Personally, we believe that society - youth + adults - would be better if Facebook and other privacy-consuming business models were somehow uninvented. “The Anxious Generation” book by Jonathan Haidt is decidely sobering. Fragmentation of news feeds too. Plain bad for society, in our personal view.
@anon52083843, kudos on careful mindset to data-invading technology platforms. We concur. We happily pay for multiple news services.
Are those ads shown in the US? I very rarely watch any commercial TV when I’m in the UK and don’t know if there are any TV ads shown there. I think it’s THS’s second biggest market. I don’t know of anyone in my friendship and family circle who has seen a THS ad. Thanks
Yes, I agree about social media.
I pay for seven news subscriptions, but unfortunately those of us who pay form only a fraction of what advertising dollars used to provide.
Oh, it’s everywhere. Not pleasantly though as the ads have changed from
Stay somewhere beautiful taking care of great pets" to “free airbnb holiday”
The effects are showing for both home owners and house sitters.
@anon52083843 Today I received The Trusted Times email. I don’t think I would be considered a prude by those who know me but using sexual innuendo for marketing TrustedHousesitters just didn’t sit well with me. For those who may not receive it, or haven’t seen it for some reason, I’ll add a link here.
There’s a discussion taking place on this gem of tackiness on the “Same community. Higher standards” post. Swipe right. Maybe we need a separate post to express our total joy at the direction in which “the teams” are taking the site
@anon56612445 Yes, I’m seeing the comments now. However, I think your reference to the title of Jenny’s post is so on point. 
This marketing reminds me of the days when cars were sold by draping a blonde with big cleavage in an evening gown over the hood of a car. I thought we’d come a long way since those days but this current marketing company proves otherwise.
Yeah “oh 
” was my thought
For what it’s worth, we don’t believe that we’ve ever seen a single advert from THS. Other than from the FB account of our late dog (really 
) that we created to use infrequently to sell possessions. Poor FB account does not have any friends 
.
Perhaps THS should consider cancelling its advertising budget and instead elevate referral incentives? Suspect THS members may be better, and more honestly, able to sell its services than creative marketing wonks.
That’s beyond ickky @Snowbird - their marketing department needs firing! (Well they now have a NYC agency so they need to go). It’s toe curling. #marketingmadness
Yes, I am in the US, but just to be clear, I only watch streaming services, not regularly broadcast television. I watch some streaming services like Netflix and Apple, without ads interupting, but I watch a lot with ads, and some like Apple that have ads at the beginning of shows. These ads may be targetting to users based on browsing history, so I get a lot of THS ads, also rover, and general stuff about pets, also other interests and sometimes I get ads because I randomly looked something on the net.
Hi everyone,
I wanted to pop on and confirm that I’ve made the team aware of this thread, and your feedback, both here and in the Same Community. Higher Standards. update that I posted.
As with all Forum feedback, I can’t promise anything, but if I do hear anything back from the team then I’ll be happy to share it.
Jenny
@GotYourBack they have also cut affiliate discount codes which makes it dishonest to promote to people when a referral code is worth more. 15% vs 25%. And then the creative briefs are.so bizarre a lot of affiliates dont want to participate in the marketing anyway. Its all quite bizarre.
@Brightlight, that’s curious and surprising insight. Given private equity ownership then we’d have guessed that THS would seek to aggressively grow membership. Perhaps they’d prefer to increase margins on stable membership? 
Oh well, beyond our pay grade 
@Jenny, cheering on your efforts to positively engage with THS team. Irrespective of content appropriateness then we’re surprised at seeming elevated THS legal risk appetite.
We believe that majority of THS members are based in the US, a highly litigious jurisdiction. It does not take much imagination to see a bad actor defendant using recent THS marketing videos as evidence to justify fictional expectations and/or inappropriate conduct. Hopefully very rare but, as evidenced on THS Forum threads, some housesits are problematic. Given THS marketing, it seems credible that the number of those outliner problem housesit cases may increase.
@GotYourBack You would think that as THS uses a New York advertising agency, they would have been very aware of this possible legal risk yet have gone ahead with it. I wonder just how successful they think it has been.
Just watched video advert. Absolutely vile and besides being revolting, confusing. As a pet owner I’d be perplexed about what was being advertised if I wasn’t already a member. Not cute. Demeaning to sitters and owners alike.