The Unhappy Gang

You’ve got to love sponsored links.

When you do a Google search, a robot checks what you were looking for and sometimes serves up paid-for text ads to the right of your search results. Same thing happens when you use Gmail: this supposedly-clever robot reads the content of your mail and serves up ads it thinks you’ll find relevant.

Of course, it doesn’t always hit the mark.

This week, a CBC Archives visitor sent us an inquiry about The Happy Gang, a troupe of cheerful Canadian entertainers that had a show on CBC from 1938-1959. We forwarded the message to the Gmail address of the writer who prepared our profile.

Here’s the sponsored link that was served up beside the Happy Gang inquiry:

*Most Dangerous Gang DVD*

Discover the Methods and Members of the World’s Most Dangerous Gang.
www.NationalGeographic.com

Hmm, that doesn’t sound like Old Pappy and Bobby Gimby to me… here’s the full DVD description, from the National Geographic site:

You’ve spotted the graffiti. You’ve seen their tattoos. And you’ve read the shocking headlines documenting their brutality. But what is driving the rapid spread of the ultra-violent gang MS-13, which has infected big cities and small towns across the country? National Geographic Explorer’s Lisa Ling takes you deep inside a merciless world hidden in plain view—the shadowy culture of MS-13. It is an organization that recruits the most desperate, including children, and twists them into hardened criminals capable of the most heinous crimes.

Gang, yes. But not happy! Not at all!

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 02-26-2007 | 12:02 AM
Posted in: Teh Internets