In less than a month, Google will be banning the advertisement of airsoft guns, paintball guns, bb guns and gun scopes, ammunition, ammunition clips or belts in September.
Google posted a preview of the change to their policy, which currently allows the advertisement of these goods on AdWords.
William Rock posted about this on Google+ and there are more complaints about this on Google AdWords Help.
The email sent to AdWords advertisers impacted by this was sent a month ago and read:
Dear AdWords Advertiser,We're writing to let you know about a change to Google's advertising policies that might affect your AdWords account.
From September, we'll be clarifying and simplifying our policy on knives, guns, gun parts and other weapons designed to injure others in combat, self-defence or sport. Some products that we currently allow won't be allowed under the new policies. Examples of products that will no longer be allowed include paintball guns, airsoft guns, BB guns, gunscopes, ammunition belts, stun guns and tactical knives.
You can see a preview of our new Dangerous Content policy. (https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6014299?hl=en-GB)
When we make this change, any ads or sites that are identified as violating our revised policy won't be able to run.
Our system identified the following accounts associated with your email address as potentially affected by this policy change:
[account ID removed]
We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.
Google requires that advertisers comply with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as AdWords policies, at all times. So it's important that you keep up to date on these requirements for the places where your business operates as well as any other places that your ads are showing.
Yours sincerely, The Google AdWords Team
Of course, those impacted by this new policy are not happy.
Forum discussion at Google+ and Google AdWords Help.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for painball gun
