Out of respect for the families of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary, I have waited nearly two weeks to write this post. However, I think it’s an important issue.

I was on campus when I heard the news. I headed straight to the Internet to find out what was happening. As I pulled up the very first news article titled At least 26 dead in shooting at Connecticut elementary school, I was presented with an extremely offensive ad selected and served by Google (see image above or click here for a larger image).

The t-shirt in the ad from BadIdeaTshirts.com depicts a woman who has been shot with the phrase, “I’m fine.” Considering that the events of that day are some of the most horrific and heartbreaking in America’s recent history, this t-shirt and ad are, in my opinion, simply unacceptable and far over any line of common decency.

How Google ads work

I understand that no person at Google made the decision to present this ad when I pulled up the article. Google uses an algorithm based on keywords to decide what ads to serve. Here’s an example of how this happens.

  1. A campaign manager at Bad Idea T-shirts submits this ad to Google entering various keywords that he or she considers related to this ad and will result in clicks. In this case, it was probably the word dead.
  2. Sometime later, I open the article about Sandy Hook and Google scans the page as it is loading on my screen and sees the word dead.
  3. Google’s algorithm decides to serve or load the Bad Idea ad without taking into account the context of the word.
Related:  10 Crucial questions to guide you in creating a successful app

How the system is broken

You might say, “Well, no one decided to pair this ad with this headline. It was just a computer’s decision. An unfortunate one, but nothing more.”

I disagree. Wholeheartedly.

Google’s algorithms are pretty smart. They already take into account the context of a word. That’s how Google indexes websites and has made a fortune doing it.

In this case, Google could have easily understood that phrases such as dead, shot and children means something terrible. Further, Google could have required more information about the ad so that its algorithm would know that it would be inappropriate.

My point is that I don’t think Google can just say sorry. It needs to evolve AdWords (its advertising service). I’m not a Google hater by any means, but they need to be more considerate and just more socially responsible in how they conduct business.

But what about Bad Idea T-shirts?

Frankly, I’m astounded that they allowed this ad to continue to run. I understand that they have a slew of t-shirts that are intended to be offensive all of the time. But there are some situations in which it’s just not funny. Ever.

In this case, this shirt is insensitive and cruel to the family of the victims.

So the campaign manager who determined which words to use needs to be slapped across the face.

I invite anyone from Google, BadIdeaTshirts.com or anyone else for that matter to comment.