OOPS!

Forbes Accused of Kicking Ads Over to a ‘Copycat’ Site That Isn’t Actually Forbes

The ads ran on a longer, bogged-down subdomain instead of the website space brands thought they were purchasing.

Forbes allowed brands to purchase ads on a website that looked and read like Forbes.com—but was actually a different domain entirely, according to The Wall Street Journal. The alternate website, which placed a “3” after the standard “www,” would stretch out Forbes articles into a format that could include more advertisements than the standard amount that appear on regular Forbes articles. The reformatted versions wouldn’t appear on Forbes’ actual website, according to the Journal. The tactic ran counter to advertisers’ belief that their ads would run on the main Forbes website, a research firm told the Journal. Forbes tried to characterize the domain as a “subdomain,” which it has since taken down, and blamed the misrepresentation on an ad-tech company. It also said the snafu only affected a small amount of ad impressions. The ad-tech company, Media.net, said its own unintentional error made advertisers believe they were getting Forbes slots instead of those on the subdomain.