Bad Ad Placement of the Week: Principal Financial, Sprint, Best Buy

 

A word of warning: this ad placement is on offensive content. That’s what makes it such a bad ad placement. It happened on Boston Barstool Sports, a blog known for its freewheeling nature. It’s also an ad-supported site. That’s how Principal Financial ended up with an overlay ad inviting users to visit its DreamAgain.com microsite over a two-minute video depicting a man defiling a mannequin, along with some additional highly offensive commentary to boot. To top things off, Sprint was able to have an ad on the page, thanks to running on the Meebo Bar on the bottom of the page. Best Buy is currently running on the page.

 

More in Media

The biggest SEO lessons in 2025 for publishers

KPIs are changing, more AI search data is becoming available, and publishers are looking beyond search to grow their audiences and revenue.

Digiday’s comprehensive guide to what’s in and out for publishers in 2026

Adaptability stopped being a nice-to-have for publishers years ago; it became a survival skill. Here’s a look at Digiday’s guide to what’s in and out for 2026.

Here are the biggest moments in AI for publishers in 2025

Here are some of the moments that defined how publishers adapted to the AI era this year.