The Capybara Conundrum

An Investigative Look at a Targeted Ad

I’ve been getting a lot of ads for capybara stuff lately. T-shirts. Lamps. Turns out, if you name it, you can find a capybara on it thanks to the wonders of modern technology. Are capybaras the new trendy thing as decided by the powers-that-be in the depth of the internet?

The backstory to this semi-rant: I work in internet marketing so I often spend a little too much time thinking about marketing efforts. And I recently got an ad for a pink capybara plushie. 

Fun related fact: you get targeted ads based on your social circle. So whenever you get an ad that seems out of left field for you, it’s probably because of one of your friends or family members. 

So someone in my social circle is on a capybara kick. 

But also, I listened to the capybara episode of Ologies like 3 months ago, so maybe it’s me. The Internet can be that creepy. 

Anyway here’s the ad:

This was the first I ad that I got for this thing, and I have a lot of questions.

First: WHY IS IT JUST THE FOOT?!

It’s so weird! How am I supposed to know what this is? Is this clickbait? Am I being AB tested? Are some people getting served the face first and they’re collecting data on the click-through rate to see which version of the ad is more successful? (The answer is probably yes.)

I know they’re trying to confuse me to get me to click and see what it is, but the longer I look at it the weirder it gets. This is announcing that they’re back in stock. That means they went out of stock. 

I’m supposed to believe this? That 12000+ people wanted whatever is attached to this tiny pink foot? It’s that or the company is lying to me. Both seem believable honestly at this point.  

12,000 people isn’t that many when you consider the size of the global population. But also this is clearly a marketing tactic to induce a scarcity mindset to get me to buy this pink capybara. 

Over 12,000 pink capybaras. That means there are more than enough of these capybara plushies to fill every seat in the brand-new CPKC stadium.

Honestly, no lesson here this week. Just more proof that we live in a wild, weird world.

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Shout out to Ben McBee Photography for the photo!