I happened upon this little gaffe while surfing the news during lunch the other day. It clearly illustrates the outcome when contextually sensitive advertising gets a little too, well, contextually sensitive.

Fascinated by all facets of aviation I wanted to learn more about the crash of a Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 in Cameroon. The wreckage had been located and pictures were just starting to surface. MSNBC collated a gallery and naturally I decided to click through.

It was when I reached the third page that I was really shocked. No, it wasn’t the content of the image (though it is a bit distressing.) Instead it was the strategically placed, oversized banner ad from Boeing. Clicking on the image takes you to Boeing’s marketing web site newairplane.com. There you can find out more about the Boeing 787 Snoozeliner, the 747-8, and the Next-Generation 737 Series. Cool stuff, though mostly marketing hype.

But wait. Hold on a second. Boeing’s Next-Generation 737 Series, right? Isn’t that the type of aircraft that just impaled itself into a mangrove swamp in Cameroon, snuffing the lives of 114 innocent people for as-yet-unknown reasons? It sickens me to think that, despite the carnage, Boeing is offering up ads that link to a web site discussing how “comfortable, modern, and safe” the 737NG is. Utterly shameful, really.

I enjoy when big companies make mistakes in marketing. After all, even they are human, too. When Boeing butchered the name of one of their largest 787 customers — Qantas — on the very web site I mentioned above, I chuckled. But this type of mistake is just wrong on so many levels. Sure, it’s automated — but even the most simple ad management systems can omit certain ads from certain pages. I hope the next time someone will have the foresight to prevent this.