METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING ADS DIRECTED TO PERSONAS HAVING ASSOCIATED CHARACTERISTICS

A system and method for directing self-targeted advertising to users who are interested in receiving it. A user creates or adopts one or more personas that define a number of characteristics that the user has or wants to be associated with. The characteristics of the personas can be used by advertisers to define members of a target audience. Each persona included in a target audience has an address or identifier to which ads are sent. In one embodiment, users are shown a user interface screen with icons representing a number of brands. The user provides input that indicates whether they have different opinions of the brands. Based on the input received, an estimate is made of the likelihood that the user has a number of characteristics. The user can arrange the icons representing the brands on the user interface screen to indicate if the user likes or dislikes the brand.