Reddit Bans Ads For ‘Adult-Oriented Products and Services’

Reddit announced an update to its NSFW Advertising Policy yesterday. The policy update officially banned all ads for “adult-oriented products and services” on the site.

They wrote:

We are updating our Advertising Policy to disallow NSFW ads and targeting on Reddit. Ads for adult-oriented products and services on Reddit are no longer permissible, and Not Safe For Work (typically referred to as NSFW) subreddits will no longer be eligible for ads or targeting.

We began rolling out these changes [Monday April 15], and as of today/[Tuesday April 16], NSFW ads on Reddit will be rejected and no longer run. Additionally, NSFW subreddits will be removed from any campaign that may have targeted them previously, and campaigns will no longer accrue clicks or impressions on those subreddits. However, ads will continue to run on Safe for Work subreddits, if applicable.

Reddit went on to state that specific changes to the advertising policy included the following: “The advertisement of adult-oriented products and/or services ads is no longer permitted. Specifically, this includes pornographic or sexually explicit content, as well as adult sexual recreational content, products, or services.”

The first question here, of course, has to do with what constitutes “pornographic” and “sexually explicit.” And “adult sexual recreational content” – what even is that?

They went on to note that “ads pertaining to products for the prevention of pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted infections, and erectile dysfunction are permissible, so long as they do not target minors and only focus on the clinical aspects of the product, rather than sexual performance or enhancement.”

So, sex-related content is acceptable as long as it has to do with infections and babies and how to prevent them, as well as boners — and how to get those.

This news comes on the wake of last week’s announcement that Instagram will now demote content it determines to be “inappropriate” and has “begun reducing the spread of posts that are inappropriate but do not go against Instagram’s Community Guidelines.”

Image via fotografierende from Pexels.