Does anybody remember the hassle LoveHoney had getting its pay-per-click adverts listed on the spangly new Microsoft adCenter? Quick recap: they wouldn’t let us bid on terms like “vibrators” and “sex toys” which were deemed far too rude for MSN.co.uk’s sensitive searchers, even though the search results were (naturally) stuffed with sites offering exactly that. Ignoring the demonstrable illogic of this policy, we persevered and were finally able to get our sex-positive female-friendly products listed in the ’sponsored sites’ section of MSN.co.uk’s search results. So imagine my incredulity when I’m poking round the Health & Wellbeing section of MSN Shopping and I see this on the first page of products…
Before you look, bear in mind all the hassle that they gave us over our listings. And that this selection of products is only three menu clicks from the MSN.co.uk home page (87 million page views a month). And that the click to this page is at the same level as popular supermarket-friendly health products such as “Health Monitors”, “Medical Aids”, “Nutrition” and “Vision Care”. And that it’s not behind any age-warning whatsoever…
Now I’m no prude, and will confess to having been in the same room as pornography more than once in my life, but for the life of me I can’t see what XXX Hardcore Extreme Anal (4-disc box sex), 4 Spit Roast Films (DVD) and 10 XXX Hardcore Films (Three Discs Box Set DVD) have to do with anyone’s Sexual Wellbeing. I am pretty certain that being spit-roasted has yet to be prescribed as a cure for anything other than your self-esteem.
So this Christmas, while Sainsbury and Tesco will sell you a nice roast, you MSN.co.uk will sell you a spit roast.
Anyone care to hazard a guess at how much hassle we’re going to have when we try to get LoveHoney products listed there?