Anyone who has been immersed in the world of digital advertising for their career understand that we are in a time where everyone is highly targetable and data is the golden currency. I jokingly used to tell people who asked what I do for work that "I follow you around the internet and put ads in front of you wherever you go” which isn’t that far from the truth…

But I have to say that 2024 was the year where I hated being in the world of advertising or being a victim of it. Once I received my diagnosis, it seemed like the word “cancer” followed me everywhere I went either in books, movies, TV shows, but even more prevalent in the ads I was seeing across television and streaming. It seemed like everywhere I scrolled I was being slammed with the latest cancer drug of choice, but even worse would be the thousands of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital ads that would parade across my screen no matter where I clicked and I had to face them down like Jon Snow

Now I can’t blame advertising for knowing who I am as a user. It doesn’t help that everyone in my household has been Googling cancer related searches for the last 9 months so we can’t really be surprised of the end results. I’m looking for a giant opt-out button on the words cancer, colon, rectum for about the next 5-10 years if possible. I’ll just silently whisper boobs, Reese’s PB cups (come on Vinny Rinaldi, I’m your key demographic), and books into my iPhone like Happy Gilmore and hope for better advertising content

At least Twitter hasn’t been blasting me with any butt cancer related posts, just the usual Nazi conspiracies, bigotry, and general hatred to our fellow man which you know I love, especially since I’ve been walking with a cane lately and are now firmly in my grumpy ass old man era at home or my Kramer pimp era around NYC…