Google Ad Fail
Posted by Joseph Thornley on January 15th, 2009
Thankfully, everyone on the US Airways flight that crash landed in the Hudson River today was safe.
But clearly Google’s ad placement algorithm needs some work. Look in the bottom of this video from an eyewitness. Google’s advertising algorithm thinks this would be a good time to offer me “US Airline Ticket Deals.”
No thank you. Not today.
UPDATE:
CT Moore sent me a similar image of inappropriate display advertising on an image of a damaged Qantas aircraft.
January 15th, 2009 » 6:59 pm
Oh dear. That’s…unfortunate ad placement.
January 15th, 2009 » 8:45 pm
That’s just wrong on so many levels. You’d think they’d have people for that… Oh right, they laid them off.
January 16th, 2009 » 11:09 am
unfortunately there is no accounting for context with online media… but isn’t that what web 3.0 or the semantic web promises? any time now…
January 18th, 2009 » 8:01 am
[...] his blog forever, I finally got to meet Joseph Thornley a few weeks ago. I loved his post about US Airways flight that crash landed in the Hudson River a few days ago. With everyone else banging on about how [...]
January 19th, 2009 » 5:04 pm
Sherrilynne, I’m glad you liked the post about the failure of Google’s ad placement algorithm. I hesitated to post it because I was worried that others might consider it a trivialization of a serious situation (the air crash.) But given that everyone emerged safe from the crash, I took a chance.
This comment was originally posted on http://strivepr.com/)“>Strive Notes
January 20th, 2009 » 12:10 pm
@Joseph Thornley, I think you made a good call…
This comment was originally posted on http://strivepr.com/)“>Strive Notes
January 20th, 2009 » 1:05 pm
This isn’t the first time airline ticket deals have been advertised alongside a plane crash. Back in July, Google served up “Fly to Australia Cheap” ads alongside a story in an Aussie paper about a Quantas emergency landing.
And on a MSM sidenote, I was watching a documentary on Global this past weekend about how Walmart engages in union busting practices, but Walmart ads ran during the commercial break.
January 20th, 2009 » 3:01 pm
Great catch CT. I’m going to update my post with the image you sent to me.
January 17th, 2010 » 3:38 pm
[...] of those tiny text ads that always seem to know what you’re talking about (or at least fail hilariously). My point is, the average tech-friendly consumer is bored by advertising. Getting attention used [...]