19 October 2009
Contextual Disasters
Posted by robgraham under: Bad Marketing Practices; Targeting; Uncategorized; behavioral targeting .
Media buying and ad placement is a tough job.
Not only are media planners tasked with getting the right message in front of the right consumer at the right time, but they also need to do this with a number of blind spots — such as far-flung ad networks and a range of content diverse sites — that can get in the way of making a direct connection with consumers.
As a result, the periodic mismatch between page content and ad content can be truly cringe worthy or utterly hysterical, depending on your personal sensibilities.
During the past few years, I’ve taken to collecting these examples as a way of illustrating the flaws in the system as well as offering my students a good chuckle at the expense of advertisers who just had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As it says on one of my favorite de-motivational posters from the folks at Despair.com, “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
That said, like any process, hopefully we can learn from our mistakes and move on from there.
Submitted for your approval…
Protecting you brand is important. So is figuring out beforehand that there are plenty of ways that you can drag your own brand through the mud if not careful. I don’t feel so well. I wonder if it was something I ate…
Look, ‘Shark’ is a fine word but probably not something you want associated with your brand. It’s not as if any news story is going to have a headline line ” Retiring Philanthropist Shark Sets up Scholarship Fund to Educate Deserving Children”. Instead, you’re most likely going to end up dealing with more sensationalist headlines that get a little closer to the true nature of these lawyer wannabees.
No, Really…And a shiny dime to anybody who can explain the goal of the South Africa ad on this page. “It’s Possible” you’ll be devoured by a Great White? I’ll pass.
I’m guessing that some brand categories are a little harder to wrangle than others, that said, I think this can be improved on.
Cringe worthy at its finest…Can you say “Ewwwwww”?
“Hey Mom, I got my picture posted on the Web!”. Lucky you…
Once again, some keywords just aren’t needed. Just imagine what Iomega paid to have their brand associated thusly…
These are a few of my favorites but certainly not all of them. I’ll post another group soon.
Rob