TV-related tweets may attract ads with new Twitter campaign

A new advertising method from Twitter will watch for tweets from you about certain TV shows and allow those shows' advertisers to target you. Of course, you can always ignore their tweets the way you ignored their commercials.

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The new way to target ads was described in a post on the Twitter advertising blog Thursday. It works like this: Suppose a user were watching a sitcom and tweeted about it. And suppose that during one of the commercial breaks, Macy's had an ad promoting a spring sale. Twitter's tool would alert Macy's that this user had been watching, and Macy's can choose to follow up with something like the following:

"@TVwatcher: Did you enjoy the episode? You know that the characters do all their shopping at #Macy's, right? Follow this link for a 15% off coupon..."

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCBP leaders cut out of Trump ad buy decision

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

Or something like that. It's a bit creepy, but the fact is that tweeting publicly, like searching on the Internet or buying something with a credit card, already exposes you to this kind of directed advertising.

The Twitter TV ad targeting is only rolling out in beta form for a few U.S. partners at first, but don't be surprised if you start seeing suspiciously accurate ads in your Twitter stream later this summer. Twitter explains the effort in the video here:

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.