The other day I wandered on to a website called theromantic.com to read love letters written by celebrities and important people throughout history (If you've seen the "Sex and the City" movie, you'll know where my interest in old love letters came from). While I'm used to websites like Facebook using advertising on the sides and top of their pages-you know, "McCain or Obama? Register to Vote!" or "Celebrity diet tricks," etc. etc., I was surprised to see a pretty politically charged ad on this website; it said "Find out more about Prop 8 and what really happens if we don't pass this measure." You click on the ad banner, and it takes you to the "Yes on Prop 8" campaign page.
This raised several questions for me...
The ads on theromantic.com are generated by Google. Does that mean that ad was just randomly selected for this site, and could easily be found on some recipe website, or dog lovers website, or Halloween costume website? Or are the website's managers inferring something about their political beliefs and values through the choosing of this ad?
If it was just a random selection, I for one would be offended by something being depicted on my website that I don't believe in. People are free to say what they think about topics like politics and religion through any type of media, including web ads; however, it gets dicey if the content of the ad somehow relates to the content of the website, and therefore could be misconstrued by site visitors.
In this case, through this "Yes on Prop 8" ad, theromantic.com, a site that has everything from love song lyrics to creative date ideas to love poems, is giving off the message that they celebrate love and want you to, too, but only in the "traditional" sense, between a man and a woman.
I'm not saying this site absolutely needs to include content specifically involving gay and lesbian couples (It would be awesome if they did), just that this small ad is saying a mouthful, whether it's intended to or not.
I really have no idea if the people at theromantic.com are die-hard supporters of Prop 8 or not, but it's just interesting how a simple ad can make you wonder what a particular type of media is saying to its audience.
Any thoughts?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
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