advertising complaint, is this the right place?

[BHappy]

dear mothering.com,

some of the advertising on the site is really contrary to the philosophy of mothering and the women who frequent here (ok, at least me!).

i have seen ads for processed, unhealthy foods (i.e. true moo, or whatever that crap is. it has 40g of sugar in one small bottle!).

i also just saw an ad for ways to reduce your tummy. come on. we women need help loving our bodies the way they are, not feeling like we should be getting skinny. we are women and mothers for goddess's sake.

i would really like to see you all have advertising that is at least in alignment with your values.

sincerely,

karen

[Cynthia Mosher]

i would really like to see you all have advertising that is at least in alignment with your values.

This is our intention too. Right now we have mostly network ads due to the fact that our web ad sales team has not been able to sell ads to our print advertisers because of a contract with our print ad sales team. That contract ended in March and since then the web team has been signing a lot of contracts with print advertisers, like Earth Mama Angel Baby, Hylands, Flora and many others. Our hope is to replace these non-endemic ads with endemic ads as soon as possible but it will take a few more months. The restrictions we have currently set on network ads are no formula, no disposable diapers and no pharmaceuticals. It's difficult to create a standard for food as it would have to be so broad, but we are talking about it.

[swede]

right now, there is an ad for a lunch box makeover at teh top of my screen that is sponsored by "Fruity Pebbles TReats".  And on the bottom (they are both ads for "Sheknows U" or something like that) it is sponsored by sprite.  maybe no food ads is the way to go.  I hate that junk :(  It's bad enough advertising for all the garbage is everywhere else, I woudl hope MDC would be a safe place from the onslaught of really sugary, no-nutritive value, processed foods.

I'm just thinking (after seeing the no-bottle ads rule) that a bottle full of breastmilk (or even formula for that matter - and this is coming from a LLL leader who has never used bottles for anythign in 10+ years of mothering) is better than a bottle of soda pop for anybody :(

[swede]

crystal light is up there right now.  Artificial sweeteners?  ew.

[Think of Winter]

I never see ads because I have a supporting membership.  It was very reasonably priced, and well worth it.  But when I went looking, I couldn't even find the page here to purchase a supporting membership to link for this reply.  If MDC made this option easier, there may be a whole lot more users willing to pay.

I am annoyed by the "reviews" on the right side of the screen.  These are not much different than ads, since the point is to sell the product through a link from mdc, right?  I wish my supporting membership hid them, too.

ETA:  I found it!  It's under the "Subscribe to Mothering" link in the top right.  http://www.mothering.com/community/wiki/paid-subscriptions  I doubt many people are clicking here since the magazine folded.

Edited by Think of Winter - 5/10/11 at 1:40pm

[BHappy]

Originally Posted by Think of Winter 

I never see ads because I have a supporting membership.  It was very reasonably priced, and well worth it.  But when I went looking, I couldn't even find the page here to purchase a supporting membership to link for this reply.  If MDC made this option easier, there may be a whole lot more users willing to pay.

that is really unfortunate. i tried looking for a supporting membership a few months ago, when i heard the print magazine was being canceled. i couldn't find a way to sign up at all. sad.