We all deal with online ads. Few of us would say that we want them; almost none of us would say that we like them. But, what if ads could make us cool?

I've mentioned my old Saab once or twice. It's actually a pretty special Saab, a 1991 limited edition 900 convertible in Monte Carlo Yellow. Only 300 were made, and I hear there's only like 60 left running. If I had only fifty bucks, and a choice between a wax job for the Saab and a nice lunch with my GF, I'd pick her, but it would be close.

When I prowl around on SaabNet, the ads I see are for nice Saab things, some of which I'd really like to buy if I wasn't trying to keep the car original. Those ads tell me about computer chips that'll add 30 horses to my engine's output, or viable replacements for the Saab dashboards that always crack after a few years. I can tell other Saab nuts who don't prowl around SaabNet about those products, and that makes me cool, doesn't it? Well, whatever, I think it does

Coolness is attainable because those ads are iron-clad relevant. Nobody on SaabNet resents ads about Saabs. I'd sure resent a minivan ad, though. And, heaven forbid, an ad that tried to sell me a Lexus would be blasphemous.

Advertisers try hard to put their ads in front of receptive people, of course, with varying levels of success. One of the places they're least successful is next to so-called user-generated content, like blog posts and tweets. This is because such content is created by people like us, so they don't know in advance what the content will say. I could blog about how I love cars but hate Lexuses (Lexi?), but how would they know, given just the keyword "Lexus", whether it's a good idea to advertise next to that post or not?

As it turns out, they don't know, and that's one thing using OpenAmplify can cure. But let's go a little further: if advertisers could reliably show me ads about products that they know I like, then I could pass on the insights to my friends, and actually gain cred. I'd be better informed; the thought leader; cool.

This also means, by the way, that using OpenAmplify can make advertisers cool. Major brands, please take note :-)