Google's Retargeting Kicks Politician Gavin Barwell In The Behind

Mar 18, 2013 - 8:55 am 1 by
Filed Under Google AdSense

Google Display NetworkThis is an incredibly funny story for any online marketer, it is named Gavin Barwell in 'date Arab girls' Twitter storm via The Guardian.

What happened?

In short, Conservative MP Gavin Barwell found a press release by his opposition and noticed an interesting ad on the press release for "date Arab girls." Gavin Barwell thought his opposition paid for the ad and tweeted:

I know Labour are short of cash but having an invitation to 'date Arab girls' at top of your press release?

What he didn't know was that was a Google AdSense ad and the ad shows dynamically based (1) content of the page, (2) user ad preferences and tastes and (3) sites you previously visited.

As you can imagine, after Gavin Barwell learned this he went completely silent.

James O'Flynn was similarly entertained, observing: "This did make me chuckle.

"Be careful before you question how appropriate an advert on a webpage is."

A WebmasterWorld thread has most advertisers finding this funny, except one who said:

Exactly one of the reasons retargeting should be banned.

Do you agree with that?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 1, 2025

Sep 1, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Tests AI Overview With Knowledge Panel

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Crawl Changes Are Independent Of Big Google Updates

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Danny Sullivan At WordCamp On How Google Search Keeps Evolving

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google AI Mode Model Updated - Improvements For STEM Queries

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Mode Compare Checkboxes For Products & Local Business Listings

Sep 1, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Admits To Penalizing The BBC, But Only Granularly