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I’ve had enough.

Nearly every day I see an ad for CiCi’s pizza buffet. Their tagline is “Almost too good to be true!” Almost? I beg to differ, CiCi’s.

Here’s the problem: CiCi’s runs national TV commercials almost nonstop. The problem? They don’t have a location within HUNDREDS OF MILES of where I live! I’m constantly being targeted by a company that has no chance of selling to me. Check out the map of locations:

Yeah, see those tiny, desolated states to the north of Pennsylvania, and everything west of New Mexico? Who cares about them? Flyover states, right?

Just for the hell of it, I put in my zip code in the CiCi’s location finder. Here’s my result:

Why Do I Hate Their Ads?

I took a break from my white-hot hatred of CiCi’s, and took a step back. I asked myself: why am I so angry? More importantly, I asked myself: Are you really asking for targeted ads?

In this case, I think I am. I mean, when I see ads for restaurant chains that have nearby locations, I hardly even notice them. But when I do, I file it away in the reference section in the back of my mind. There’s actual value there: when I need a place to go, I’ll think back to the commercials I’ve seen and will use that information to make a choice.

And maybe that’s the part that makes me so angry when I see a CiCi’s ad: the ad has absolutely zero value to me. In fact, it has less than zero value.

When Is An Ad Not An Ad

When we look at the question of value, the lines between advertising and resources begin to blur. Which of these are ads, and which are resources:

• A menu from a restaurant that delivers to your home
• Coupons in the Sunday newspaper for things you already buy
• A listing of local businesses in a tourist guide in a hotel lobby on your vacation
• A twitter message linking to a blog post on something you’re interested

To me, each of these things can be incredibly valuable. I know they’re basically ads, but I don’t perceive them that way.

Would You Be Okay With Targeted Ads?

Before this post, my knee-jerk reaction would be “Hell no!” But then I asked myself the following questions:

• If you could give your zip code, age, gender, and a few interests to your cable company (without giving your name, address, etc), and in return, you’d never have to watch another CiCi’s ad or ad for baby diapers, would you do it?
• Would you do the same thing online?
• If you never saw another irrelevant contextual ad on a blog, but instead saw adsense ads that actually link to things you’re interested in, would you click them?

To me, the answer is yes. In fact, when I run for president, my first act will be to make a law prohibiting any TV commercial from being played more than twice in a 24 hour period. Additionally, a commercial may run up to 10 times, but after that, it must be taken away. So yeah, I’ve been giving this some thought.

And to me, I’d rather have relevant advertisements than just random junk. Because at that point an ad can become a resource. (And yes, I did say “can”)

I know not everyone agrees with me, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just don’t defend CiCi’s. Their actions are simply indefensible.

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