Gay car site gets unwanted "Yes on 8" ads

Gaywheels.com, a website aimed at gay car buyers, said the ad space on its home page was "hijacked" today by supporters of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.

Joe LaMuraglia, publisher of the New Jersey-based website, was in Tennessee this afternoon when he found out that folks in California who went to www.gaywheels.com were being greeted with a page festooned with "Yes on 8" ads.

"We are very upset about this and apologize to any site visitors from the state of California that might have been offended by the ads," LaMuraglia said in a statement posted on the site.

"They in no way reflect our political beliefs and for the record are diametrically opposed to our value system."

How the ads got on the site is a bit of a mystery.

The ads apparently were placed through Google's AdSense service, which LaMuraglia uses to generate ad revenue for Gaywheels.com. LaMuraglia said it was his understanding that his agreement with Google allowed him to block all political advertising from his site and until today, no political ads had ever appeared on Gaywheels.com.

Google has been a bit opaque in explaining how the Proposition 8 ad got on the site, he said. And even after LaMuraglia demanded that the ads be removed, a couple of hours passed before they were gone.

A spokeswoman for the pro-Proposition 8 campaign denied targeting its ads at Gaywheels.com.

"We didn't do anything wrong," said Meg Waters. "We did give Google money to put ads on the Internet, but it was up to Google where they went. If they [Gaywheels.com] have a problem, it's with Google."

She said "Yes on 8" campaign officials weren't even aware of the Gaywheels.com ads until asked about them by Up to Speed.

"Google knows what we're looking for in terms of demographics," Waters said. "That wasn't a demographic we were shooting for."

A Google spokeswoman said the company "allows ads that advocate for a particular political position regardless of the views that they represent. We currently allow ads advocating both for and against Proposition 8."

The company didn't comment on LaMuraglia's claim that his deal with Google stipulates that no political ads can be placed on his site.

LaMuraglia, a 13-year veteran of the automotive industry who launched Gaywheels.com more than three years ago, said he's concerned that the ads would damage his site's credibility, which is based in part on staying out of politics.

"A very large percentage of my traffic comes from California," said LaMuraglia, who said the site gets up to 40,000 unique visitors a month.

"They may see the ads and think I'm some hypocritical gay guy who is taking money from anybody and has no morals. I won't even accept ads from companies that aren't gay-friendly."

That wouldn't include Google. The company declared its opposition to Proposition 8 in September but has not given a corporate donation to fight the measure. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin recently gave $40,000 and $100,000, respectively, to the "No on 8" campaign.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Website screen grab from Gaywheels.com

Comments

[Drew]

The "Yes on 8" side was spamming many, many sites today through the Google AdSense service.

One site that I frequent -- and that has a specific "non political" posting policy -- had these ads on every page this morning.

It also took them a few hours to block the ads, but at least they did it.

[Phil Ill]

Uh ..if either the blogger or Muraglia had looked at almost any blog or site this week with gay content in California, or had either of them picked up the phone and called to check with a colleague in gay media in california, they would know that this has been happening all week to every gay site in the state.
It's also quite easy and obvious how to block ads that one doesn't want by going into one's Google Adsense account and typing the url desired into the competitive ad list. Adsense makes it quite clear that it's the publisher's responsibility. But that's not such a good story, right? Yes it does take a few hours, but no one i know of has ever heard of being able to block "political" ads, and certainly not for a tiny site like gay wheels with such little traffic. Hardly worth anyone's time...except i guess to try to whip up some interest in it by hitting up an innocent blogger.
Reallly , couldn't be more clear. No story. And if it were a story, this is hardly the site one would cover it on.
And i even agree with Muraglia on the prop...I think...hey wait a second he runs GayCars.com and is more concerned about "political" ad showing on his site than he is about even voicing a clear opposition about it.
Extra Lame.
Phill

[Marie]

There are 2 very heated threads on Google's Adsense web forum about this. Every type of web site in Califonia was blanketed with these ads yesterday, and although mine came down relatively quickly after I filed a complaint with Google and added the offending domain to my blocked list, some people had to wait longer and some removed Google ads from their site entirely until after the election. There are two issues here: One, Google is supposed to serve ads that are relevant to the content of the web site on which they are placed. These ads are popping up on every type of web site in California, most of which have nothing to do with gay issues or marriage. The second issue is that the Google AdSense poilicy states that they do not support ads which discriminate against any person or group. This is clearly an issue of discrimination in which Google should not have become involved.

[DaveM]

I put up 15 Yes on 8 signs this morning around dawn - in public places. By 8:30 am they were all removed. This is carma at it's finest. I can't help but to laugh. And from Google - who took an official No on 8 stance, that's even better. I guess it takes longer to steal a webpage sign.

Did anyone notice the Yes on 8 advertisement on this page? Got to love it.

Vote YES on 8. Love your neighbor.

[Vincent Chang]

I think this is relatively harmless compared to the Catholic man and the elderly couple that were beat up just because they had Yes on Prop 8 signs.

What's more offensive?

[Mitchell Young]

Google generates ads automatically, so this sort of weird ad placing is very common. You can, for example, find sites which deal with Islamic terrorism with 'Muslim dating' adds. A fortune awaits someone who comes up with a better algorithm