Looking For A Movie And A Massage!

South Africa's largest movie chain, Ster Kinekor, has made a large error of judgement in its efforts to cut back on advertising costs - an error that may prove more costly than the money saved on it advertising spend.

They recently decided not to have the movie listings in the entertainment section of the Star newspaper but rather to have them printed in the classifieds section. So far, so good although I do question whether people would think about going to the classifieds when looking for the movie listings - there seems to be a disconnect in that logic.

However the problem is that the movie listings now find themselves opposite the adult services! Can you imagine a parent asking his 9-year old to see what movie is showing and then having his child exposed to massage services, escort agencies and the like and then having to deal with the resultant questions. It is tantamount to having adult sites advertising on the Ster Kinekor website. Clearly this is inappropriate advertising placement and Ster Kinekor and the Star are going to have to deal with this issue immediately to avoid fall-out. 702 Talk Radio was already receiving calls this morning about this issue.

I expect a company such as Ster Kinekor to take immediate action to rectify this situation. What are you doing in your business to ensure your advertising placement aligns with your business values and ethics?