I tend to look poorly on the site publishing the ad rather than on the company paying for it - presumably PutYourFeetUp didn't specifically ask to be included here, and I see it as CNN's job to avoid this kind of blunder.
Of course, this doesn't answer the bigger question of whether budgets would be better spent elsewhere. In my experience with Needish, banner ads aren't hugely successful, but perhaps the perfect banner could generate a lot of interest.
@biblinski
· 1 year ago
The other ad visible in the first screenshot wasn't a whole lot better. "Looking for a real travel deal?" with binoculars directed on the graphic for a story coming from faraway (for many readers of that page) British Columbia. Creepy tourism?
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
good point, I didn't notice that ad too ... probably increases the likelihood that this actually displayed on CNN
steve
· 1 year ago
haha..burn baby burn? ok I'm sry :P
Amy
· 1 year ago
Are you sure it's not just an unfortunate coincidence with a run of network ad? I've seen similar such things on a site I work on and the ads involved were not contextually targeted.
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
seems unlikely it's just coincidence, but I imagine it's possible
calinazaret
· 1 year ago
I'll never forget the time my husband forwarded me an article about a 12 year old boy who committed suicide over a video game and Gmail's adsense came up with "Find 12 year old boys on eBay!"
I WISH I'd taken a screen shot. I could kick myself.
psupachic
· 1 year ago
I once had a screenshot of a similiar occassion from a local news site. The article was about a kiddy porn case. The ad was "Want to see more pictures of your children?" (or something to that effect).
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
lol that is horrible, yet hilarious
Michael
· 1 year ago
Well, of course CNN didn't choose to put the ad there. It was a little bit of coincidence, but mostly an illustration of how dumb contextual ad programming is. The idea is that if it's an article about cars and gas mileage, an ad for a Hybrid vehicle shows, assuming that if the viewer is interested in cars and gas mileage you're catching them at just the right time with your car ad. Of course that same ad is likely to show when the headline reads "Youth Steals Mothers Car After Lighting Her on Fire with Gasoline" and the content bears out the details. Contextual ads are a great idea, unfortunately they are often poorly executed due to the limit of programming. You'd be better off knowing a human chose your ad to go along with the article. Of course, no one wants to have their ad shown in an article about severed feet.
Philip Cockrell
· 1 year ago
The advertiser in this case, if this is proven to be a contextual link, is as much at fault as the publication here. This is one of the main failings of the contextual advertising realm, advertisers - rather than focusing on the PEOPLE who will be interested - focus too much on the WORDS that are related to them. Such a strategy doesn't take into account the target market and is essentially sea trawling as opposed to spear fishing.
I caught another good blog the other day about this, and then wrote my own post here: http://blog.firstlightera.com/post/Editorial-vs... which aims to provide some solutions about how to avoid innappropriate advertising like this. To me, it all relies on the advertiser being smarter about their target market, and the publications need to begin to offer solutions that allow advertisers to focus more on their target market.
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
definitely ... that, I think, is why brand advertising like FM sells is a much better model for everyone involved
Philip Cockrell
· 1 year ago
GaaDang! here's the working link thats not cut off:
All Comments
Of course, this doesn't answer the bigger question of whether budgets would be better spent elsewhere. In my experience with Needish, banner ads aren't hugely successful, but perhaps the perfect banner could generate a lot of interest.
ok I'm sry :P
I WISH I'd taken a screen shot. I could kick myself.
Of course that same ad is likely to show when the headline reads "Youth Steals Mothers Car After Lighting Her on Fire with Gasoline" and the content bears out the details.
Contextual ads are a great idea, unfortunately they are often poorly executed due to the limit of programming. You'd be better off knowing a human chose your ad to go along with the article. Of course, no one wants to have their ad shown in an article about severed feet.
I caught another good blog the other day about this, and then wrote my own post here: http://blog.firstlightera.com/post/Editorial-vs... which aims to provide some solutions about how to avoid innappropriate advertising like this. To me, it all relies on the advertiser being smarter about their target market, and the publications need to begin to offer solutions that allow advertisers to focus more on their target market.
http://blog.firstlightera.com/post/Editorial-vs...
http://skitch.com/ancyru/nyda/smh-upskirting
http://foundbypat.blogspot.com/2008/06/terrible...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/...