PR Newser had a post on Friday about when Google ads do funny things. Their example is of a headline saying, “I pissed off a PR spammer today” and a contextual ad for Cision PR software being served up. Not exactly what Cision had in mind.
I’m glad they posted that as I have been meaning to write one for a while. The two worst examples I’ve seen of contextual advertising that has gone way out of context have been tied to tragic situations. The first was when Delta Airlines last suffered a plane crash and ads were being served up for discount tickets on the airline. Most definitely not what folks reading those news stories were looking for. And this image was the AP story on MSNBC when Steve McNair was shot – with the prominent display ad for Nair hair waxing.
I’ll have to make a better effort to watch for these, and hopefully find some outside of tragedies to post again soon.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Content publishers can also enter into advertising contracts with Adobe for additional revenue streams. Contextual
February 24th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Yes, relevant contextual advertising is indeed something we’ve been preaching for years, way before this concept was fashionable. Contextual Advertising