Update: As several commenters point out, this isn’t an ad directly served by Facebook, but rather one from a third-party ad network that operates within the social network. Facebook also uses member photos in ads, but this particular mis-match is not directly their fault and could be a violation of TOS. Apologies for the confusion, the original article is below:

At times, Facebook ads can be clever and useful, for example, seeing that some of your friends are fans of a brand that’s advertising on your homepage. Other times, they can seem somewhat odd and irrelevant, if not incredibly ironic. However, the ad that one user recently came across is simply amusing, and perhaps a reminder to check in on a rather clandestine Facebook privacy setting.

The ad, first reported on the EndofWeb blog, is yet another Facebook promo for a dating website. The funny part is that the “hot single” featured in the ad is actually the user’s wife, who documented the story on her own blog. It’s worth pointing out that ads that utilize your friends aren’t new on Facebook, but it was only a matter of time until the site’s use of excess ad inventory on cheesy dating ads combined with this practice lead to such a bizarre combination.

As DownloadSquad points out, opting yourself out of appearing in these ads is a mere half dozen clicks away:

“All you have to do to prevent this is sign in to Facebook and click through to (get ready) -> Settings -> Privacy -> News Feed and Wall -> Facebook Ads -> Appearance in Facebook Ads and click “no one.”

The story brings me back to my usual feeling towards Facebook ads, which is that they clearly have the capability to do interesting and even useful things with advertising, but continue to turn to lowest common denominator ads much of the time. Meanwhile, by including you in ads by default, even though they’re only visible to friends, it seems like they’re taking a lot of liberties with your data and personal preferences.

On the whole, it probably generates extra clicks, but enough to make up for the cheapening of the brand that this type of situation creates? Tough to say.

Tags: advertising, facebook