I was listening to a recent episode of the Adam Carolla podcast that I downloaded in the Overcast app. In the middle of his show there is a block of pre-recorded commercials.
I live in North Carolina.
And I was surprised to hear an ad for my local amusement park... Carowinds.
It got me thinking... this is a podcast that is accessible across the world. So it seems weird that a highly local business would pay for ads that only apply to a targeted region.
Then I thought further... does Overcast know my IP address and then do certain podcasts create multiple versions of MP3 files with different ads to serve to people in different locations?
It's technically possible... I've just never heard of it.
Does anyone have any further info on this?
I'm not a privacy nut so this practice doesn't bother me. And it's certainly possible that Carowinds could have bought an ad on a nationwide and worldwide podcast even though they would only attract customers in a couple states.
But it does make me curious if you would get different ads if you downloaded his podcast from another location.
It's the Adam Carolla podcast... the episode dated July 10... at minute 52:47.
Could someone from another area download this episode and see if they get the same ad?
Also... Carowinds themselves probably wouldn't buy the ads... their parent company, Cedar Fair, would.
But here's the funny part... Cedar Fair owns 13 theme parks across the US and Canada.
And if you think about it... a podcast listener in the Midwest would be better served by an ad for Cedar Point or Kings Island, each in Ohio.
So again... it seems weird that this one theme park in the Southeast gets national and worldwide exposure on one of the biggest podcasts.
Unless... there are region-specific versions of podcast episodes.
EDIT:
False alarm.
I just listened to this episode directly from his website. There is a Carowinds ad in it... but it's a different ad. So there are two different MP3 files for this episode. Weird.
It looks like Carowinds (or Cedar Fair) did purchase the ad on the Adam Carolla show.
But I'd still be curious to know if the ad is in a download from another location... just to be sure.
I live in North Carolina.
And I was surprised to hear an ad for my local amusement park... Carowinds.
It got me thinking... this is a podcast that is accessible across the world. So it seems weird that a highly local business would pay for ads that only apply to a targeted region.
Then I thought further... does Overcast know my IP address and then do certain podcasts create multiple versions of MP3 files with different ads to serve to people in different locations?
It's technically possible... I've just never heard of it.
Does anyone have any further info on this?
I'm not a privacy nut so this practice doesn't bother me. And it's certainly possible that Carowinds could have bought an ad on a nationwide and worldwide podcast even though they would only attract customers in a couple states.
But it does make me curious if you would get different ads if you downloaded his podcast from another location.
It's the Adam Carolla podcast... the episode dated July 10... at minute 52:47.
Could someone from another area download this episode and see if they get the same ad?
Also... Carowinds themselves probably wouldn't buy the ads... their parent company, Cedar Fair, would.
But here's the funny part... Cedar Fair owns 13 theme parks across the US and Canada.
And if you think about it... a podcast listener in the Midwest would be better served by an ad for Cedar Point or Kings Island, each in Ohio.
So again... it seems weird that this one theme park in the Southeast gets national and worldwide exposure on one of the biggest podcasts.
Unless... there are region-specific versions of podcast episodes.
EDIT:
False alarm.
I just listened to this episode directly from his website. There is a Carowinds ad in it... but it's a different ad. So there are two different MP3 files for this episode. Weird.
It looks like Carowinds (or Cedar Fair) did purchase the ad on the Adam Carolla show.
But I'd still be curious to know if the ad is in a download from another location... just to be sure.
Last edited: