Advertisers Balance Brand Safety With Corporate Citizenship as Platforms Get Squeezed

Ukrainian soldiers are dancing to Michael Jackson on TikTok, Russian state-owned media outlets are posting about the false “de-Nazification” narrative (where they haven’t been prohibited), and the Ukrainian government is asking for donations on Twitter. 

Advertisers and geopolitical leaders are drawn to the platforms for their reach, but brands are the ones who hold the pursestrings, despite having a more indirect stake in world affairs. Media buyers and analysts interviewed by Adweek said brands’ two priorities are making sure their advertising doesn’t look insensitive by appearing adjacent to war content and pushing the platforms to root out misinformation.

“All advertisers that I know would not want to be associated with disinformation or Russian propaganda online,” said one media executive who requested anonymity.

Even if an advertiser does their due diligence to prevent their ads from appearing on bad actor websites, to the extent misinformation still exists on the platforms, there is a fear brands are indirectly funding it, the executive noted. 

The Client: Ukraine. The Brief: Prevent World War III

Avoiding wartime adjacency 

Advertisers are particularly wary of appearing next to the plethora of wartime content on social platforms. Last week, brands like Applebee’s and Sandals Resort got caught in the crossfire when CNN ran their carefree ads split screen with footage of the conflict in Ukraine, prompting CNN to remove the ad format.

On social media, these kinds of adjacencies can be even harder to avoid, especially given the prevalence of unmoderated user-generated content. 

Adweek spoke to four advertisers who all said the platforms so far have been very proactive reaching out to their clients and sharing brand safety controls. For example, the media executive said TikTok has brand safety filters where advertisers can choose if their campaigns are situated in a full risk, medium or low risk environment. 

Ivonnie Dulce, group director of social at Nexstar, said she has a client who at the start of the conflict sought to prevent their ads from appearing next to any news or political content on TikTok, Snap and Facebook.

“Fortunately, all of the social platforms have filters and blocking to ensure all advertisers’ content are safe,” Dulce said. 

Off platforms, however, the flip side of such blocking is unfair harm to publishers producing quality journalism about the conflict, as happened during the pandemic when advertisers used keyword blocking to prevent appearing next to stories about Covid-19 and depriving news organizations of revenue.

It’s already beginning to happen to publishers covering the conflict in Ukraine, according to sources. (Although many overzealous advertisers using keyword blocklists will already have the words “war” and “conflict” on them.)

“It’s important of course that in light of negative news, brands continue to support quality journalism,” said Liam Brennan, global head of innovation and lead consultant at MediaCom’s Blink Consulting. “Broadly speaking, brands shouldn’t remove their advertising from appearing against most news stories relating to the conflict.”

Advertiser Boycott Had Little Effect on Facebook’s Q3 2020 Revenue, Which Rose 22%

Can advertisers influence platforms?

While advertisers may contribute directly to platforms’ revenue, they may not necessarily have the leverage to change platform policy as Facebook’s muted response to the 2020 ad boycott of its platform shows, said Andrew Frank, vp and distinguished analyst at Gartner. 

Frank said public sentiment may be a more influential lever. 

“[The platforms’] biggest concern is keeping their audiences and making sure that people don’t defect to other social media channels,” he said. 

To the extent that advertisers do have influence, it can be hard to know when to exert it, as auditing misinformation is a tricky practice.

“It’s hard for brands to really know whether platforms are propagating misinformation or not,” Frank said. “Occasionally something surfaces and there is a little scandal and an apology.”

But times have changed since the Facebook boycott. Its dominance among social platforms is less certain with its declining user base and ad targeting struggles, said eMarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg. In this more competitive landscape, platforms are less able to ignore advertiser demands. 

“The reality is it’s not just bad actors spreading [mis]information. Misinformation can spread rapid fire because it’s shared by users and regular people as well as these accounts that the platforms are targeting,” Enberg said.

“Every brand should make their own internal decision whether it’s appropriate to advertise on these platforms,” she added.

In Ukraine, We as Creatives Now Have One Assignment: Defend Our Land and Stop the War