Procter & Gamble Cut Up to $140 Million in Digital Ad Spending Because of Brand Safety Concerns

The CPG company also cut agency and production money

During Procter & Gamble’s fourth-quarter earnings call yesterday, the packaged-goods giant reported that it cut approximately $100 million to $140 million in digital advertising spend last quarter because of brand safety concerns and ineffective ads.

While finance chief Jon Moeller did not explicitly call out YouTube’s brand safety issues that started earlier this year, he did say fake traffic driven by bots and objectionable content led to the company pulling back on its advertising spending.

“Digital ad spending was lower versus a high base period and due to current period choices to temporarily restrict spending in digital forums where our ads were not being placed according to our standards and specifications,” the company said in its earnings release.

According to Kantar Media, P&G spent $2.4

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