The City of Prince George was caught with its pants down this weekend thanks to a website offering all kinds of sexual favours.
When city PR folks decided to use a popular local online news source to get out the vote, little did they know their image would be linked to the most sexually explicit
language most people could conceive.
But for those left red-faced by the mild scandal, we offer the possibility of a few silver
linings.
Maybe, just maybe, the city has accidentally struck on an ingenious, low-cost way of promoting the city.
We'd take a much tamer approach, of course, but we can see it now:
Single Northern city, 97, seeks skilled tradespeople, foreign students, medical professionals and investors for economic good times. Don't be fooled by age - even though there is snow of the roofs there is still fire in the district energy system. Turn ons: long walks at the confluence of two rivers; getting caught in three feet of snow; the smell of pulp mills. Turn offs: snooty Vancouver people; pine beetles; organized crime.
And it may just be that the unintentional ad placement finally reached that elusive demographic: the basement-dwelling, shut-in Internet troll.
This rarely-seen species typically only wanders outdoors for take-out pizza and trips to EB Games. What better way to get their attention than alongside creepy Internet come-ons?
Just because these people are lonely and lacking in social skills doesn't mean they shouldn't be made aware of the city's valuable services such as garbage removal, snow clearing, the public library and recreational facilities like swimming pools...
On second thought, maybe it was a good thing those ads weren't up for very long.
But seriously, advertisers and media frequently struggle with the balance between freedom of speech and protecting the public from things that may offend.
The world is less and less a G-rated place, and society is redefining the line between good taste and censorship on a daily basis, thanks to technological advancements.
It's a slippery, and sometimes sticky slope that, this time, caught the city unawares.
In this case, the website operators were taken aback by the content and quickly pulled it.
But the dilemma of controlling online content to suit advertisers' messages will only increase.
With the growing profits to be made through the Internet's marketing reach, using it to get a message out becomes irresistible. But what makes the Internet so appealing to consumers is also what makes it so dangerous to those hoping to leverage its popularity: the near-impossible task of censoring what gets posted. Just ask the Chinese government. Or those who launched the Arab Spring.
The City of Prince George ad embarrassment is only the latest example of the increasingly unfettered society we live in thanks to the Internet - for better or for worse.
