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Comment by LSCanaan | Hacker News Reader

I can relate and you won't believe it. Last Sunday I was at a cocktail bar and while checking the menu with a friend I had the exact same short conversation about Campari, prompted by wanting to know what's in a Negroni.

There's a phenomenon that explains this kind of illusion as a psychological effect, called the Baader-Meinhof complex. Coincidentally later that night we mentioned it too. It's basically a trick our brains play on us partly explained by the psychological processing of information, selective attention and confirmation bias.

Or maybe Facebook is spying on me, on you, and Hacker News too.

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To what extent does Facebook allow its advertising clients to target users based on location? Down to the level of individual buildings (e.g. a bar)?

Is it possible that Campari could be running a campaign targeting people who recently visited bars that serve Campari? Or even simply people who recently visited a bar?

They can target based on "Behaviours", so, maybe? https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/ad-targetin...

EDIT: The "Behaviour" targets can even drill down to specific types of alcohol beverages (beer, wine, other). Not sure that means specifically having visited a bar.

if any of your friends liked the wine or visited a site and the vendor had a look-a-like audience selected.

or maybe it uses voice recognition to target users "interests"

This makes the most sense to me. Also something along the lines of "people who visit this place search for the phrase 'campari' so it must be a thing here."

I definitely seem to be served ads based on recent locations.

Here's an alternative theory: Campari is actively campaigning via multiple channels.

While difficult to prove or test, it's possible that there is both a facebook ad campaign as well as some real-world campaign going on at the same time. Real-world being either forms of visual advertising that 'primed' you to also talk about it, or perhaps (attractive) people hired to buy/pitch Campari in bars that you may have overheard. Apparently that's a thing.

Basically, Baader-Meinhof strikes me as something that any advertiser who knows about it would actively use to improve their advertising.

Facebook is spying on your though. If you have the facebook app installed, try leaving it next to a spanish radio station for a number of hours. Supposedly you'll start seeing spanish ads pop up after a while.

Did you try this? If that's the case then would be a great post!

Saw it in a different HN comment:)

I do love a Negroni. Super simple to make at home as well, just make sure you don't go for more than three.

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