Controversial Pie Fight Ad Drives Traffic

Posted on June 9, 2005

The MediaPost is reporting that an ad that appeared on the left-leaning political blog Daily Kos has created quite a stir with some Daily Kos readers. The ad, which ran through the BlogAds service, promotes TBS' The Real Gilligan's Island. The MediaPost describes the ad:

In a conceptual mash-up, the ad, entitled simply "Pie Fight" and created by Stun Creative, combines characters from the old TV show "Gilligan's Island" with the concept of the popular "Catfight" ad for Miller Lite beer. "Pie Fight" depicts original TV characters Mary Ann and Ginger fighting about what makes a good coconut cream pie; they ultimately throw pies at each other, wrestle, and get rinsed off with a bucket of water.
The Media Post reported that some DailyKos readers known as "Kossacks" left the blog and started their own blog called the Women Kossacks. The Post says, "Many of Kos' female readers expressed offense and even outrage that the ad, which they say objectifies women, would be hosted on a progressive site like DailyKos."

DailyKos founder Markos Zuniga defended running the ad and wrote that the DailyKos cannot be everything to everyone. Kos says, "This is a site about electoral issues, the netroots, and Iraq. Period. If you have an issue you want to tackle, whether it's environmental, Darfur, women's rights, tax reform, education, or whatever, you can 1) write a diary about it, or 2) start your own blog on the topic."

Kos also says, "I am not the end-all, be-all of liberal blogging. I cannot be everything to everyone."

The controversy has been good for traffic to the TBS website and The Media Post reported that Markos Zuniga said the ad had become the "most successful ad in the history of this site, with close to 8,000 click-throughs over the low-traffic weekend."



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