No matter how much Jeff and many other people might take the moral high ground, they have to admit that this is nothing more than an appeal to the true nature of an average human (male). The "problem" is not with the advertisers; they are simply doing their job in the most effective manner possible.
Not really sure that applies in this particular case.
First one looks like an ad for a game. I might have clicked that if bored. Second one? The text is kinda odd, but maybe?
Then it just goes downhill fast. Last one looks like I'm signing up for porn site, with free spam until the end of times. I would have never clicked that.
Yeah the 3rd ad onward I thought they were advertising for either a sex fantasy game, a new kind of dating service, or porn. I think advertising like this dilutes your advertising dollars across a broad range of people who are only remotely interested in your product. Sure, they can get a lot of click with boobs, but people clicking on boobs are looking for boobs. If they don't get them, it's ad money wasted. They would probably have more quality leads if they targeted their advertising to paid gaming sites. Those people are already willing to pay for their online games, and are obviously looking for games to play.
But are you their average target customer? That's my real point: people who look down on these sorts of things are not the intended advertising targets.
I don't know, but consider: Their target customer who will actually pay them money is someone who is going to sign up to play a Civilization-like game in their browser, and likes it so much that they're willing to buy in-game perks.
Are those people the sort of people who click on softcore porn banner ads? Could be, but my intuition would have suggested that they aren't.
Their game is a Flash-based Civilization clone with a twist. They are clearly not targeting the average internet user - if they wanted to they would've done it like Playfish and not create games based on medieval Europe.
e.g. Two of the most popular games on Facebook right now involve running your own restaurant or running your own cartoony farm. This is the kind of thing that would hook mainstream users. Knights and ladies of the realm do not.
