For a company that likes to portray itself as a “fun” and “cool”, Google has been neither in recent times. In their latest display of prudishness the search giant has banned all the ads from lingerie retailer Pampered Passions’ latest campaign for their supposedly adult content.
The ads in question were part of a Christmas campaign by Pampered Passions. The ads, such as the one featured below show men about to “get some” in return for having bought sexy lingerie for their wives / girlfriends. The combination of topless male torsos and suggestive tag lines, though was far too much for the Google editors.
According to Google, “Only family-safe images will be approved. Images that are classified as non-family-safe or adult content are disapproved and will not run.” They further added that images that contains nudity or have a mature theme are a complete no-no.
View the ads banned by Google
It increasingly seems that Google is trying to play the role of an Internet nanny! The ad in question does not have any overt sexual tones or nudity. It is just a harmless campaign, which at most can be seen as a bit on the naughtier side. There is nothing illegal or offensive about the ads. However, Google being an American company seems to force American “values” down everyone’s throats.
We don’t need no moral police!
The move comes across as slightly ridiculous and prudish. If such content does not bother the audience and they are comfortable viewing it, then why is Google hell bent on being the moral police? In fact the stringent policies of Google have started to take an irksome note and have become a frequent occurrence.
This definitely polices the creative freedom of advertisers and the viewing freedom of consumers. In fact steps such as these inconvenience advertisers by compelling them to adopt other marketing strategies. Google shouldn’t try to force its own narrow mindedness on audiences worldwide. A more sensible approach would be to create editorial policies according to the culture and laws of individual countries that they operate in.
