Doing the Right Thing

The other day I wrote about the bad publicity Vonage is getting because their ads are being distributed (by vendors) through spyware. So I noted this story about Warner Bros. with some interest:

Via a partnership with Zango (the former 180solutions) the Warner Bros. website, an online destination for kids, has been offering free games via adware that Zango installs on users' computers. The catch: some of the ads that kids may end up seeing could be for porn, writes the Washington Post.

...

In a statement issued yesterday, Warner Bros. said Zango had agreed that "no one accessing Zango's network from the Warner Bros. site would receive inappropriate material." Zango spokesman Steve Stratz is quoted as saying the promotion of its software on the Warner site was apparently an "ad inventory mix-up," adding, "it's not our job to police the Warner Bros. site."

No, but it is their job to serve up the right ads for the right clients. Warner Bros. is doing the right thing by severing ties with a company that doesn't, or can't, adhere to property practices.

This could easily have blown up on Warner Bros. It pays to monitor what your ad vendors are doing.