Monday, September 3, 2012

Google prudish about Lingerie Football League

Google thinks my coverage of the Lingerie Football League is offensive.
Administrators of Google’s Blogger platform recently suspended all AdSense advertisements on Tech-media-tainment because of partial female nudity in seven posts about the LFL over the last four years.
The articles in question discuss wardrobe malfunctions during LFL games. I censored photos where players’ nipples were exposed. But I left photos unedited of players who flashed some butt crack.
In an e-mail on Aug. 16, Google threatened to suspend running AdSense ads on Tech-media-tainment if I didn’t do something to bring my blog into compliance.
Google classified the content as “Adult/Sexually gratifying.” Take a look for yourself, but these photos are hardly “sexually gratifying.” They are sports action photos with some comical bikini bottom failures.
Google’s suggestions for returning to compliance weren’t very helpful.
Alternatives included deleting the posts or photos, censoring the photos or finding a way not to run ads with those posts. I would have agreed to the latter suggestion if Google offered tools for doing just that. But I could not find any.
So I held my ground on principle and filed an appeal.
In my appeal to Google’s policy administrators, I argued that the butt-crack photos were no more sexual in nature than old Coppertone commercials.
My argument was that the photos were newsworthy and reinforced my argument that the LFL would not be taken seriously as a professional sport unless it had functional uniforms.
On Aug. 28, Google notified me via e-mail that it had suspended AdSense ad serving to Tech-media-tainment.
The ads on Tech-media-tainment have been mutually beneficial to me and Google, so I hope they consider my appeal. Also, it is only seven posts out of more than 900.

Update: For the uncensored photos, check out the LFL Wardrobe Malfunctions blog.

Photo: Italian blog Very Special Girls does a great job chronicling wardrobe malfunctions in the LFL. The above photo is from a June 12 post about multiple wardrobe malfunctions at a Lingerie Football League exhibition game in Sydney, Australia. In this shot, LFL player Lauren Ziegler is wearing tape on her nipples.

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