Ad Serving Stomach Ache

Here’s an exam­ple of ad serv­ing gone awry. I was busy catch­ing up on some local culi­nary events on the Gremolata’s foodie web­site when I was dis­tracted by the ban­ner ad at the bot­tom of the page read­ing “Why is your Stom­ach Fat?” My first reac­tion was “Can they really see my stom­ach from there?” But, upon fur­ther inspec­tion I real­ized it was an ad for some kind of diet that promised to make my tummy flatter.

Now, I imag­ine that the good folks at Gre­mo­lata don’t want me to feel flabby while perus­ing their foodie site. In fact, I don’t think they want me to be feel­ing any­thing but hun­gry for food, and food infor­ma­tion. So, here are a few tips for bet­ter ad serv­ing results:

• Be sure to use a ser­vice that allows you to vet ads and opt out of those that aren’t appro­pri­ate for your audience
• Make sure your ad serv­ing com­pany works with rep­utable brands
• When you need to pro­tect the integrity of your brand, scrap ad serv­ing and go with a spon­sor­ship model instead. A few key spon­sors with the right fit is bet­ter than a bunch of junk.