In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, visitors to the popular networking website MySpace are growing increasingly upset at the placement of offensive ‘Shoot The Rapper’ advertisements.
Tempers flared when the interactive advertisements were seen increasingly on the MySpace pages of Virginia Tech victims, as well as hundreds of other MySpace pages.
The advertisement features a rapper who very much resembles rapper 50 Cent and a photographer whose camera you have to move to "shoot the rapper."
If you succeed, “You will win $5000 or 5 ringtones guaranteed”.
Many people are urging websites like MySpace to become more responsible with their advertising.
"The time has come for a company with the global reach and influence of Fox Interactive Media to set some real standards in advertising, and send advertisers with such a delightful message as 'Shoot the Rapper' into the trash heap," Peter Zollman told Media Post.
Zollman is the principal of consultancy at Classified Intelligence on Poynter.org.
"Imagine the outcry if Fox Television ran a 60-second spot that said, 'Shoot the American Idol star -- on our Web site -- and win $5,000.' This is no different," Zollman said.
Representatives from MySpace were quick to explain their side on the situation.
"That's a random network ad that runs throughout out site, and it's not connected contextually because we don't place banner ads contextually on MySpace,” said Shawn Gold, a representative from MySpace. “It's inappropriate if the ads are running on those profiles, and we can eliminate them from our network if that's the case."
The advertisements, which are supposedly from The Advertisers Reward Network, are dated back to early this year.
The ads have still been spotted on Myspace.com as of today (Apr. 23).
Tempers flared when the interactive advertisements were seen increasingly on the MySpace pages of Virginia Tech victims, as well as hundreds of other MySpace pages.
The advertisement features a rapper who very much resembles rapper 50 Cent and a photographer whose camera you have to move to "shoot the rapper."
If you succeed, “You will win $5000 or 5 ringtones guaranteed”.
Many people are urging websites like MySpace to become more responsible with their advertising.
"The time has come for a company with the global reach and influence of Fox Interactive Media to set some real standards in advertising, and send advertisers with such a delightful message as 'Shoot the Rapper' into the trash heap," Peter Zollman told Media Post.
Zollman is the principal of consultancy at Classified Intelligence on Poynter.org.
"Imagine the outcry if Fox Television ran a 60-second spot that said, 'Shoot the American Idol star -- on our Web site -- and win $5,000.' This is no different," Zollman said.
Representatives from MySpace were quick to explain their side on the situation.
"That's a random network ad that runs throughout out site, and it's not connected contextually because we don't place banner ads contextually on MySpace,” said Shawn Gold, a representative from MySpace. “It's inappropriate if the ads are running on those profiles, and we can eliminate them from our network if that's the case."
The advertisements, which are supposedly from The Advertisers Reward Network, are dated back to early this year.
The ads have still been spotted on Myspace.com as of today (Apr. 23).
