Image source: Maurits Knook via Flickr
The YouTube advertising scandal continues to widen as more brands drop advertising after finding their ads automatically placed next to offensive content. The boycott began in the U.K. when government agencies learned their ads were adjacent to videos from rape apologists, anti-Semites and hate preachers. YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing service and is owned by Google.
It then quickly spread around the world as companies such as Vodafone, Nestle, Holden and Kia suspended YouTube advertising when they noticed ads next to racist, misogynistic videos or other types of objectionable content. AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson and Volkswagen suspended ads last week. PepsiCo, Wal-Mart Stores and Starbucks soon joined them. Brands also halted ads on third-party websites arranged through Google’s Display Network.
The Danger of Reputational Damage
Rightfully fearing reputational damage, brands are not pleased.
The scandal is a blow to programmatic advertising, software that automatically matches ads with content based on bids and audience profiles. Depending on how long it takes Google to fix the problem, it could boost traditional media publications like newspapers and websites that sell ads directly. The scandal caused people to realize that YouTube is not a superior version of television. TV networks control their programs and companies advertise on specific programs. YouTube is open to all-comers and companies advertise across the network or on a range of programs.
“I’ve always been suspect of advertising on YouTube. There’s not really great content in there,” Rob Griffin, at marketing agency Almighty, told Bloomberg. “This will dent their long-term prospect of making YouTube an alternative to TV.”
The high-profile scandal also gives advertising and marketing agencies an opportunity to pressure Google, a chance they likely relish. They typically have little leverage against Google, a dominant online advertising network along with Facebook. At least until now, Google has little financial incentive to police content.
“We’ve been talking about brand safety for 20 years. It’s not a new phenomenon,” David Cohen, president of Interpublic Group of Cos ad buying group Magna Global North America, told The Wall Street Journal. “We have had a couple conversations with Google over the past couple days. We’re exerting pressure to do more.”
Google Apologizes, Pledges Change
In a blog post, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler apologized to advertisers for ads that appeared on content “that was not aligned with their values.” Google will work to give advertisers greater control over where their ads appear, Schindler said. It will also hire more people to manually review videos, strive to develop better software screening, and block objectionable content before it’s posted.
Some observers expressed sympathy for Google. Checking the enormous volume of YouTube videos is practically impossible. YouTube adds thousands of new sites a day and about 400 hours of video every minute.
The Digital Horse is Loose
But not everyone was impressed with Google’s response. Will Goodbody, science & technology correspondent at the RTÉ Newsroom compared Google’s belated response to “nudging the stable door shut when the horse is already in the next county.”
Either it knew of the problem ignored due to lack of complaints or didn’t know because it didn’t watch user content or its products closely. “Whatever the answer, it doesn’t look good and is likely to have cost the company significant lost revenue,” Goodbody asserted.
“Tech companies need to stop hiding behind fig-leaf excuses like their ‘rapid growth makes it difficult’ or ‘the right to free speech has to be protected’ and take responsibility for ridding their platforms of hateful and racist speech,” he added.
My bet: Google will fix the problem quite quickly – and will offer “make-goods” to the departed advertisers in order to entice them back to YouTube.
Bottom Line: As brands abandon YouTube advertising over offensive content, Google is scrambling to respond. At least in the short-term, the scandal may energize traditional media outlets and slow the spread of software-driven ad networks. Motivated by the tumult, it’s likely Google will quickly develop effective methods to identify objectionable content and enable advertisers to block their ads from showing next to content the advertiser deems to be inappropriate such as hate speech, violence or religious proselytizing. Removing the content itself is more problematic because of free speech laws.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
