Unilever Threatens to Reduce Ad Spending on Tech Platforms That Don’t Combat Divisive Content
Unilever Threatens to Reduce Ad Spending on Tech
Platforms That Don’t Combat Divisive Content
CMO Keith Weed says the company will only invest in
platforms ‘committed to creating a positive impact in society’
By Suzanne Vranica Feb. 11, 2018 8:22 p.m. ET
Unilever PLC is threatening to pull back its advertising
from popular tech platforms, including YouTube and Facebook Inc., if they don’t
do more to combat the spread of fake news, hate speech and divisive content.
“Unilever will not invest in platforms or environments
that do not protect our children or which create division in society, and
promote anger or hate,” Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed is expected
to say Monday during the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership
meeting in Palm Desert, Calif.
“We will prioritize investing only in responsible
platforms that are committed to creating a positive impact in society,” he will
say, according to prepared remarks.
Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers, is
leveraging its spending power to push the digital media industry to weed out
content that funds terrorism, exploits children, spreads false news or supports
racist and sexist views. The consumer-products giant spent more than $9 billion
marketing its brands such as Lipton, Dove and Knorr last year, according to the
company’s annual report.
In the wake of the 2016 election, YouTube, Facebook and
other tech companies have come under scrutiny for allowing the spread of
misinformation—criticism partly fueled by evidence that Russian actors used
their platforms to disseminate information designed to manipulate U.S. voters.
Meanwhile, YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet Inc.’s
Google, has taken plenty of heat for running ads alongside extremist, racist
and hateful videos, forcing brands to suspend advertising on the site. Most
recently, brands were discovered to be appearing next to videos that seemed to
attract pedophile viewers.
This is about “having a positive impact on society and
whether we as a company want to engage with companies that are not committed to
making a positive impact,” Mr. Weed said in an interview.
Unilever has been among the more outspoken advertisers
pushing for the online ad industry to clean up the ad fraud that exists on the
web and offer up stronger measurement standards to ensure that advertisers are
buying ads that can be seen by real people.
While the company continues to push for those
initiatives, Mr. Weed said that consumers don’t care about online advertising
measurement issues. They do care about “fake news” and “Russians influencing
the U.S. election,” he added.
Rather than issue a public list of demands, Mr. Weed said
he wants to work privately with the tech companies to come up with solutions.
Unilever said it has already held discussions with companies such as Facebook,
Google, Twitter Inc., Snap Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to share ideas about what
each can do to improve.
“We fully support Unilever’s commitments and are working
closely with them,” said a spokeswoman for Facebook. Twitter also said it’s
supportive of Unilever’s position.
A spokeswoman for Google declined to comment, while the
other firms didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The tech companies had already been trying to rectify
some of their problems. Facebook recently announced major changes to its
algorithm intended to address concerns over the quality of the content on its
site and its effect on the world.
Meanwhile, YouTube has made improvements to the
technology it uses to screen videos, added more human reviewers and given
marketers more control over where their ads appear.
Mr. Weed said he is encouraged by the recent moves, which
he described as “meaningful,” but said more work is needed. For example, he
said YouTube hasn’t done enough to protect children.
Last month, YouTube said that it would have humans review
every second of video that is included in its Google Preferred program, which
is a subset of YouTube videos that is among the most popular and for which
marketers pay a premium to advertise alongside.
“I believe they should still go further and human screen
all videos with children that are monetized,” he said during the interview.
In regards to Facebook, Mr. Weed said the company has
taken some positive steps at trying to alleviate the fake news issue, but there
is “more to do.”
Mr. Weed said that advertisers need to be outspoken about
issues on tech platforms, since they are almost entirely supported by billions
of ad dollars.
“One can start by not putting ads on content we do not
want to encourage,” he said.
The annual conference for the IAB, an online advertising
trade body, has become a platform for big-name advertisers to publicly push for
change.
During last year’s conference, Procter & Gamble, the
world’s largest advertiser, issued an ultimatum to digital giants to clean up
online advertising.
P&G’s chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, laid out a
list of demands that included the sector adopt one viewability standard and
allow an independent measurement watchdog to audit some platforms’ ad metrics.
He later also demanded that tech companies such as YouTube come up with greater
controls around their content to avoid having ads appear near controversial
content such as ISIS videos.
A year after “the gauntlet was thrown, the progress has
been impressive,” said Mr. Pritchard in a recent interview. He said 90% of his
demands have been met and the company is just waiting for the Media Rating
Council to finish auditing some of the ad metrics of Google and Facebook.
Appeared in the February 12, 2018, print edition as
'Unilever Threatens to Pull Ads.'
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