View Full Version : Petrol ads showing ratbag behaviour
arose62
30th July 2007, 02:08 PM
Anyone else find the BP Ultimate ads (as seen on SMH website) offensive?
In the story about the elderly couple killed by hoons illegally street racing, BP have an ad showing two cars nose to nose, tyres smoking, trying to push each other out of the road.
Another version shows two cars in a tug-of-war, with the "ultimate" car dragging the other into a hole.
My 2c is that they're irresponsible, the behaviour is illegal, and the placement is just incredibly bad taste!
Where's the big thumbs DOWN emoticon when you need it?
Gra
30th July 2007, 02:20 PM
what have these adds got to do with ILLEGAL STREET RACING (Not drag racing, completely different sport).
The product is supposed to produce more power, how else are they to show it creating more power??
arose62
30th July 2007, 03:01 PM
Geez, I dunno....
maybe show one car travelling further than the other on a tank of petrol?
show one driver paying less than the other each month?
show one car pulling a larger trailer than the other?
show one car maintaing (a legal) speed up a hill, while the other slowed down?
show dyno readings for the two?
Is nose-to-nose burnouts the way drag-racers measure their power?
Gra
30th July 2007, 03:07 PM
Geez, I dunno....
maybe show one car travelling further than the other on a tank of petrol?
show one driver paying less than the other each month?
Probably the difference isnt that much
Show one car pulling a larger trailer than the other?
'
Has a possibility
show one car maintaing (a legal) speed up a hill, while the other slowed down?
doesnt happen with most new cars....
show dyno readings for the two?
general public dont understand dyno readings
Is nose-to-nose burnouts the way drag-racers measure their power?
Drag racers measure their power on a dyno or the track..... I still don't see the connection between these adds and either illegal street racing or drag racing
silentC
30th July 2007, 03:18 PM
For whatever reason the SMH has pulled the ad from that story now. Somebody didn't like it.
Gra
30th July 2007, 03:27 PM
For whatever reason the SMH has pulled the ad from that story now. Somebody didn't like it.
You will find that the SMH don't have a huge say in what ads get placed on their site, it will be a service that does a text search and finds keywords in the story and puts ads relating to that keyword. What they can do is block certain ads from certain stories though. The odd one slips through the net. Happens all the time sometime with amusing results, like the weight watchers adds in stories about Mcdonalds, etc
silentC
30th July 2007, 03:30 PM
No I mean there is no ad on that page at all.
Gra
30th July 2007, 03:33 PM
No I mean there is no ad on that page at all.
Thats one way of blocking the ad service, maybe they cant block selective ads, they must block all advertising to the story, maybe that is just a tempory action until the developers stop the add appearing.
silentC
30th July 2007, 03:33 PM
But actually I don't think that is the case with the SMH - there are Google ads further down but I think that you'll find they sell advertising space with a fee for the number of impressions and then there will be a process by which ads are selected, quite likely at random.
For example, the ad in question has just come up when I have read the Haneef story "Howard wont say sorry". The Brumby story is showing the same ad as well.
Gra
30th July 2007, 03:35 PM
But actually I don't think that is the case with the SMH - there are Google ads further down but I think that you'll find they sell advertising space with a fee for the number of impressions and then there will be a process by which ads are selected, quite likely at random.
For example, the ad in question has just come up when I have read the Haneef story "Howard wont say sorry". The Brumby story is showing the same ad as well.
keyword = politics or Australian politics
silentC
30th July 2007, 03:40 PM
It alternates between the two cars facing each other and the one with the hole in the middle, regardless of which page. Unless you go to a different section, like the Lifestyle section, where I got an ad for Mr Brooks (a new movie release).
What I'm saying is that the BP Ultimate ad will be part of a campaign that BP has paid for and they will be guaranteed that it will be displayed x number of times. I don't believe they are context sensitive, like the Google ads which are further down the page. In the story we are discussing currently the Google ads are for www.privatefleet.com.au, www.1300towing.net.au and enter-system.com/36126/car-care. You could argue they are in bad taste.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone from BP has asked them to supress the ads on that story.
Gra
30th July 2007, 04:13 PM
ahh they aren't being as smart as I assumed.... hay just came up with a business...
be the intermediary. buy the add space from the newspapers, and add context sensitive adds, Sell the placement to many..... somewhat like a cross between google adds and popups
someone has already done it I guess
silentC
30th July 2007, 04:15 PM
Then you get to cop the flak when performance car ads come up in a road death stories!
Gra
30th July 2007, 04:19 PM
Then you get to cop the flak when performance car ads come up in a road death stories!
Ahh that is the good part, they wont advertise who pick the adds, they will just say they have a service that does it, so they paper will cop the inital flak, and say but we didn't do it we have a service that does. and the story dies, you hope...(Have you noticed these stories die very quickly)
Gingermick
30th July 2007, 04:25 PM
Arose 62, I think what you described is abhorrent whatever the placement.