Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued 
Apparently, some of my readers in Canada are getting this when they look at any of my Suzanne Somers posts:
No other country seems to be affected; at least, no readers from other countries have reported the problem to me.
This will not do. The Overlords have been informed. In the meantime, if you are in Canada, I apologize. Ads for such rank quackery and misinformation have no more place on ScienceBlogs than the creationist ads that popped up a while ago. Fortunately, from my locale, I have not been able to replicate the problem. However, if you are in a country other than Canada and see this problem, please send me a screenshot.
Medicine & Health
Comments
Do the end users of google adsense (scienceblogs.com in this case) have any control over what is displayed by context sensitive ads?
Posted by: JohnV | October 22, 2009 8:57 AM
http://skeptools.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/contextual-advertising-woo-woo-get-over-it/
Posted by: Daniel | October 22, 2009 9:03 AM
The banner here (in AZ) is an ad for symbicort, or cigna medical group "Care today" clinics. I was spared the Suzanne Somers woo.
Posted by: DLC | October 22, 2009 9:05 AM
I don't know. I like the contrast. Every Susan Sommers' ad should have a Orac Post attached to it.
Posted by: Greg Laden | October 22, 2009 9:23 AM
I'd like to hear Jake Crosby's read on this development. Orac, you and Seed are obviously shills for Suzanne Somers, in disguise of course.
Posted by: Joseph | October 22, 2009 9:32 AM
This is a classic case of a computer (in this case, operated by Google) doing what it was told to do instead of what you wanted it to do. It sees that you are discussing Suzanne Somers, but the algorithm isn't smart enough to figure out that you are quite properly ripping her woo to shreds, so it serves up a Suzanne Somers ad.
A few months ago there was a similar discussion over ads for Asian mail order brides. We saw exactly the same thing: the posts which explicitly opposed the practice were disproportionately likely to feature those ads. The cause was the same: including that key phrase, even in rip-to-shreds opposition, led Google AdSense to serve up one of those ads.
Posted by: Eric Lund | October 22, 2009 9:35 AM
"This is a classic case of a computer (in this case, operated by Google) doing what it was told to do instead of what you wanted it to do."
This is the perfect time to bring up one of my favorite Dr Who quotes:
"The trouble with computer is they're very sophisticated idiots. They do exactly what you tell them at amazing speed."
Posted by: Calli Arcale | October 22, 2009 10:12 AM
I guess I should disable ad block plus for your blog and give the site a few pennies of ad revenue.
Posted by: superdave | October 22, 2009 10:14 AM
I will to, although any mail order brides show up and it's straight back on.
Posted by: Ramel | October 22, 2009 11:15 AM
Hey, doesn't this mean she (or her publisher) is, in essence, paying you to rip her woo to shreds? And besides, those ads being here keeps them from being shown to more gullible audiences elsewhere.
http://www.urlesque.com/2009/08/28/10-awesome-contextual-ad-fails-photos/
Posted by: Ryan | October 22, 2009 11:31 AM
I have observed similar effects when reading you RSS feed in Livejournal. Not this most recent ad , but adds referring to chelation therapy ect. Indeed this is a computer matching keywords. I am not sure computers notice where I live( Germany ) as recently Google was offering me participation in google voice ( availiable ONLY to US residents ) and since most of the spam and other ads I get on the Intarwebs is aimed at such residents.
Not that this contrast or the computer-stupidity are unusual --- when I was using the free ( ad-sponsored ) version of livejournal I did fill a form including questions about race, place of residence and so on [ ordinary German: which translates as average white caucasian in American ] Despite all those questions for the first weeks I got exclusively shown ads for an Asian seeks Asian dating service. [ so wrong on both ends - I am not what they are looking for and I am not looking ( was not lookin ) that far away .]
Given the economics of banner ads I wonder if fighting these is the right thing. If they paid upfront for their ad to be shown on selected sides they are not getting any revenue from your readers so they are loosing ( pennies but still )
If on the other hand they pay for click through then google is bleeding money by placing those ads on a non-suitable page and we don't need exactly help them to make more profit. ( not unless one is paid a hefty consulting fee )
Posted by: Andreas Schaefer | October 22, 2009 11:52 AM
Canadian reader here. I don't think I got the ad, or if I did, whether I noticed it, but I accept the apology anyways :D
Posted by: Corina Becker | October 22, 2009 12:56 PM
I'd rather get that ad than be bombarded with ads for that stupid online game (the title of which eludes me) with the half nekkid wimmens on it. Makes this blog marginally NSFW frankly.
Posted by: Chris | October 22, 2009 2:22 PM
I love AdSense. It has even caused PBS to host ads for religion on their website. LOL
If you search PBS for Scientology or LDS, a corresponding ad will appear. It's fairly easy to fix, so I've read. Knowing that it's a simple matter, however, has made me pretty grumpy, because PBS has ignored my requests to remove the ads. (Establishment clause, anyone?)
Posted by: Jen | October 22, 2009 2:52 PM
Reverse add-sense: attaching relevant reality based information to advertisements. I like it. Sounds like a job for http://xkcd.com/481/
Posted by: qbsmd | October 22, 2009 2:53 PM
oh hey, I just noticed that two of the Suzanne Somers posts had that ad.
Huh, I guess I'm not that targeted audience that they're aiming for.
But yeah, I can officially accept that apology now, although I'm partially amused by it.
Posted by: Corina Becker | October 22, 2009 3:29 PM
Sort-of related ... Has anyone else seen that ad for the Stem Cell Therapy clinic in Mexico on SB? (I have a screenshot somewhere ... on my other computer, I think.)
Posted by: Tanya | October 23, 2009 11:40 AM
Anyone else having trouble accessing the site? I've got to this page by hitting "next post" since september, but this is the most recent post that will load, and the main page just loads a blank page.
Posted by: Ender | October 24, 2009 9:57 AM
I agree with #10. What a great way to waste their advertising dollar! We should click on it if we see it in case they pay for clicks.
Posted by: Dwatney | October 24, 2009 11:19 AM