Last week, to help introduce new people to our Web sites, Oceana bought two "Google AdWords" -- those little text ads you see on the right-hand side of your search results page when you do a search on Google. One ad was a general ad to promote our main organizational site, Oceana.org, while the other was to help raise awareness of our ongoing campaign to stop cruise pollution.
However, to our shock, two days after the ads started running, Google shut them down. The reason? The ads, they said, linked to sites that contained "language critical of Royal Caribbean" and "language critical of the cruise industry"!
That's right -- apparently Google has decided that criticizing Royal Caribbean is verboten. Hard to believe? It was for us, too. But they confirmed the policy when we contacted them asking to have the ads reinstated.
So, what are the ads that Google decided were so offensive, so shocking, that the tender eyes of the public needed to be protected from them? Take a look:
That's right -- those are the scathing, no-holds-barred messages that Google decided had to be censored. No, we can't believe it either.
Now, this wouldn't be so bad if Google admitted publicly that they will not allow you to buy an ad criticizing Royal Caribbean or the cruise industry. However, in all their public documents describing acceptable content for AdWords, they never mention any such rule. Check it out for yourself:
They claim that they don't need to mention any specific rules because of a clause in their Editorial Guidelines titled "Maintain Google Standards" that lets them "reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site, as noted in our advertising terms and conditions"... except their advertising terms and conditions don't say anything about Royal Caribbean or the cruise industry, either. So what are you allowed and not allowed to say in a Google ad? What companies are you prohibited from criticizing? Who knows?
We've contacted Google asking them to reconsider this misguided policy, but they won't budge. So we're asking you to ask them why they're so set against letting anyone run an ad asking Royal Caribbean to stop cruise pollution.
Use this form to send a message to Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and their Corporate and Consumer Public Relations team, David Krane and Eileen Hernandez, asking them that very question. Or, if you prefer, give the PR team a call:
- David Krane, Google Corporate PR: (650) 623-4096
- Eileen Hernandez, Google Consumer PR: (650) 623-4235
If you call, just ask them why their AdWords program won't allow ads that point out the truth about Royal Caribbean. They'll get the message.
Don't wait. Take action!
