MAJOR SEARCH ENGINE SYMPATHIZES WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Google.com Bans Listing of Flash Cartoon Depicting Terrorist's Death
Wilsonville, OR -- (PRnetwire.com) -- July 30, 2002 -- Inspired by the lyrics of the country artist Toby Keith's single, "Angry American," Dan Sherman, an angry American himself, decided to show his anger by designing a flash cartoon to depict what he felt most Americans would consider appropriate justice for murderer and terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
The cartoon was posted on July 17th, at www.dog9.com. To generate some word-of-mouth buzz, Sherman decided to use Google.com's AdWords Select program using the keywords "Osama bin Laden" and other spellings of the same name to draw a semi-targeted audience. The ad read, "Boot in Osama's Butt - Flash cartoon depicting what should have happened to Osama after 9/11."
The Google.com advertising started on July 18th and the web site immediately received over 500 visitors. In the middle of next day, on July 19th, Sherman received an email from Google.com informing him that the content of his website was considered "Hate/Anti" and that they were immediately pulling the advertisement from their search engine.
"What I find interesting about their decision," says Sherman, "is their inability to differentiate between hate and justice. Osama bin Laden has essentially confessed to orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, killing thousands of Americans in the process and President Bush has even sent our military after him and his organization. Yet, I can't advertise a cartoon in which his death is only implied. Incredible!"
Sherman uses Dog9.com as a forum for showing his outrage on current event topics. According to Sherman, his next cartoon will be about Alan Iverson and his brush with the law. "I can assure Google that I do not hate Alan Iverson. But it will not be flattering to Mr. Iverson, that's for sure. I can't wait to hear what their opinion is of this new one," Sherman says.
Media Contact: Dan Sherman,
Tel: 503-682-0582,
Fax: 503-582-8854,
Email: email@dansherman.com
url: http://www.dog9.com
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