Brand safety: advertising clients increase pressure on media providers and agencies
Editorial
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March 28, 2017
Recently, headlines about unwanted advertising placements on YouTube have become more frequent. Back in February "The Times, that the online advertisements of numerous British companies are inadvertently played out on YouTube channels or websites with extremist, populist or pornographic content. Program "10 to 10" on SRF and showed that advertisements from Swiss companies such as Swiss Post, Swisscom, Migros, Coop and Ikea also appear in the context of extremist YouTube videos. Some companies such as Swiss Life and Baer have therefore already decided to stop advertising on YouTube.The problem is nothing newThe problem of "Brand Safety" is nothing new. The Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) has been dealing with this issue for a long time. "Online safety is one of our most important concerns," explains SWA Director Roland Ehrler. "This means, firstly, that advertising is seen by people and not by machines, secondly, that advertising appears in the visible area of the screen and, thirdly, in an environment that does not harm the brand."SWA calls for protection against misplacementThe SWA is calling on media providers to provide more protection against such incorrect placements and for generally offensive content to be deleted or blocked for advertising. "Media providers such as Google have a primary duty to ensure that advertising clients are offered an adequate advertising environment," says Ehrler. "In addition, the commissioned agencies also have a duty to use the methods, tools and expertise available today to eliminate the risk of incorrect placements as far as possible. Advertising clients should seek assurance of this from media providers and agencies.""Damaging to reputation and unacceptable"There are no exact figures on the frequency of such "misplacements". "For an affected advertising client, every single advertisement in such environments is damaging to their reputation and unacceptable," warns Ehrler. "It can therefore do no harm for affected advertising clients to set an example and increase the pressure on providers." The SWA is monitoring the situation and will discuss any measures in its specialist groups and on the board.
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Recently, headlines about unwanted advertising placements on YouTube have become more frequent. Back in February "The Times, that the online advertisements of numerous British companies are inadvertently played out on YouTube channels or websites with extremist, populist or pornographic content. Program "10 to 10" on SRF and showed that advertisements from Swiss companies such as Swiss Post, Swisscom, Migros, Coop and Ikea also appear in the context of extremist YouTube videos. Some companies such as Swiss Life and Baer have therefore already decided to stop advertising on YouTube.The problem is nothing newThe problem of "Brand Safety" is nothing new. The Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) has been dealing with this issue for a long time. "Online safety is one of our most important concerns," explains SWA Director Roland Ehrler. "This means, firstly, that advertising is seen by people and not by machines, secondly, that advertising appears in the visible area of the screen and, thirdly, in an environment that does not harm the brand."SWA calls for protection against misplacementThe SWA is calling on media providers to provide more protection against such incorrect placements and for generally offensive content to be deleted or blocked for advertising. "Media providers such as Google have a primary duty to ensure that advertising clients are offered an adequate advertising environment," says Ehrler. "In addition, the commissioned agencies also have a duty to use the methods, tools and expertise available today to eliminate the risk of incorrect placements as far as possible. Advertising clients should seek assurance of this from media providers and agencies.""Damaging to reputation and unacceptable"There are no exact figures on the frequency of such "misplacements". "For an affected advertising client, every single advertisement in such environments is damaging to their reputation and unacceptable," warns Ehrler. "It can therefore do no harm for affected advertising clients to set an example and increase the pressure on providers." The SWA is monitoring the situation and will discuss any measures in its specialist groups and on the board.
