Omnipresent 'Flat Belly' Ads

[WordsnCollision]

What is with these <edit>flat belly</edit> ads? They seem to come from 2 or 3 different origins and though I've added all of them to my Competitive Ad Filter they still show up at my pages on occasion. I read somewhere that Google was going to be weeding out these kinds of ads and advertisers. They're extremely common and I can't imagine having them on your site is going to attract many clicks at this point.

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:16 pm (utc) on Dec. 7, 2009]
[edit reason] Removed specifics. [/edit]

[netmeg]

They did a big pruning around a year ago, and it does look like they're coming back. They're kind of like rats - you push them back one place and they pop up in another.

[zdgn]

Same here, especially on image ads.

And all while I've blocked categories "Weight Loss" and "Cosmetic Procedures & Body Modification" which I can only assume should be the categories they'd fit in.

Or may be they've placed their ads in "Get Rich Quick" category - you know, probably 'mistaking' it to be a personal incentive rather than a category. :)

[IanCP]

What amazes me is they appear in a prestigious online news outlet.

[bluegum]

Yes, they have invaded my site as well. The site is no way related to health issues, fitness etc

[tangor]

Guys and gals.... did you really expect the spammer adverts to stick to categories? Good guys follow the rules, all the rest don't.

Time to ask google for more categories to squelch. (goog luck on that!)

[ken_b]

Time to ask google for more categories to squelch. (goog luck on that!)

Maybe they'll give us a "Spam" category we can block :)

[koan]

Those flat belly ou white teeth ads should be forced in some "terrible taste" category. They're horrific and degrade any sites with their presence!

[WordsnCollision]

I saw them today on a scientific site about icebergs in Antarctica. Just sayin'.

[zdgn]

saw them today on a scientific site about icebergs in Antarctica

May be these belly-flatters have some demographic data about net-savvy penguins which we don't understand, eh?

[pavlovapete]

What we really need is for Google to assign (and enforce) one category to an ad!

[IanCP]

What we need is for Google to rub these baskets out permanently.

[panicbutton]

What's the prob if they are paying?

[Atomic]

What's the prob if they are paying?

If they're total scams, and some of them are incredibly scammy, once a lot of people have been burned by them they might be reluctant to ever click any ad ever again. Then where would you be?

[ken_b]

What's the prob if they are paying?

Money isn't everything.

[koan]

once a lot of people have been burned by them they might be reluctant to ever click any ad ever again

CTR on most of my sites has been in a slow downfall in the past year. We can't afford to burn new clickers and shoppers.

[jetteroheller]

When I looked yesterday first time in my category filter,

1,5% of income
1,8% of impressions from weight loose ads

I really did not expect something like this.

[wheel]

As a consumer, I'm seeing those ads all over the place. I don't like seeing them, particularly at work. It makes the sites look spammy, and it makes it look like I'm visiting shady sites. I tend to close the browser window if I'm on a site with those ads and a staff comes into my office.

[eeek]

As a consumer, I'm seeing those ads all over the place. I don't like seeing them, particularly at work. It makes the sites look spammy, and it makes it look like I'm visiting shady sites. I tend to close the browser window if I'm on a site with those ads and a staff comes into my office.

This is also something that will cause more people to block adsense. Not a good thing for Google or for publishers.

[farmboy]

What amazes me is they appear in a prestigious online news outlet.

We may have a different opinion based on experience or whatever and I don't mean to sound like I'm defending these type ads - I know a lot of people don't like to see them on their sites or the sites of others.

But a "prestigious online news outlet" site, a site about Polar Bears or icebergs or whatever just might have the perfect audience demographics to generate a lot of clicks for those ads. And by "audience demographsics" I don't mean just that the audience members have bellies that could use a little less bulk.

It's easy to overestimate the actual street-smarts and common sense of people conventional wisdom & pop culture tell us are the smart people among us.

FarmBoy

[IanCP]

Well mate going back over the years it was previously dating ads and drew some criticism with "Letters to the Editor".

The editor replied: "We can't control the ads you see and unfortunately we need the revenue to keep the publication going"

[AdSenseAdvisor]

If you see an ad that you think may be violating AdWords policies, please please please report it. You can do that by filling out a form in the AdWords Help Center [adwords.google.com], clicking on the "Ads by Google" text next to any ad unit, or in this case, by sending me a private message with the link location (right click on the ad and copy the link location/address).

I shared this thread with teams here, but we can't take action against the possible policy violations mentioned here unless you give us details to investigate.

ASA

[wheel]

If you see an ad that you think may be violating AdWords policies, please please please report it

I doubt the ads in questions are violating guidelines.

They're just a really, really crappy user experience. Which in some instances is a reason for Google to lay the hammer of Thor down, and in others, allow them to flourish while Google takes their cash.

If Google really doesn't know what ads people are talking about in this thread, then they can't be helped. I'm no adsense expert, but I'm seeing them everywhere. It's hard to even visit a linux forum without seeing this crap.

[IanCP]

How do fat ads or, dating ads for that matter, relate to sites about blue widgets?

Simply because of one line on a page? e.g.:

"Out blue widgets date back to 1966 when people told us we had fat chance of marketing them."

[bgd2006]

The majority of Americans are overweight with quite a few falling into the obese category. New Years resolutions to lose weight are still a goal of many so i would suspect these ads aren't going away till February.

The thing that gets me is I see very few ads to quit smoking and you'd think there would be a ton of those appearing right about now as well.

[jetteroheller]

When I think back, since I was able to read a newspaper,
long before the internet,
even long before my first apple ][
even long before my first pocket calculator
there had been ads for weight reduce.

Newspaper bring this ads since decades.

[inactivist]

How about a keyword-based block? This would allow publishers to establish the specific content that should be advertised on their sites.

"Block ads containing these words" (including pattern matching...)

Won't help for image-based ads. And then there's foreign language ads...

(Yeah, I know, standard disclaimers apply: It's not in Google's interest to do this, etc. etc. -- so I'm not holding my breath.)

[farmboy]

Newspaper bring this ads since decades.

Yep.

And who knew those ...

"Be a Tiger Mistress
Learn How I Did It"

... ads of the last couple of years were so popular with clickers?

FarmBoy

[Digmen1]

Yes I see them on our New Zealand version of PC World magazine !
They do look kind of spammy.
But I think banner ads are great for some products (mine)

The question is that are they putting them in any Google categories, or certain ones.
They must be spending a lot of doh !

[swa66]

Saw the horror flat belly ad today invading my site. Sent the source code of the iframe to ASA, let's hope they can get rid of them permanently.
May they burn in their own fat burning furnace forever (not really in the season's spirit, I know but utterly ugly drawings of bikini's aren't either).