. From what I understand they pop up from key words in your posts.

For that reason I tend to shy away about posts concerning sexual products. I have a family friendly site after all.

Utah Savage said...

I called Newt a big fat doodoo head, with accompanying photoshopped pile of crap on Newts head, accompanied by ads for all things Newt. It was hilarious.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Medical professionals (unfortunately) also know how to game the Medicare system. It's (along with the demographic nightmare we're now entering) one of the reasons Medicare is going broke.

susan said...

The trick the insurance companies have pulled with Medicare is frightening people about the deductibles and co-insurance. I read somewhere that a person retiring at 65 would need $250k banked just to pay those expenses over the course of the remainder of a natural lifetime. Most hospitals and doctors accept Medicare reimbursement making the private ins. companies complete liars.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

good on you. you tell 'em!

giggles said...

You mean you don't pick the ads that go on your own blog?????!!!!!!!

Fran said...

Maybe test the theory.... do a post about axe murderers (fiction), and see if you get some strange cryptic ads for companies that sell axes, etc.

So how much does Google ads pay?
Is it worth it?
Did they ask you to modify content?

Just curious.

Nan said...

Could be worse. Over on The Daily Coyote when she first started doing ads she was getting a lot for varmint elimination systems -- so there'd be the total disconnect between the content of her posts (gorgeous photos of Charlie, stories about how she happened to rescue him when he was only 10 days old after his parents were killed, etc) and the commercial ads going down the side were all about trapping, poisoning, and other barbaric ideas. I'm not sure how she solved the problem -- it might have been by moving the blog away from Google (her url is now www.dailycoyote.net so I can't tell if it's still Google hosted or not). Think Beach Bum is right and ad content gets generated by key words in the posts.

I loved the Newt photo, btw.

Utah Savage said...

One day there appeared on my dashboard the word monitize. I've been sinking deeper into my little poor house here and decided to give it a whirl. I swear traffic dropped off. I think it offends some people and I can understand why. I'm a liberal blogger and the ads are so right wing. The ads are so far right it's a little scary. I've gone looking for a way to change the types of ads the post at my place, but the best I can do is post as far left as possible and watch to see what the ads do. And I guess they have me pegged as an old person with bipolar disorder who is on medicare and has a friend with cancer.

The day I posted "Newt is a big fat doodoo head" The ads were all about Newt's newsletter and a movie Newt made of Saint Ronnie's life. All the ads that day were about Newt this and Newt that. It was gruesomely funny, but I have lost traffic. I think the ads offend a lot of people.

People have to push that button for the ads to pay. They are linked and if no one visiting me wants information about how to get Newt's newsletter or needs Medicare Advantage plus a bunch of other unnecessary crap from a private insurance company, then I get nothing and still look like a whore.

Randal Graves said...

That's what you get for selling out to The Man. Expect an ad for the NRA within the next week.

Life As I Know It Now said...

Well I can tell you I noticed right away when you got the ads but I figured you needed the money. I haven't been by because I am so busy with summer semester classes--they are killing me with a paper a week minimum and sometimes even more than that. I can't wait for this semester to be over!!!

susan said...

Have you considered self publishing a book through Lulu or one of the other outlets? Some short stories, articles and poetry from your blog could be shaped into a fine little book but I wouldn't recommend doing that with your novel because I've heard Lulu for one can be proprietary about the work they've published. You'd get exposure but would still be free to sign a contract with a real world publisher when the novel's done. Another advantage would be people able to buy your work and you wouldn't have to deal with google. I'd definitely buy one.