Contextual Advertising Adds Color to Matching Smarts

We all know contextual advertising has it's ups and downs. Well, mostly downs. At least here on Adrants. We've had Do we really need killer values from supermarkets offered next to articles about Amish killings. We've had turpentine ads next to bits about a teen drinking turpentine to abort a pregnancy. We've had Anna Nicole Smith's dead son put up for sale. And we've had "card shark" credit card copy next to an article about a woman killed by a shark.

So it's refreshing to see, thanks to Adrants reader Sarah, contextual advertising progress to the point where it can now match not only contextual messaging but, in some sort of new fashion fixation, match colors...and the need for new hair. In this case, we have a story featuring a balding prisoner in orange prison garb and an ad seemingly sympathetic to the prisoner's hair-challenged status. So sympathetic that the model in the ad is also wearing an orange shirt as if to say, "I identify with you man. Don't worry. We have hair for you here on the outside."