The Seduction of Anita Sarkeesian
Artist: Andrew Bushard
Year: 2017
Date of Action: May 4 2017, March 3 2017
Region: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality, Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Commercial Advertising, Internet
Confronting Bodies: Beacon Ads, BuySellAds, Bust.com
Description of Artwork: The Seduction of Anita Sarkeesian contains the following plot:
"A babe named Anita Sarkeesian crusades to purify video games. But she discovers a maverick named Frelsun who is also discovering her. Frelsun thinks she is hot and stylish. Frelsun challenges Anita's world view in ways she never imagined. He entices her yet she feels conflicted. Will Frelsun succeed in his quest to seduce Anita and to transform her into a maverick? Read this erotic romance novella to find out."
The Incident: Author Andrew Bushard paid for ads for the book The Seduction of Anita Sarkeesian through online ad marketplace, Beacon Ads. Some webmasters approved and placed the ad on their websites, but other webmasters denied the ad and complained to Beacon Ads' webmaster.
Results of Incident: Upon inquiring about being unable to login onto the Beacon Ads website, a support agent stated, "We are sorry to inform you that we are not able to serve your ads in our network, your account was closed. We had to blacklist your account. We had received multiple complaints from publishers of your ad containing inappropriate content."
Source:
• https://www.beaconadnetwork.com/,
• http://www.freepressmedia.org/AnitaSarkeesianShortTrilogy.html,
• https://www.buysellads.com,
• https://bust.com/
In 2017, author Andrew Bushard purchased and placed an ad for The Seduction of Anita Sarkeesian through BuySellAds's advertisement marketplace on feminist website Bust Magazine.
Bust Magazine approved the ad. On the ad date, the ad earned 370 impressions and 1 click, before Bust Magazine took the ad down.
On March 3, 2017 a BuySellAds's agent emailed author Andrew Bushard saying, "I am sorry to inform you that the publisher of BUST Magazine requested the removal and refund of your ad because it is not appropriate for their audience."
Also in 2017, Sermonaudio cancelled an ad for The Seduction of Anita Sarkeesian, after having run the ad for part of the time period. Sermonaudio emailed author Andrew Bushard saying, "We are sorry to inform you that we have been forced to cancel the recent ad you purchased due to the adult nature of the link that was included."