Gay website The Sword slammed gay website Radar Online yesterday for running an ad for ProtectMarriage.com—a site supporting an anti-gay marriage initiative in California—right above a Radar story slamming McDonald's for caving to "radical anti-gay extremists." A third gay website (this one) checked with Radar, which said the ad was automatically placed on the page by Google, not sold directly by the gay magazine. (The ad has also reportedly popped up on gay website Towleroad). Well this is why "Adventures in Contextual Advertising" was invented—because Google is a soulless hate machine! The innocent victims here: the gays. And the straights. [via The Sword]

While doubtless in pursuit of some important story yesterday, angry ad blogger Copyranter came across this adventure in contextual advertising on the dedicated Sarah Palin web page of Alaska's Anchorage Daily News: ads for SHRED ALASKA onsite document shredding. Ha, can they shred Yahoo accounts, ha? A new ad on the Palin page today also seems appropriate, in its own way:

Turner Entertainment is experimenting with bringing contextual advertising to television. We all know and love contextual advertising on the internet—it's how Google controls your mind, after all—and we're excited to see the concept finally ported to the idiot box. Just think, the utterly inappropriate and often offensive juxtapositions of content and ads we know and love online will soon be an inescapable reality on our TVs. [NYT]

Yes, Yahoo News contextual Valentine's advertising, love is in the air! Or in a sperm bank. Or at least in the air of a medical examiner's office in Fort Lauderdale.

It just goes to show, there are no sure things. Well, except that we will continue to have these Adventures.