With Putting Ads Over Content (During a Plane Crash) — The Problem

Integrating your ads over content can have negative consequences.

On Thursday, a deranged man flew his plane into an office building housing IRS employees.

In my search for updates and details on the crash, which was in a cluster of buildings housing a number of high tech firms where my friends work, I realized how dangerous it is to place your ads over content. You never know how it will look.

Here’s the first example, from Statesman.com:

Like many publications, Statesman has “flyover” ads on top of its home page. On Thursday, the ad happened to be for the rodeo. I watched as a man literally walked across the crash site and fire on the page, looking up at a headline reading “Huge Fireball erupted following crash, unknown number of people hurt”. I doubt that’s content the rodeo wants to associated with.

Here’s another example, an ad overlayed on a USTREAM video of the crash site:

Ah, yes. Jump for joy! You just made 3,000%! Wait, what’s that? Someone just died? Oh.

That’s part of the reason name brand advertisers shy away from video-overlays, and you end up with ads for penny stocks instead.

As media continues to try to find a way to monetize online content, it’s no wonder that advertisers miss the traditional placement control of days gone by.