Screenshots of Facebook's five most ridiculous ads (NSFW)
New Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg did not get the job because she has any grand vision for the company. The self-described "tough-love leader" is at Facebook to clean things up. She can start with Facebook's messy ads. Sometimes they're laughably mistargeted; at other times, they're abundantly unsafe for the office; and on occasion, they actually cause Facebook to lose clients. The five most inappropriate Facebook ads our tipsters have told us about, below.
In August 2007, Facebook lost U.K. advertisers including First Direct Bank, Vodafone, Virgin Media, the U.K.'s Automobile Association, Halifax Bank, and Prudential after displaying their company logos on pages like this one, the group home for Aryan Satan Worshipers. Notice the ad for Vodafone's France Telecom's Orange on the bottom left. Facebook eventually decided to U.K. advertisers to opt out of promoting their products next to neo-Nazi content.
Why does anyone sign on to Facebook? For hot "cam to cam" action, of course. This ad came out just as Facebook started to take real heat over its Beacon project. Mm. Something about the photo reminds me of my early childhood. And also makes me hungry.
This ad is missing a company logo. At first we thought it might be American Apparel ad but the models aren't strung out enough. Our second guess based on the first photo: Preparation-H.
This ad came out just before Christmas. Facebook didn't bother to "Santa-tize" it, so we did the honors.
Either Facebook ad-targeting technology isn't quite up to snuff yet, or the guys in Facebook's ad-targeting department totally missed the last season of Will & Grace.