As I reported in my previous blog post, Sedo.com responded to my reaction towards their pornographic banner invasion, by removing the text referencing certain adult domain names for their upcoming adult auction.
In a nutshell, their amendment of the original ad retained the main image, which displays a semi-nude blonde seen from behind. This version of the banner was deemed borderline acceptable for the thousands of unsuspecting visitors to the offer pages of my non-adult domain portfolio, parked at Sedo.com, and for the millions of other domains owned by other Sedo customers.
Only a day later, on August 1st, I discovered that Sedo reversed the changes and re-instated the explicit banner ad, which contains the names of pornographic domains rolling over the image of the semi-nude blonde.
As of now, Sedo displays this pornographic ad on millions of pages of Sedo customers’ domains; visitors who want to place an offer or go through the sign-up process are facing an image and words which are completely incompatible with the average visitor’s definition of conducting business. The ad is *not* displayed on adult domains only, as it should have been the case.
Sedo has yet to comment on this reversal of a decision. Meanwhile, other vendors and publications that innocently pull in ads from Sedo, are displaying the explicit version – this is an image from DNJournal with editor Ron Jackson’s picture next to the Sedo porn ad. (image was captured from this URL)
Knowing Ron Jackon and his professional role in the domain industry, I am certain that he would not approve of this adult image being displayed next to his picture – if only he were aware of it!
This unexplained change leaves Sedo exposed as a company with a focus on the domain business and tarnishes the image of thousands of domain owners that are unaware of the pornography being displayed at the offer pages of their non-adult domains. Sedo has been advised to remove the image without any further delays.
Update:
Sedo has now changed the image so that it does not contain the offensive domains, for all English-speaking traffic.
Thanks for all your work on this story. I noticed a few days or so ago that they took the text off of the banners… but I think it was yesterday that I noticed banners with the text again. It appeared they saw the error of their ways, but I guess they just don’t get it.
Either ONLY show these banners on adult names or at the very least let affiliates opt in to show these banners on their sites. I got a few Sedo banners up which luckily are not affected by this, but I’d be pretty annoyed if they were. Of course the few names I have listed on Sedo ARE affected and that’s just not right at all!
Just the fact that this went OUTSIDE of Sedo shows what respect we are getting. Open your mouths people!
John – that retraction of the amended banner leaves me with two speculative answers: that either Sedo technicians messed up – a technical error – or, that Sedo maintains higher interest in the promotion of the porn domains listed on the banner ad. Which one could it be?
Or, Sedo likes the revenue / PPC income and does care about the consequences of their actions. Anyone that has dealt with 1 and 1 knows this.
Hi Theo. I just came across your post while scanning the headlines at Domaining.com. Thanks for the heads up on this. As a mainstream domain industry business publication, I agree that these ads are not appropriate for our site and I have contacted Sedo so the situation can be resolved. Our policy has always been not to accept adult advertising.
Obviously what is or is not appropriate for a given site is a judgment call that the site operator has to make and not everyone will agree with whatever call the operator makes. My biggest concern with these ads is that unless someone has carefully watched the entire flash ad, the frames that have a combination of the domain names with the woman’s image could give the impression that the ads lead to actual adult sites rather than an auction of domain names.
The names themselves are not explicit and if those domains sold I wouldn’t haven a problem with listing them in our sales column. The graphic, on its own merits, is also not as issue for me. However when both elements are combined I think a message that could be easily misconstrued results.
Thank you Ron, you summed it up very accurately. Unfortunately I’ve been on and off the phone today trying to deliver the same message to Sedo; finally I had some luck with the very polite and patient Lisa, who has heard and seen my point of view in a rather open-minded and receptive manner. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon to the satisfaction of both parties. I am willing to listen, as long as they are willing to see 🙂
Extremely unprofessional with the photo and bad taste names posted and shocking to many people who have religious, conservative and professional values.
IMO, a possible reason for it is Sedo being a German company. As you may already know in Germany (and most of Europe) both the media and public are much more liberal about that kind of poor taste stuff vs N. America, which is significanty more conservative.
hi David – I am not against adult material either, as long as it’s viewed by the parties truly interested in it. For example, this entire campaign should have “ridden” on the back of adult domains only! That would have been suitable and smart. Instead, it appears on every single domain parked with Sedo.
Acro – I guess it is not a “mess up” since the ad is displayed with a translation in other countries: check the UK version, the French version… That would be a lot of mess up from the technicians, don’t you think?
I believe everyone thinking that what Sedo is doing with *our* names is *wrong* should send them an email: contact@sedo.com
Hi Ron, You said “The names themselves are not explicit and if those domains sold I wouldn’t have a problem with listing them in our sales column.” Is something different somehow because I know there is no way you could say the names are worthy of being listed in DNJournal and not explicit. There are many real nasty ones listed.
Did you look at the same list? If you click-on the blonde girls photo it goes here and the names are extremely explicit, IMO: http://www.sedo.com/search/searchresult.php4?language=us&tracked=&partnerid=47553&language=us&auctionevent=adult
David, I think that if a visitor clicked on the adult banner to get to the actual auction listings, that’d be an indication of a person willing to accept the image and content. The problem lies with the visuals and text combined – as Ron said – shouting “Porn!” to unsuspected visitors.
It seems that after my extensive and fruitful conversation with Lisa from Sedo earlier today, the non-textual version now appears on domains with traffic originating from English-speaking countries. As for the Germans…well, they seem to be enjoying pornography more than the average American.
Good point Theo. Thanks.
Sedo also confirmed to me that the domain names themselves have been removed from the banners and I confirmed that on our site. I have no issues with the ad as it appears now.
David, I only saw the three names listed that were listed in the ad which are now gone. None of those were explicit names. I did not click through to their site as I have no interest in adult domains. As Acro noted, if the ad makes it clear this is an ad for an auction of adult domains anyone clicking through could reasonably expect to see adult domain names where they land.
The ad on DNJournal has now been changed to the non-textual content.
Old ad – New one.
OK Ron, My bad. For some odd reason I assuemed we were talking about the names which appear after the click on the blond girls photo.
————-
“David, I only saw the three names listed that were listed in the ad which are now gone. None of those were explicit names. I did not click through to their site as I have no interest in adult domains. As Acro noted, if the ad makes it clear this is an ad for an auction of adult domains anyone clicking through could reasonably expect to see adult domain names where they land.