Google Preys on our Weakness
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Facial Hair Is Ugly - xxx.com - Don’t look like a man. Remove all facial hair to be beautiful.
The above was on top of my Gmail this morning. An ad supported by Google. An ad that abuses and preys on a commonly known problem for women. An ad that calls women ugly. An ad that sells based on bringing misery. What kind of trash is that for Google to pull? I was surprised they would run an ad like that. I thought Google was progressive and making an effort to have tolerance for race, religion, gender. I guess that only applies in some cases.
It’s so easy for advertisers to target women. We grow up being told how ugly our bodies are. How we need to put so much work into being presentable. Keep yourself pretty from your toes to the top of your head. Heaven forbid she might be human and not smell lovely one day, she might not have white enough teeth, her eyebrows might be a bit bushy, her left nostril might be a millimetre larger than the right nostril. Advertisers have been picking on women as a means of selling for generations. It’s time for it to stop. Google should know better and I really thought they were trying to do better than something backhanded like that.
[tags]issues, advertising, selling, abuse[/tags]
9 Comments
Rachel-G
February 13th, 2007
at 4:27am
I normally do not come to a blog I have never read before and leave a comment, but I am today. The ads that google place in your inbox and on the sides of your email are based on what you have for text in said places. Right now, I have my travel confirmation from Orbitz for my flight to Germany and I get ads about travel in Europe. When my husband was away, I would have ads about all sorts of ‘love’ potions.
Think it through.
Russ L'Rogue
February 13th, 2007
at 6:33am
Couldn’t agree more … and the same falls true for the male gender what with ads supposedly addressing baldness, pudginess, lack of super athlete physical or sexual prowess in our later years, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera …
So what’s the cure if such insulting silliness continues? A simple age-old tactic of boycott if Google carries on with such stuff. It’s a pretty simple thing to dump Google and it’s associated tool bars, localized search engine, et cetera and use one of the myriad of alternate search engines/sites … some of which are as good or better anyway.
f0rw4rd.sl4sh
February 13th, 2007
at 8:42am
Money does something to people. They think it hasn’t ,but it has.
They will probably become the next M$ eventually. I was a big fan of google. But each day they are selling out even more.. Prepare for more offensive ads real soon. Give a few kids a super computer and a few million dollars and you have a recipe for disaster whether you like or not.. It is no longer the cool new search engine that it once was.. Time and Money will finish its toll..
KLD
February 13th, 2007
at 10:07pm
Unfortunately, it looks like Google is a subservient to the mighty dollar as other big corporations. Look at all the business they’ve done in China even though China has them block / ban certain sites.
Dude
February 14th, 2007
at 12:08am
Umm…Sex sells, and noone really cares about what you are saying. It just sucks that I stumbled on this article from pirillo’s picks. Also, as a guy I am naturally attracted to attractive women, which is a smart thing for advertisers to use. Making an effort to look good is something that is very practical for women AND men. I am surprised you haven’t realized that good hygiene is also important for reasons of good health.
Dude
February 14th, 2007
at 12:11am
I also want to say that blogs like yours just get in the way of people trying to actually find useful information. Google is a very good company right now and just blatantly associating Google with words like “predator”, will get you increased hits, but disgruntled web surfers.
Steve
February 15th, 2007
at 11:32am
Don’t be surprised at Google’s behavior. After all, as I recently found out, they are not nearly as “nice-nice” as they’d have you believe. Not only did they colaborate with the Chinese government to create a Socialist-State-Approved-and-Censored service to keep the billion-plus Chinese in oppressive darkness, but they also arbitrarilly, and with draconian security, censor advertisers selling legal products. They also hype advertisers who pay extra (possible examples are Amazon or eBay) over “less desirable” ones. Don’t expect them to be altruistic and friendly and “your buddy,” because they are only out for the Almight God, MONEY. Don’t you ever forget that, or they’ll do what they want to you and make you enjoy thinking you’re supposed to be treated thusly.
Tom Handler
February 17th, 2007
at 1:13am
You seem to have a pretty severe case of tunnel vision. Advertising is an all pervasive, equal opportunity predator, continually picking, probing, and gnawing at every vulnerability and exposed nerve it can find that is ultimately connected to somebody’s wallet, without regard to gender, age, race, or even species (as in the case of canine halitosis).
For heaven’s sake, quit whining and try to conduct yourself with a little dignity. Your hyper-sensitivity, even if sincere, is not becoming and is not winning you my respect. The only way to deal with crass commercialism is to rise above it. So rise.
ebele
June 29th, 2007
at 7:52am
Dude, facial hair or the lack of it, has nothing to do with good hygiene or good health. Brushing your teeth does. So does cleaning your ass.
Tom, everyone’s entitled to their own view on things. I don’t see how what Creative Girl has said constitutes a lack of dignity.
I agree with you, advertising is about money - but who’s doing the buying? We, the consumers, should be in control, and not the other way round.
Sadly, there are women out there who will click on that google ad and buy the product. And why it is that she clicks on it, why it is that she believes what the ad/product is telling her…well, that’s another story.