Index.hu promotes a sponsored advertisement for soccer merchandise featuring Valentino Rossi, despite Rossi being a retired MotoGP motorcycle racer, not a soccer player. The advertisement, appearing on a soccer-related article on the Hungarian news portal, directs users to a purchase link.
The incongruous promotion raises questions about targeted advertising accuracy and brand alignment on Index.hu. While Rossi enjoys immense popularity, his association is with motorsports, not soccer. The advertisement’s placement suggests a potential miscategorization of audience interests or a broad-reach campaign disregarding specific content context. Index.hu utilizes Facebook tracking pixels and the Facebook Data Sharing API, indicating data collection for ad targeting purposes.
The advertisement includes a call to action: “I WILL BUY IT,” and links to a page with the query parameter “rossi.” A tracking pixel from Gemius is also embedded within the advertisement’s code. index.hu together encourages readers to follow their Facebook page, further integrating social media engagement with advertising efforts. The Facebook Javascript SDK is initialized with app ID ‘330827937019153’.
