Although they may be a cheap way to fill out an ad budget, one of the problems with blind ad networks is that you can never be sure where your ads might turn up--as dozens of major advertisers learned
this week when they began taking fire for running ads on the official site of Ann Coulter, who recently made headlines by referring to presidential candidate John Edwards with an anti-gay slur.
A blogger at the popular liberal site DailyKos.com posted the contact information for advertisers
including Verizon Wireless, Washington Mutual, Mitsubishi, AT&T, Dogpile.com, Sallie Mae, and the University of Phoenix--all of whom reportedly had run ads on Coulter's site, AnnCoulter.com.
Many
companies didn't realize their ads were appearing in the first place.
A spokesman for Washington Mutual said that the company makes a practice of not advertising on political sites, but that
their ad, placed through a network, appeared on AnnCoulter.com anyway.
Verizon's spokesman said that one of the three undisclosed agencies the company works with placed the ad mistakenly, even
though the company has a policy against advertising on sites with extreme political views.
A spokesman for Mitsubishi said that the ad was placed through Google AdSense, and although they have a
policy against advertising on political sites, the ad was run by mistake.
The Kos blogger, who goes by the handle VolvoDrivingLiberal, also placed contact information for ad networks that place
ads on Coulter's site, including ValueClick and AdBrite.
A spokesman for ValueClick said that since the controversy erupted, Coulter's site has been removed from their network. ValueClick
reviews sites on its network on a case-by-case basis, and AnnCoulter.com was deemed too close to "hate speech" to be kept onboard.
AdBrite had no comment.*
* This sentence was
changed after the original story was posted.