Facebook Gives In, Allows Gay Ads

A few weeks ago I reported on British gay digital ad firm Pink! AccuraCast’s battle with Facebook to place a few ads for the agency’s poll to choose the “best gay ad ever.”  Facebook initially denied the ads, and in a series of email exchanges, reps from the social networking site and AccuraCast argued the “relevancy and appropriateness” of the ads.  Facebook’s explanation for disallowing the ads was dubious at best, and its actions stunk of homophobia (you can read about it here and here).

Well it appears now that Facebook has had a change of heart.  After a lengthy and rather amusing exchange of emails, Pink! AccuraCast finally convinced Facebook that the ads were, in fact, within the website’s ad guidelines.  According to Adrian at AccuraCast, the ads have been running for several days now.  The irony of it all is that the disputed ads have achieved the highest click-through rates of all the ads the agency runs, proving once and for all the ads must be “relevant and appropriate” for their target audience!

Is Facebook Homophobic Or Just Really Bad At Ad Targeting?

In a post last week I reported allegations that Facebook’s advertising policies might be homophobic.  Pink AccuraCast, a gay-oriented ad agency in the UK, tried to place ads for an online poll asking viewers to pick the best gay commercial of all-time, only to have Facebook reject the ads.  In case you missed it, Adrian from Pink AccuraCast commented on the post, giving more examples of Facebook’s homophobic policies, including a much-publicized rejected ad for the lesbian-themed movie And Then Came Lola (Thanks for the info Adrian!).

In an email exchange with Pink AccuraCast, Facebook claimed the agency’s ads were “irrelevant or inappropriate,” which I find extremely hard to believe.  After doing some research, I found this article from the New York Times that discusses Facebook’s crackdown on misguided ads, but the ads the agency wanted to run were neither irrelevant or inappropriate.  The article also mentions that Facebook doesn’t review each ad, but instead relies on user feedback to flag inappropriate material.  Pink AccuraCast’s ads were targeted to gay men, so I can’t imagine why this target demo would find the ads inappropriate.

This leads me to believe that the problem is not that Facebook is homophobic, but rather that they can’t get basic ad targeting right.  I have read a lot of complaints from straight folks grumbling about being targeted by gay-themed ads on Facebook (here,  and here are a few examples).  There’s even a Facebook page dedicated to banning gay ads on Facebook (a hilarious line from one from one of the wall posts:  ”I’m not homophobic, in fact I’m for gay rights, but still, when I see “gogo undies for hot gay fierce boys,” I have to do something.”)  If this is the case and the problem is with Facebook’s targeting capabilities, they should just say so rather than having us believe their policy’s are homophobic.

Agency Claims Facebook Policy Is Homophobic

Yesterday I wrote a post about a poll being conducted by London-based ad agency Pink! AccuraCast in an effort to identify the “best gay ad ever.”  Now the chaps at AccuraCast are claiming Facebook is displaying a “surprising level of homophobia” in disapproving some of the agency’s ads on the social networking site.  You can read an interesting email chain between the agency and Facebook representatives regarding the ads here.

Facebook claims the ads, which depicted shirtless males, were rejected because they displayed imagery that was “irrelevant or inappropriate.”  However, AccuraCast says they were only targeting gay males with the ads, so there’s no reason why the ads could be seen as inappropriate.  In case you’ve never run a Facebook advertising campaign, the site allows you to target your ads based on users’ self-reported information.  So, for instance, if you want to target lesbians living in Waco, Texas who work at Home Depot and like to watch Survivor, you can.  Your creative options are limited, but the cost per click is typically much lower than a traditional banner ad campaign.  I certainly hope this is an isolated incident, because I would hate to have to pull all my Facebook ads due to an ethical conflict.