MySpace Targets Ad to Print Sibling

Online media giant MySpace is using a print newspaper ad to push its new hyper-targeting capabilities. Can you guess which paper has a half-page ad touting “HyperTargeting by MySpace” today? That’s right, The Wall Street Journal, another subsidiary of the ever-expanding News Corp..

The ad even subtly promotes another News Corp property, Fox’s Family Guy.

“HyperTargeting, the new advertising solution available only through MySpace allows marketers to tap into the largest global social network like never before,” reads the ad.

Superimposed over a park full of people are bubbles featuring declarations like, “I love hip hop,” “I love hybrids,” and “I love Family Guy.”

The ad for the “World’s Largest Ad Targeting Platform” also claims, “HyperTargeting helps you to: Target self-expressed user interests and passions/Connect with your desired audience on a massive scale/Achieve significant performance increases vs. traditional targeting campaigns.”

What many of us see today on MySpace, however, is anything but hyper-targeted. Visiting the site just now, I was served two generic lead gen ads. One was for the ubiquitous “Crush Calculator,” urging me to “Calculate the exact name of [my] perfect lover,” despite the fact that my MySpace profile lists me as married. Crush Calculator, a lead generator for the official-sounding mobile entertainment firm National Telephone Advisory, lures users to subscribe to paid cell phone content like predictions.

Another ad seen on my profile page was for a credit report service PrivacyMatters.com.

By the way, MySpace HyperTargeting has 43 friends. I suppose MySpace’s ad platform will put them in the “I love hypertargeting” audience category.