Top brands are threatening to pull their advertising from parents website Mumsnet blaming the ‘offensive’ language used in forum and chat posts.
National Trust and price comparison website Confused.com are just two of the big name companies that reportedly want their banner adverts taken down from the site.
Mumsnet has millions of readers and parents can start a topic on almost any subject in the site’s message forum area.
Mumsnet has millions of readers and parents can start a topic on almost any subject in the site’s forum
forum posts with titles such as, ‘Can we talk about sp**k’, ‘Crotch bling’ and ‘To put big no w***ing signs in my bathroom’
The threads are about thousands of different topics, from advice on parenting and relationships to politics and news.
But luxury brands are reportedly annoyed that their names are appearing next to posts with titles such as, ‘Can we talk about sp**k’, ‘Crotch bling’ and ‘To put big no w***ing signs in my bathroom’.
The posts themselves are also often filled with bad language.
In a chat about crossing the road, the author wrote: ‘If you are stopping the traffic, do not cross when there is a gap in the traffic, you pressed the f****** button so wait for the green man!
But luxury brands are reportedly annoyed that their names are appearing next to forum posts with titles such as, ‘Can we talk about sp**k’, ‘Crotch bling’ and ‘To put big no w***ing signs in my bathroom’
‘All the stopping and starting adds to the pollution and it really f**** me off.’
Many mothers use the site to vent anger about the trials and tribulations of parenting.
In a website forum thread, a woman venting about her husband wrote: ‘F**k off you stupid p***k of a husband, who is now giving me the silent treatment because I dared to go to a final wedding dress fitting with my only sister, for whom I am chief bridesmaid.
‘For daring to leave you to look after your own children for a few f***ing hours after you “had a stressful week!”‘
The website’s forum has achieved almost cult status in recent years with the oddest, and often sweariest, threads collected by the Twitter account Mumsnet Madness
A National Trust spokesman told The Times: ‘We regularly monitor the external environment to ensure that our ads are being positioned alongside the right sort of content and therefore we will aim to address this issue by requesting that our ads do not appear alongside these swear words.’
Mumsnet’s official Twitter account describes the website as: ‘That website, for parents. With the biscuits. And the swearing’
A spokesman for Confused.com added: ‘We take brand safety extremely seriously. We have measures in place to prevent our banners from appearing on any page that is deemed offensive in any way.’
Other advertisers on the website include Marks & Spencer, Expedia and Mitsubishi.
Most do not pay Mumsnet directly to advertise on but buyspace across dozens of websites via agencies that target specific audiences.
The website’s forum and chat feature has achieved almost cult status in recent years with the oddest, and often sweariest, threads collected by the Twitter account Mumsnet Madness, which has more than 19,000 followers.
The website was founded in 2010 by Justine Roberts and Carrie Longton and last year turned over more than £7million.
It makes money through advertising, sponsorship, market research and events and does not pre-approve posts on its forums.
A spokeswoman for the website told The Times: ‘It’s not our policy to delete swear words but we do draw the line at obscenity, racist, ageist, disablist, homophobic or transphobic language, and wording that is beyond the pale.’