Skepchick's Incongruous Ads

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To get the big picture you have to include the ads.

When Rebecca Watson introduced the new look for the skepchick.org Website, a commenter observed that there was an empty column on the page which looked weird. Explaining what was causing the problem, Watson wrote: "Using Adblock on Skepchick makes the baby jesus cry."

So what kind of ads is Skepchick running? If you deactivate Adblock you'll be treated to such stuff like "Date 12000 Asian Women Online" and "ColumbianCupid.com." Both ads feature attractive young women posing for the guys, not really cheesecake shots but... (Click on image to enlarge.)


These ads popped up on a post by Watson about her being treated as a sex object, how someone sent a link to a very crude cartoon depiction of her. I don't condone the cartoon; I think it's gross and stupid. But I do find the ads that accompany her post to be incongruous, to say the least, when Watson complains about how are women are being treated by sexist men. After all, don't these ads objectify women?

A commenter to the post also pointed this out. In response another commenter said that these ads are based on someone's browsing history. Well, even if that is the case, skepchick should ban some of the ads, as one commenter mentions, or if that can't be done, just drop the ad service completely.

Skepchicks don't need the ad money that bad, do they, to set aside their principles?

After all, as one commenter stated: "I thought the Super Bowl commercials were particularly sexist and objectifying this year."

Baby Jesus must be crying.

Comments

Doug said…
Seems as though she should simply tout the ads as evidence justifying her complaints about objectification; "See, here's what I'm talking about." I suppose she'd be happy to get any revenue from the sexist visitors to her site who would click on those links, if there were any.

This reminds me why I don't run ads on my site. Not that they'd run contrary to my topics, but there's too much crap out there.
8:41 PM
X. Dell said…
Actually, one of the reasons why I never used AdSense was because I would have no control over what ads would appear. It could be that she draws the ads because of spam on her site that she hasn't cleaned up yet. Maybe there's some sort of tracking softwaare that checks for inclicks and outclicks--in that case, it would better reflect her audience.
9:50 PM
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