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"Did the above banner ad really show up side-by-side with the rather gruesome story on CNN.com about severed feet washing up on shore in British Columbia?  I haven't been able to verify it with a few dozen page refreshes, but CNN does periodically insert 728x90 contextual ads in that slot, and it has sparked quite a discussion over on Reddit about contextual advertising (as well as links to plenty of rather humorous, obviously fake similar ad placements). \nWhile the PutYourFeetUp ad may or may not have really showed up on this page, it's an opportunity to discuss contextual advertising and its potential pitfalls. The issue in this case is two-fold: first, having the ad show up in the context above is inappropriate, potentially damaging the reputation of both the publisher (CNN) and the advertiser (PutYourFeetUp.com \u2013 a moving company).  Additionally, it's just a poorly placed ad \u2013 the article has nothing to do with what PutYourFeetUp.com does \u2013 it just mentions the word \"feet.\"  For CNN, it's a wasted impression because no one will click it, and for PutYourFeetUp, it's a wasted ad buy.  An ad executive who wished to remain anonymous summarized the issue for me:\n\"I was apprehensive at first re: the validity of the actual screen shot as I didn't think that CNN would serve contextual advertising against their \"/crime\" section. Brands rarely, if ever, want to be affiliated with negative stories and images\u2014especially the way these specific ads are targeted\u2014but I went and performed my due diligence (surfing the site extensively, loading, reloading, re-reloading, etc), checking many / most sections of the sites, and, alas, they are serving 728's on all pages (when pertinent). It's plausible to assume that this screen shot is real.\"\nOf course, this is sort of accounted for when you buy contextual ads through AdSense or one of dozens of other providers.  You can prevent your ads from showing up on certain sites, block out certain keywords, and even target by location.  Additionally, contextual ads generally have a lower eCPM than search advertising or brand advertising that is sold directly.  But it would seem that there is little way for anyone to devise a system to eliminate situations like the PutYourFeetUp example from happening.  And, average consumers don't care about all of that marketing babble \u2013 they just see a horribly insulting advertisement and in turn adjust their perceptions of the brands involved. \nAre marketers willing to take that risk, or would ad budgets be better spent elsewhere?  It's an interesting question to debate, especially as more advertisers look to monetize social networks based on your profile data, where the chances to make a personally insulting blunder are huge."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/06/19/contextual-advertising/>