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Conde Nast refuses to run Prop 19 ads on reddit

140 points| holman | 15 years ago |reddit.com | reply

99 comments

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[+] auxbuss|15 years ago|reply
For those who have no idea what Prop 19 is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_19

Basically, a marijuana legalisation proposal.

[+] pstuart|15 years ago|reply
More of a "tax and regulate", which is a step towards legalization.
[+] pbhjpbhj|15 years ago|reply
>This was a decision made at the highest levels of Conde Nast.

Doesn't this put the lie to their "we're our own business and don't have anything to do with Conde Nast, that's why we need your charity" line?

[+] michael_dorfman|15 years ago|reply
Nope; it confirms that the Reddit guys and their Conde Nast overlords don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, and that Reddit is not given the freedom (or resources, apparently) to run itself as it sees fit.
[+] ErrantX|15 years ago|reply
> Doesn't this put the lie to their "we're our own business and don't have anything to do with Conde Nast, that's why we need your charity" line?

The fact they have take the decision to run the ads for free possibly puts lie to ''that'' :)

[+] malbiniak|15 years ago|reply
Since we're not allowed to benefit financially, reddit is now running the ads for free.

Nice hack, reddit.

[+] points|15 years ago|reply
It's farcical. It's just circlejerking. The idea that advertising pro-prop19 to Reddit would have made any sense in the first place is just ridiculous given that they're all pretty much uniformly in favor of it.

It's fun to watch them run around being outraged boycotting and generally wasting their own time though.

[+] starnix17|15 years ago|reply
I wonder why Conde Nast even bought reddit in the first place.

It's cool that they let them run the web site as an independent entity more or less, but it really seems like they don't like supporting them (see Reddit Gold).

[+] points|15 years ago|reply
They probably thought they were buying a broad general "What news will look like in the future" website.

In fact they ended up with a liberal pro drug, pro gay, pro adblock, anti capitalism, anti consumerism, anti advertising, athiest website.

As time has gone on Reddits userbase seems to have become narrower and narrower even though it's obviously grown massively. Maybe it's groupthink at work, or maybe it's just come to be known as a hangout for liberals being outraged by stuff.

[+] famousactress|15 years ago|reply
The fact that they're running them for free is kinda interesting. Going from corporate censoring the ads, to reddit essentially giving the campaign a huge contribution. It'll be interesting to see what the fall-out from this is.
[+] ars|15 years ago|reply
If I were Conde Nast, the fallout would be firing them, and yes I'm aware this may kill reddit.

You were bought. Reddit does not belong to you, and you don't get to decide what to do with it.

If you can't handle that then you should never have sold, or in this case you should quit.

[+] ataggart|15 years ago|reply
What's the over/under on the complaints about corporate giveaways to political campaigns? I'll take the under.
[+] jsz0|15 years ago|reply
I'm not familiar with Conde Nast's publications. Do they traditionally avoid political issue ads? If so I don't see any good reason why Reddit would be an exception. It sounds like they want to avoid the issue entirely and won't run anti Prob 19 ads either. I don't think that's unreasonable. I also have to question the value of any pro Prob 19 group spending money to advertise on Reddit. They'd be better off targeting the mainstream voter.
[+] lreeves|15 years ago|reply
There's actually quite a few ads on Reddit that I've seen about "Avoiding the Obama Homesexual Agenda" (not to mention Scientology), so it seems more like Conde Nast is protecting their specific interests. Or at least, not allowing ads that oppose their views.
[+] tptacek|15 years ago|reply
Conde Nast publishes The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, both of which are associated with "northeastern liberalism". The Prop 19 thing isn't an issue because it clashes with their portfolio; it doesn't.
[+] maw|15 years ago|reply
The ones I'm familiar with are the New Yorker (respectable, and I was a subscriber when I lived in the US) and Wired (not so much, and no effin way), but I have a hard time imagining typical readers of either getting bent out of shape by marijuana use. (I mean, the New Yorker isn't the Atlantic!)

Less sure about their other rags, though.

[+] tomjen3|15 years ago|reply
Condo is a company that exist for one single reason - to make as much money as possible for their share holders. That is their legal requirment, so if they don't do that and leave money on the table they open the self up to liability from their share holders.
[+] sliverstorm|15 years ago|reply
"As a corporation, Conde Nast does not want to benefit financially from this particular issue"

I think that's fair. I can't fault them for that.

[+] huntero|15 years ago|reply
Am I the only one who has no problem with a parent company not wanting pro-marijuana ads running on their sites? They legitimately own Reddit, it seems rather childish that Reddit is "rebelling" by running the ads for free.
[+] jrockway|15 years ago|reply
New media vs. old.

Conde Nast can retaliate somehow, but then all the users just get mad and go to the competitors, and Reddit becomse a Distant Memory Of The Past.

[+] gbhn|15 years ago|reply
Why do you think they're rebelling? Isn't the most natural interpretation that the corporate statement ("we don't want to profit from this issue") is accurate, and that Conde Nast doesn't mind if Reddit runs the ads?
[+] riffic|15 years ago|reply
These ads are purely political. They are not ads for a product for sale, as in the case of a tobacco or liquor ad.
[+] markkat|15 years ago|reply
Well, this will have the opposite effect. It seems Conde Nast doesn't understand their product very well.
[+] cilantro|15 years ago|reply
After all these years, it looks like the publishing industry is still threatened by marijuana.
[+] scelerat|15 years ago|reply
Could be they're not threatened by marijuana so much as their other advertisers.

It's not difficult to imagine an account with much deeper pockets and an opposing agenda making it clear that if CN takes money from "pro-drug" advertisers, then they'll pull their own.

[+] farmerbuzz|15 years ago|reply
Perhaps its not that they're threatened by marijuana but disinclined to accept controversial and divisive advertising?
[+] thought_alarm|15 years ago|reply
Gentlemen, if you disable you ad blockers and visit Reddit you will see that the Prop 19 advert is now visible.

Ahh, green; the color of money.