Last week, The Post and Courier of Charleston, where a gunman killed nine people, had to apologise after it carried a gun-range ad (a sticker) on some of its editions featuring the news of the killings. There have been several other instances of badly placed ads featuring brands big and small, a risk compounded by the fact that on the Internet, it’s often the keywords that determine which ads will accompany an article.

Last year, the New York Times website and Apple were the subjects of a faux pas where an ad for iPad Air featuring a scuba diver deep inside the ocean was carried with a news item about the Malaysia Airlines 370 aeroplane that disappeared, and is widely believed to have crashed into the ocean. An ad for an airline has a picture of it zooming down the side of an escalator. Someone caught sight of a kiosk featuring a major food brand, where the model is seen smacking her lips, right next to a dumpster – it looks as if she is licking the garbage – and it’s all over the Internet now. A hoarding of heart.org warning that one in three people in Louisiana, US, will die of heart disease was placed next to a big burger chain’s offer of two croissan’wiches for $3.

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