Leosghost - 3:27 am on May 5, 2011 (gmt 0)

<slightly OT because this is about adsense>

Almost all of the Groupon ads I see in France are for the same fast food MickeyD clone, "Quick" ( which is actually franchises whose parent is 100% owned by the French government's civil service pension fund ;-)

The ads are always a picture ( 300 x 250 ) of a burger with fries and what I presume is a bucket of coke..and the text is something like "great discount deals on a restaurant in your town"..it doesn't mention on the ad that is for "Quick" ..but like "Husky" ..I clicked ..but not on anywhere that is mine..It is for "Quick"

The Quick chain got very bad press here recently when a teenager died after getting food poisoning in one of their burger bars and the subsequent hygiene inspection found numerous contraventions of the relevant laws..

The chain has just finished a run of prime time TV ads that do not mention this ..but do insist on the strict hygiene controls they have..insinuating that others like McD and KFC may not ..which is ironic and chutzpah to say the least ..the French phrase used in reply to the ad campaign by most people .. translates as .. "they have a monstrous pair of *****" to run such ads !

Points are ..

#1.. They are not a restaurant ..they are a burger chain.

#2.. "Botulism in a bun" is still "Botulism* in a bun" even with a 50% discount on "normal price"..No thanks..merci, mais NON!

#3.. Given the "back story"..No one here is likely to eat there in numbers any thing like they did previously..and a discount pushed by Groupon and Google isn't going to change that.

#4.. Virtually no one is going to click on the ads ..

#5.. So any site that is displaying these image ads is not going to get any revenue from doing so ..unless it is CPM ( and we all know that CPM adsense, pays crap )..and the site is being associated against its wishes with a"tarnished brand"..because the vast majority of people the world over think that the site owners choose whose ads they show ..so they think that the site owner is deliberately advertising a company whose negligence just killed a teenager and the case was all over the TV news at prime time for weeks..really bad for the site..and you can't block it if you have image ads enabled..

Because of where I am .. and geo targetting ..I see this ad on sites in any language hosted anywhere and whose target audience is not necessarily French, nor in France.

English language report [foodsafety.suencs.com] on the affaire

*actually it was a staphylococcus bacteria ..but anyone who has worked in kitchens or catering or food hygiene knows "B in B" ;-)

Oh, and after the "exploratory click" I cleared the cookies ..so the fact that I still see it nearly everywhere doesn't mean its IBA.

</slightly OT because this is about adsense>