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Friend of SFist Daniel alerted us to this odd occurrence on a couple of websites yesterday, including Pirate Cat Radio and some "geeky, guy gadget" site, of which he couldn't remember the name. Neither site is the type to support such a bigoted proposition, but upon perusing Pirate Cat's site last night, the ad was still showing up at the bottom of their Listen page.
Google's AdSense description promises ads that are "relevant to your audience and your site content—ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful." (Sure, "protecting marriage" is a big concern of Pirate Cat listeners.) The ad is no longer showing up on Pirate Cat's site today, so apparently the "error" has been fixed.
Thanks to our commenters for the great info! Here's how to block unwanted ads, info via wchase via Scott Beale. Ggarrett notified us of a great discussion of this very circumstance. Someone within the aforementioned discussion sent a complaint to Google about these ads, and they were taken off the site within thirty minutes.
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Well, luckily most of us have trained our eyes for sites we visit often so that we totally ignore ads that aren't in the midst of the content we care about. :)
Thank dog for Adblock. I can't believe people still surf without it.
Even though I had 4 consecutive posts entitled "vote no on 8" on my blog, I had "Vote yes on and protect marriage" google adsense pop up on my blog. I was a bit peeved, but I actually thought they looked silly next to a whole page worth explaining how their ads were false and misleading.
I saw those banners all OVER the net yesterday. Various techy blogs, mostly. Unfortunate, for sure.
I had a similar add on my myspace- next to the big ID Lube add and a dude from Gay.com- Crazy
I figured it out. The Yes on * ads were on Pirate Cat Radio. Pirates are the mascot of Pastafarianism, a nonsense religion. Religion + nonsense = Prop 8.
What happened is that the "Yes on 8" people (read: sneaky bastards) bought Google AdWords for "No on 8". Here's information from Google on how to block unwanted ads:
http://tr.im/adsense
Credit goes to Scott Beale of Laughing Squid for the info.
I also figured that since no one actually reads my blog, no harm done.
But damn, that's sneaky.
Well...the ad is still there!...so bad
Loud applause for the Google founders for giving thousands of bucks to the No on 8 campaign.
I had the same problem with those stupid ads:
http://tinyurl.com/5oywdo
as did others:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=416c8056c5effc21
Everyone buys for and against what they're selling (buying up their competitors keywords). I think they double served though, which is definitely frowned upon. Make sure you click on the ads though, as they're paying per click and the site still gets paid whether you agree with the message or not.
I've seen a half-dozen or so posts on different blogs in the last day or two saying something like "Sorry about the Yes On 8 ads, we've already contacted google about blocking them".
vote yes on prop 8
What I find intensely amusing is the fact that the Yes on 8 people have tried to intimidate companies who have donated to No on 8 into giving matching amounts to them or face "exposure" or whatever, yet they are buying ad space from Google.
Not that they ever were credible in the first place, but this is too funny...