If it is a coincidence, it is a scary one for sure. I never click on ads but I see them when I scroll the Reddit/Twitter apps. Those are the two main apps where I spend time mindlessly scrolling. I don't have Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Snapchat, Tiktok, ...
The usual ads I see on reddit are technical ads (programming tools or services), cryptocurrency or cyber security stuff.
I am absolutely sure that I've never seen the ad before. Twitter is only cyber security stuff since that's the only topic I follow and I don't have fitness related stuff on reddit.
I don't usually talk about shoes but when I saw these horrendous shoes, I had to troll him a little bit.
Anyway, I didn't consider the possibility of a coincidence so thanks. It could also be location tracking if he was connected on the reddit app. There was another colleague who liked these ugly shoes so maybe the two of them nearby and location tracking could result in this ad. I hope it is something like that.
Had to look them up and you are correct. Will take a look at ads now.
Perhaps you are in some advertising group with your friend and see it because he bought them. This could have been associated by him being a contact. Could also be another app that has access to your contact list that shares ad agencies with reddit.
That's more likely what happened and not the microphone. I am kinda relieved by that so thanks. I overreacted.
I would guess that Nike just advertises broadly so that there doesn't need to be a trigger. Would fit right into the advertising of Advanced Publications and this may have been a coincidence. Perhaps send any messages containing it? Or it is just a frequency illusion. Do you ever look at ads? Are you sure you haven't ever seen the ad before? Why did your colleague buy the shoes? And who in the world talks about shoes anyway?