Thursday, April 19, 2007

newscorp.com Should News Corp's Fox Interactive Media enact ad standards for MySpace and its other properties?

Peter Krasilovsky, who writes the excellent blog Local Onliner, raises an interesting and very disturbing point in his post about the Virginia Tech shootings.

First, he compliments The New York Times for its interactive feature about the victims. But what appalled Krasilovsky, and it appalls me too, was the banner ad that was served by MySpace.com on one of the student profiles: "Shoot the Rapper, win $5,000."

Sickening enough, that tragedy at Virginia Tech. But that MySpace would accept such an ad in this day and age is truly disturbing, too.

Sure, Fox Interactive Media wants revenue. And no, probably no one actually reviewed the banner before it appeared online. But still: What the hell are they thinking? Or aren't they thinking at all? Edgy is good and important on MySpace. Reaching a young demographic, also good. "Shoot the rapper?" Crap. (Actually, the word I would use is much worse.)

Media should have advertising standards. If MySpace runs an ad for an airline, like all media it must be willing to accept the "72-hour rule," under which airline ads are pulled immediately and routinely when there's a major plane crash. And it probably would pass up an ad that said, "Shoot the President and win $5,000." (Or, at least, one would hope so!)

Here, however, I'm not talking about pulling an ad after a tragedy like the Blacksburg shootings. The time has come for a company with the global reach and influence of Fox Interactive Media to set some real standards in advertising, and send advertisers with such a delightful message as "Shoot the Rapper" into the trash heap. Or make them choose a better message. Or a worse Web site.

If Shoot the Rapper were to disappear from any site with influence, that advertiser would choose a better message. No one says it has to be "wholesome." But imagine the outcry if Fox Television ran a 60-second spot that said, "Shoot the American Idol star --- on our Web site --- and win $5,000." This is no different. Sick, sick, sick.

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