A quick check of my Facebook account this afternoon got me wondering about advertising rules here in the UK, and how indirect one can be about gathering information in Facebook feeds.

First of all, where did it pick up the information from? In my profile, I tell them my date of birth (without year), my school and city networks, my hometown, and that I'm married. Obviously, it's picked up somewhere that I'm female and over the age of 18, but I wonder where they set the threshold for birth control questionnaires? 16? 18? 25? The people who have set this sponsored poll have either poorly targeted their audience or Beacon delves a bit deeper into Facebook profiles than one had previously thought, making assumptions on age, gender (obviously) and marital status.

In an October 2004 article, the Committees of Advertising Practice said "Although they can be advertised to the medical and allied professions, prescription-only medicines (POMs) quite sensibly should not be advertised to the public. Not only does the CAP Code forbid POMs being advertised in this way but medicines legislation also prohibits any ad to the general public that is likely to lead to the use of a POM." Since birth control in this country (and many others around the world, for that matter) is left largely to medical professionals prescribing them to women, it would seem as though this information-gathering for a birth control pill could be falling foul of those standards.
If it's just a study, why is there an option for advertising? Unlike the United States, the UK seems to have quite strict controls over prescription medication advertising, and I've never seen a birth control ad in the years that I've lived over here.
It seems that Sponsored Polls' own limitations are to blame. Apparently, if you choose to target by location, you can't target by interest, gender or age.
I've signed up to make a new sponsored poll, and these are the options I get:

I can then choose from the drop-down list, but the other options in the list become unavailable after I type in that I only want to target people who watch the Office. This seems a bit strange to me - mainly because the UK version of The Office (and correct me if I'm wrong here), is much more popular and well-known than the American version of The Office in the UK and vice versa. I'd be hesitant in paying money for a "Are Pam and Jim Meant for Each Other" market research poll if I were targeting the world; it's likely that the questions won't register for fans of the original UK version.

The conclusion? Poor targeting by US-based advertisers who were restricted in the options they could choose for their poll. The message? Sponsored polls for market research are a bad idea, even if they're relatively cheap and easy to set up. You're never going to get meaningful results when you can't split out simple segments like age and gender in the same poll.
Another case of questionable marketing, and the resounding answer: mind your own business.