Cablevision Ad on Pirated OSCARS Webcast

March 8th, 2010

The web is a funny place. While Cablevision and ABC were sparring over carriage rates, Cablevision viewers were prevented from watching the OSCARS, or at least the first 20 mins until it was finally aired.

So while users flocked to the web for alternatives, I coudln’t help but laugh at the irony of this well placed ad. Justin.TV may have been streaming pirated content, but the ad definitely makes you chuckle.
Oscar Irony on Pirated Content

Erectile Ad Dysfunction

February 4th, 2010

Is this contextually targeted based on alternative spellings of “Cox”?

How else might you spell Cox?

$9 Muff Diving?

February 2nd, 2010

Someone will be fired for this one. I’m guessing its the junior copywriter that pulled a fast one on his boss, but not on the ever-peering eyes of Twitterville.

From the Spirit Airlines homepage:

$9 Muff Diving? Seems like a pretty cheap deal!

CEO Needs a Wax?

February 1st, 2010

Spotted on ScribeMedia.org:

Either David Wadler, CEO of Twistage, has a sexy little secret, or Blip.TV needs to work on their contextual targeting. This should have been an easy, B2B layup for a contextual overlay. Doesn’t anyone want to reach the online video B2B market?

Time for Twistage's Dave Wadler to clean up for bikini season already?

Here’s the whole interview….

Just Checking…

January 23rd, 2010

Does Lysol know that they’ve got auto-play, audio on video ads with no mute or pause button on a site that publishes a list of cracked, patched and otherwise copyright protected software? Does Adotube know they are serving it?

Oddly, the inventory is alledgedly protected by Mpire, whose website claims that their technology offers “Publisher accountability ensures advertisers’ messages are being delivered to the right sites.” I’m not sure this is the type of inventory - or ad experience - their advertisers have in mind. Maybe Lysol will switch to using DoubleVerify? This raises the question - Who is checking all of the inventory that the verification / authentication / brand protection software claim to protect? Surely Mpire isn’t the only with a few ads gone bad.

Mpire served ad on Torrent site with illegal downloads

 

Conan’s Tonight Show Ad on Craigslist

January 15th, 2010

But whats with the :30 pre-roll for Pantene? C’mon. I’m a guy. That uses Rogaine.

Another Bad Contextual Match for Aflac

January 14th, 2010

Wow. These guys can’t catch a break.

Aflac sponsorship of SNL's Digital Shorts

Screen shot courtesy of Jai Decker, CEO, DrivenTide

Fear of Ducks, Sponsored by AFLAC

January 12th, 2010

Bad contextual match here. But who has a fear of ducks anyway?

Fear of Ducks? Maybe I'll buy some insurance for that.

Who Is Managing Creative for Atlantis?

December 22nd, 2009

Another example of piss poor ad exchange management? A typo calling an old ad? Just plain stupidity? Could be any of those reasons - or plenty more - for this ad showing up on a page.

I’d go see Jo Dee Messina at the Atlantis, but, uh, this ad is for an event that happened A MONTH AGO!

Today: December 22, 2009.
Event: Thanksgiving Weekend.

Man, I sure wish I saw this a month ago.

Maybe Scott Towels Can Clean Up This Mess

December 9th, 2009

Fine, its more of a glitch than an honest to goodness mess, but i coudln’t resist the pun.

While checking my Yahoo mail, this banner ad expanded - not sure if I rolled over it or not - but I had no way to close it. Looks like some sort of DHTML error, since the search bar appears over the ad unit and not under it. Either way, you be the judge.

Scott Towel Ad on Yahoo