This is just a funny one. Ironic, maybe – but undoubtedly deliberate in its execution. Last week, the search giant took out a couple of ads in some Canadian newspapers touting the benefit of buying ads on Google.

“You know who needs a haircut? People searching for a haircut,” it read. “Maybe that’s why ads on Google work.”

Of course, Google’s sly dig at traditional advertising as opposed to targeted advertising based on searches is made even funnier by the fact that they took out a full page ad to do so.

The print ad ran in last Thursday’s Globe and Mail, the Toronto-based newspaper that’s printed in six other cities and distributed nationally. It’s Canada’s largest-circulation national paper. It also ran in the Globe and Mail competitor, the National Post.

I guess this is Google saying that traditional advertising is necessary, if only to steer people towards online advertising. I can see this kind of technique catching on. Can you imagine a similar ad purchased by Facebook?

“You know who needs a haircut? People who ‘like’ Supercuts and Vidal Sassoon.”

[Steve Ladurantaye via Mashable]