Google has blocked the serving of AdWords contextual (or AdSense) display ads in the European market of US lingerie company Pampered Passions because the company has deemed the ads as having adult content.
The Pampered Passions campaign invites men to buy lingerie for their loved ones for Christmas, but the tone and skin shown in the ads were deemed to risque for Google.
Google’s representative stated : “The ad has been disapproved for adult content. Only family safe images will be approved. Images which are classified as non-family safe or adult content are disapproved and will not run. Your image contains nudity and mature themes.”
Trying to soak up all of the publicity they can after the ban, Pampered Passions issued this statement in a press release:
“Google’s refusal to show ads that are completely acceptable to UK audiences on their network is turning out to be an increasingly frequent occurrence. Google are an American company and while they might seem to be really ‘cool’ and ‘liberal’ in the USA, their policies do seem rather conservative for European consumers. An outright ban on ads no ruder than a Christmas cracker joke & featuring less flesh than a swimwear catalogue seems pretty ‘uncool’ to us”
If anyone has a image capture of the ad, please send it to me at lorenmichaelbaker AT gmail.com, I’d like to see how adult the ad was and whether this sexy display ad campaign was uploaded for the goal of being banned and the press it would receive. Thanks!
