Video blogebrity HappySlip has deleted her MySpace profile, including over 34,000 friends, because AdSense repeatedly populated her page with ads soliciting Filipina women.
Women are among the Philippines’ most profitable exports. If you plan to do heavy Filipino-oriented blogging, expect to see a few shady sites in surrounding AdSense boxes.
See more ads here. Sponsored messages for girl-peddling sites also appeared prominently during HappySlip’s Philippine tourism promotion.
A few months ago she mentioned wanting to contact MySpace so they could block the URLs, but I guess they’ve been unresponsive. HappySlip kept her MySpace URL and is redirecting users to HappySlip.com.
“Those ads are in direct conflict with the HappySlip brand and especially misrepresentative of Filipina women,” HappySlip wrote, which is interesting: she’s begun thinking about herself as a brand with valuable equity.
It’s fortunate HappySlip already has a thriving fanbase and her own URL. But if you’re using free sites like YouTube and MySpace to build your brand in the first place, to whom does your content belong, and do you have the right to decide what ads are served around your profile?
