Advertising, News

Is Peppa Pig a bigger threat than ISIS video? Brand-safety crisis exposes a relevance problem

Isis videos may be in the rearview mirror for some advertisers, but what about Peppa Pig?

Brand safety worries have subsided for marketers who’ve moved back to YouTube despite the lack of ironclad guarantees that their ads will never again appear with terrorist or hate videos. But the controversy has exposed a relevance problem that might be even harder to address — with ads showing up on children’s videos, for example, when kids aren’t brands’ target.

A spring of discontent
Big advertisers that have come back to Google’s YouTube after boycotting over horrible ad adjacencies include Johnson & Johnson and Nestle. Executives of some returning companies said they were more worried about getting tarred by the surrounding news coverage, which has subsided, than consumers seeing the unwelcome placements on their own.

Other major players including Walmart and Procter & Gamble continue to avoid YouTube, meanwhile, pending stronger promises that their ads won’t appear with questionable content. (Walmart confirmed that it was still out; P&G declined to comment.)

Read more at Ad Age.

Image courtesy of Ad Age.

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