<story><title>Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/26/facebook-ads-combat-gear-rightwing-users</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jabroni_salad</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not completely sure this is just political people. Up until recently I only got ads for kickstarter doodads and airtable, but then it suddenly switched to gun stuff. I don&amp;#x27;t browse any firearm or political communities, haven&amp;#x27;t bought stuff, don&amp;#x27;t watch firearm youtube videos, haven&amp;#x27;t even been window shopping.&lt;p&gt;There were 5 million new gun owners last year. I think the ad networks just view it as a highly probable click since so many people are suddenly showing interest in firearms that weren&amp;#x27;t before. Especially for people in my demo&amp;#x2F;geo... I am white and rural.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>opwieurposiu</author><text>When I was working in the machine shop business around 2016 another shop owner called our shop asking if we had any work to sub out.  I was surprised because his shop was running at max capacity the year before,  making gun parts.  Apparently when a republican becomes president the gun parts market dries up; when a democrat wins, the market booms.&lt;p&gt;I think the arms retailers are having a boom right now and have plenty of money for ads.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/26/facebook-ads-combat-gear-rightwing-users</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jabroni_salad</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not completely sure this is just political people. Up until recently I only got ads for kickstarter doodads and airtable, but then it suddenly switched to gun stuff. I don&amp;#x27;t browse any firearm or political communities, haven&amp;#x27;t bought stuff, don&amp;#x27;t watch firearm youtube videos, haven&amp;#x27;t even been window shopping.&lt;p&gt;There were 5 million new gun owners last year. I think the ad networks just view it as a highly probable click since so many people are suddenly showing interest in firearms that weren&amp;#x27;t before. Especially for people in my demo&amp;#x2F;geo... I am white and rural.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bonestamp2</author><text>There are a lot of variables that go into those ad network decisions. Are you in a red state or a localized area where guns are particularly popular? Are you friends likely to buy guns? Do you buy other crossover product categories that gun owners also tend to purchase (ex. certain survival or camping gear)? Lastly, price per bid and volume... If nobody else is targeting you, or not paying enough to target you, the untargeted ads might make their way to your feed if they&amp;#x27;re bidding high enough or if facebook is simply trying to fulfill their ad volume.</text></comment>