I can’t visit the old site (CBR) with my adblocker on anymore; but they use Google ads, and I hate Google ads. Don’t get me wrong – I want to support the sites I visit, and I want to not switch off all ads everywhere ever; but sometimes I feel like I need a shower after seeing some of the advertising on sites.
I did a separate Bing search for this, just to see if it was what I thought it was. One of the genres listed for it was ‘Smut’.
I clicked on that ‘×’ and tell Google the ad was inappropriate, I’m not interested in this ad, I’ve seen this ad multiple times last week, and yesterday. I still found it easily today.
Then comes the Google Ad cycle, and it goes something like this (Apologies for the following photos):
1. Do you want to buy a Chinese woman?
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The image formerly placed here had to be removed, because the company that paid money for Google to run their ad doesn’t want it on our site, so they filed a copyright claim with our hosting company. Apparently they don’t want to anyone to comment that they are a creepy company. Please imagine a photo of a pretty but definitely not Chinese girl in a pool, looking at the camera, with a caption reading “7 Euro Beauties To Every Man – Since 2003 – Voted #1 Niche Dating Site, Finding Love, Made Simple – Dream Singles.” Just in case you’re a lonely guy ready to pay for female companionship. I guess not all publicity is good publicity.
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Okay, this isn’t a Chinese woman. The pictures I’m including in this article are the ones I found by spending a few minutes on the old sites earlier this morning. I’m not going to go searching for the right picture!
The actual Chinese one shows a very, very attractive woman, and it says she’s in her 30s and looking for a husband. She looks like she’s in her 20s, and is very, very hot, and lives in the country with the single highest male-to-female ratio on the planet, and apparently has trouble finding a husband.
Seems legit.
I click on that ‘×’ and tell Google the ad was inappropriate, I’m not interested in this ad, I’ve seen this ad multiple times.
Sometimes it disappears for two seconds, then the exact same ad reappears. Sometimes, this happens:
2. Do you want to buy a Thai woman?
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This was another ad from Dream Singles. They didn’t complain about this one, but they probably would. Please imagine a photo of a generically pretty but definitely not Thai blonde girl looking at the camera, with a caption reading “7 Euro Beauties To Every Man – 87% Of Our Users Are Stunning Women Looking For Mature Men. Voted Number One Niche Dating Site – Dream Singles.” . As Le Messor wrote in the caption, “at least this one looks like a human being and not a model.” Anyway, it’s gone now.
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I mean, look at these women! First, I’m wondering if I should be adding a ‘NSFW’ tag to these pics. Second, I doubt the woman this site connected me with would look like that. What woman who looks like that needs a dating site? Third, if they did, they’d be wayyyy out of my league!
Fourth – they’re not women I’m interested in. Do any one of these look like I could sit around with them talking about the X-Men or Star Trek? I don’t think so.
I click on that ‘×’ and tell Google the ad was inappropriate, I’m not interested in this ad, I’ve seen this ad multiple times.
3. Do you want to buy a Russian woman?
Clearly, the problem I have with these ads must be racism. It’s not that I don’t want them shoving sleazy pictures in my face, it’s not that I’m not interested in dating anybody – and if I was, the internet, especially a dating site, is the last place I’d look.
I click on that ‘×’ and tell Google the ad was inappropriate, I’m not interested in this ad, I’ve seen this ad multiple times.
4. Then you must want a dress!
At this point, I feel like Google is being passive aggressive. ‘If you don’t want to buy one of our women, you must want to buy yourself a dress’, it’s saying to me.
I let this ad play. It’s usually SFW, and I have no problem with the concept of buying a dress over the internet, even if it’s something I’d never do.
When I click on that ‘×’ and tell Google the ad was inappropriate, I’m not interested in this ad, I’ve seen this ad multiple times, the following message comes up:

I got some of these ads with ‘personalised advertising’ on, and some with it off. It makes no difference.
I even click on ads that I’m not going to buy, if they’re for something I’m remotely interested in, just to see if that helps them target advertising better.
A long time ago, Google let me give them a profile so they could target their advertising at me (without creating an account with these sleaze-merchants). I knew I should’ve put myself down as a 9yo!
As it is, apparently they think of me as a sex-obsessed loser with a highly inflated sense of what kind of woman I can get – but no ability to find porn on the net by myself.
You say “I can’t visit the old site…” What “old site” are you referring to?
Comic Book Resources, where most of us met.
I don’t think I’m the first person here to call it that? Could be wrong.
Ah. No, Greg H calls it that, or something similar.
[Edit] I wouldn’t call it that, because I don’t want to put forward the notion that we are an extension or continuation of CBR; it’s “the old site” for the ones who used to write for it, but for those of us who were never regular contributors, not so much. Me, I’d just call it CBR to avoid any confusion.
I’ve edited the article to make it clear what I was referring to. Can’t be bothered doing more than the first line, though. 🙂