Earlier this month we posted a track by Perfume Genius in our brief  ‘Things To Look Forward To In 2012’ series. But this week, a short video promoting his album Put Your Back N 2 It was pulled from YouTube for violating their Adult Image/Video Content. You can watch the ad for yourself and decide if any of it is really “non family safe”.

What we saw was two people in pants, in a still embrace. We’ve seen worse on Loose Women (far, far worse).

But in response to Perfume Genius’ record label asking for clarification about the ban, Google/YouTube replied:

"The ad has been disapproved because it violates our Adult Image/Video Content policy. Per this policy, video content, audio, static imagery, and site content must be family safe. Any ads that contain non family safe material are disapproved.  I noted to the team that the people in the video are not entirely unclothed, but the overall feeling of the video is one of a more adult nature, including promoting mature sexual themes and what appears to be nude content. As such, the video is non family safe.  In order to have this video ad approved, you will need to bring it into compliance with our policy."

“Mature sexual themes”? As opposed to the immature sexual themes than run rampant through every The Wanted video they’re happy to host?

“What appears to be nude content”? Only if you hold your hand over the lower half of the screen. Sounds like someone at YouTube is a fan of Mormon porn (the art of making a picture of a clothed person look like they’re in the nuddy).

“Non family safe”. They do know that a family can have two male parents, right? That’s legal and everything now. And if that family is anything like my dad they’ll spend a large amount of time walking about in their pants. We’re struggling to work out what exactly Google’s problem is.

The great irony is that the song that accompanies the advert - All Waters - was written about how Mike Hadreas (Perfumed Genius) felt self-conscious about public displays of affection with a partner, in a way that heterosexual couples take for granted.

Oh snap!

Here’s the whole video, which YouTube haven’t taken down. Yet.