ISBA warns online media channels over shocking ad misplacement

New media channels should take more responsibility to safeguard against online adverts appearing on the inappropriate social media pages that they facilitate, according to ISBA – the voice of British advertisers.

Recent news of the online ad misplacement and subsequent withdrawal of several high-profile brands from social networking sites has added more urgency to ISBA’s calls for advertiser reassurance, the organisation said on Tuesday.

“Advertisers are rightly concerned with their ads appearing on websites that are bad taste at best and highly offensive, or illegal, at worst,” said Bob Wootton, ISBA’s Director of Media & Advertising.

“Why should they spend years and millions of pounds establishing their reputation only to have that investment damaged, possibly irrevocably, by something they have virtually no control over?”

The Daily Mail recently slammed Google for “profiting from extremist videos” following claims that ads from brands including Apple, Ronseal, Vodafone and TalkTalk preceded or ran alongside “terror videos”.

Currently, online advertisements are placed ‘programmatically’ by computer programs that serve the ads individually as web pages are requested. The ads are targeted on the basis of a wide array of information from the user’s computer.

ISBA says it would like to see the technology that is employed to target consumers used to prevent online ads appearing on offensive websites.

“The excuse from the likes of the new media giants that ‘we are just a pipe’, is, frankly, wearing thin,” Wootton added. “They need to honour the trust imbued in them by their clients – the companies that fund them – otherwise they might well see more advertisers taking their cash elsewhere.

“New media is effectively biting the hand that feeds it if it fails to act fast.”