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The other day I set up my account with Overture (they do the advertising links for those ads you see in Yahoo when you do keyword searches) to include ArmsLocker.com. I set up several keywords to have ads displayed in with the hopes it would spur some traffic to this site.
They links got set up in my account, but I noticed that there were no hits being registered. So I fired off an email to Overture support to find out what was going on.
Here's the reply I got:
I was spending a good sized chunk of change advertising my other sites through them. That has now come to an end. Who the hell do these people think they are deciding who can and cannot advertise legal merchandise on their sites?
Oh well. Now I have more money left in my pockets each month to buy guns with....
They links got set up in my account, but I noticed that there were no hits being registered. So I fired off an email to Overture support to find out what was going on.
Here's the reply I got:
I then replied thusly:Thank you for contacting Overture.
First of all, please be aware of our current guideline regarding Web sites that sell weapons or ammunition:
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As you may know, Web sites that contain content (either on the site itself or through spawned windows, links, or banner ads) with material about assault/automatic weapons are not permitted on Overture. Overture has decided that it does not wish to be associated with these types of products.
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Furthermore, although we do allow advertisers to bid on search terms such as "weapon" or "ammunition," neither Yahoo! nor MSN will display sponsored search results for these terms. This is per our current agreements.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,
Joey Patrick
Overture Client Services
I find this very hard to stomach. You are talking about the repression of legally owned and commercially viable merchandise. With the proper paperwork all of these types of items are perfectly legal to buy, sell, own or talk about. Personally, if that is Overture's, along with Yahoo and MSN's policies concerning a prejudicial attitude about such things, then I
cannot condone such an attitude by spending my money to support such companies.
Interestingly enough, I just went to Yahoo and typed in "sex toys" into the search query and got a number of companies selling such items that apparenlty Overture and Yahoo are willing to provide advertising services for. You don't see the irony of that?
Right now I am spending quite a bit of money monthly through Overture advertising my Fauna related sites. That is about to come to an end abruptly. You have no LEGAL reason to censor topics having to do with firearms or ammunition of any type. That is patently unfair and strongly biased, which I cannot ethically support in any fashion.
I do not expect a policy change based on the potential loss of my business, and fully understand that. So in that reqards please cancel my account with Overture effective immediately and mark your records to indicate that you are no longer permitted to charge my credit card for any funds whatsoever. I also want the balance remaining in my account for unused click passthroughs to be refunded immediately.
Thank you.
Rich Zuchowski
I was spending a good sized chunk of change advertising my other sites through them. That has now come to an end. Who the hell do these people think they are deciding who can and cannot advertise legal merchandise on their sites?
Oh well. Now I have more money left in my pockets each month to buy guns with....