Unilever Latest Advertiser To Issue Warning To Tech Giants

Unilever’s chief marketing officer Keith Weed has become the latest senior marketer to warn the tech giants to take action on transparency, fake news and “toxic content directed at children” before “viewers stop viewing, advertisers stop advertising and publishers stop publishing.”

His comments echo those of Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard who last year challenged the tech giants to clean up the “substantial waste in what has become a murky, non-transparent, even fraudulent digital media supply chain” and to tackle fundamental issues over the value advertisers are getting for their digital advertising spend.

Mr Weed raised the concerns at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting in California, The Times reported. “We cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain — one that delivers over a quarter of our advertising to our consumers — which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of its transparency,” Mr Weed said.

“Fake news, racism, sexism, terrorists spreading messages of hate, toxic content directed at children — parts of the internet we have ended up with is a million miles from where we thought it would take us. It is in the digital media industry’s interest to listen and act on this — before viewers stop viewing, advertisers stop advertising and publishers stop publishing.”

Responding to Mr Weed’s comments, News Media Association chairman David Dinsmore said: “With continuing issues including fake news and transparency, coupled with advertisers questioning effectiveness, brands are being more cautious about where they place advertising.  Advertisers know that to build their brands and sell products there are a myriad of different ways, but buying unknown digital inventory leaves them at risk of nobody seeing it or it appearing against damaging content.   

“News publishers are responsible for every word we publish, regulatory and legally, and questions are now rightfully being asked of the social media and search platforms about their accountability for the content on their sites.  Brands around the world are beginning to scrutinise the content they are being seen against and that is a positive step for news publishers. It is a different world to the slightly haphazard spending that was going on only a year ago.”

Mr Weed has met representatives from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snap and Amazon to warn that the company does “not want to advertise on platforms which do not make a positive contribution to society”.

He added: “Consumers don’t care about third-party verification. They do care about fraudulent practice, fake news and Russians influencing the US election. They don’t care about good value for advertisers. But they do care when they see their brands being placed next to ads funding terror.”