Several large brands have quietly paused ads on Facebook. Disney pulled ads for Disney+, according to the Wall Street Journal, and Walmart, Geico, Allstate, Kellogg’s, Kohl’s, Dell, McDonald’s, Peloton and Ikea stopped advertising early in the month, per a new report from watchdog group Media Matters. Walmart was Facebook’s second-biggest spender in 2019 at more than $145 million, Media Matters estimates. More than 1,000 advertisers such as Unilever, Starbucks, Adidas and Verizon signed onto the #StopHateForProfit campaign and agreed to stop advertising via Facebook Ads for the month of July over concerns about content moderation and policy enforcement around objectionable content. Why we care. The financial dent of these big advertisers alone won’t cripple Facebook, which has millions of SMB advertisers facing their own challenges due to COVID-19. Nor is that the point. “It’s more for us to assess, as marketers and arbiters of our brands’ equity, whether we should continue defaulting to a platform that stands in opposition to consumer sentiment today,” Elijah Harris, senior vice president of paid social at IPG Mediabrands told Business Insider last month. On Friday, Facebook published an update on its brand safety efforts. One step involves enlisting the Media Rating Council (MRC) to conduct an evaluation of its partner and content monetization policies and brand safety controls as well as the accuracy of Facebook’s related reporting. More in social news… How Spotify and TikTok Beat Their Copycats – Harvard Business Review
TikTok: We are not ‘under the thumb’ of China – BBC Walmart, McDonalds, Geico pull Facebook ads amid boycott – Business Insider |