RED-faced cruise companies are rushing to remove adverts from Youtube – after their package deals were flashed up alongside BBC images of the Costa Concordia disaster.
Cruise companies faced embarrassment as the unfortunate adverts on the video sharing website popped up on videos of the Costa Concordia disaster, which left six dead and 29 people still missing.
One advert, for reviews site cruisecritic.co.uk, even referenced the Costa Concordia itself, advertising reviews for trips on the giant vessel.
Another, for iglucruise.com, read: “Great offers on single cabins. No single supplements” over images of the ship lying on its side.
An advert for Cunard, who describe themselves as running “The world’s most famous cruise liners”, read: “Discover exotic global destinations and save up to 10% – Book Now!” over pictures of the ship, owned by Costa Cruises, leaning to the side as it went down.
The Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground with more than 4,000 passengers and crew on 13 January, only hours after leaving the Italian port of Civitavecchia.
The giant ship hit a rocky outcrop off the island of Giglio in the Meditirranean sea at about 9.30 on Friday night.
Hopes of finding any further survivors were fading today/yesterday (TUESDAY) as divers began to blast holes in the side of the ship’s hull for easier access.
The crude adverts appeared on videos of news coverage of the disaster, advertising Thompson, Iglu cruises and the world famous Cunard line, owners of the Titanic.
A spokesperson for Iglu cruises said: ‘We were unaware that an Iglu advertisment was being shown alongside the film.
“It was placed by Google, was clearly inappropriate and has been pulled.
“Google place ads where they consider appropriate and this is done automatically using key word technology.
“What happened illustrates the limitations of their automated placement system and we will be discussing with them the need for closer and more effective monitoring.”
Red faced tour operators were left scrambling to have their adverts removed from videos of the disaster.
A spokesperson for CruiseCritic.co.uk, who’s adverts for reviews of the Costa Concordia itself had appeared on the video, said it would “probably have to be removed”.
Nobody from Cunard was available for comment.
