I’m not much of a movie snob – if a movie entertains me, makes me think, or changes my perceptions about something, then it did its job. So while others may stick their nose up at Michael Bay movies for being too Pro-American/cheesy/explosive/whatever, I don’t mind them at all. Armageddon was entertaining, and Transformers was very cool (not perfect, but very cool). All that’s to say that I hold no malice toward Michael Bay in the way that some do…until today.
Today I went to his personal Web site and saw an AdSense ad. An AdSense ad on the personal blog of a guy who’s net worth has got to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I tried to find some information on how much money he makes, but all I found was that he cut his salary by 30% to keep Transformers a “Shot in the USA” flick.
Why in the name of Optimus Prime would a guy like Micheal Bay need with what would surely amount to pocket change from a single AdSense ad?
I think it’s fair to make money doing what you do for a career – Micheal makes movies, and he earns money for that. I run Thoughts Media, so there are ads on my Web sites. This blog is a personal thing, for fun, so there are no ads.
Maybe I’m missing something and there’s a good reason for him having those AdSense ads, such as he’s donating the money to charity or Nelson the Webmaster gets it because Bay doesn’t pay him enough, but I don’t see any mention of that on the site. So unless there’s a good reason I don’t know about, Michael Bay having AdSense ads on his personal site smacks of the most pathetic greed imaginable and says a great deal about the character of the man.