4 ms·

https://hbr.org/2024/03/lessons-from-the-bud-light-boycott-one-year-later https://hbr.org/2024/03/lessons-from-the-bud-light-boycott-o... Advertisers don’t hav

https://hbr.org/2024/03/lessons-from-the-bud-light-boycott-one-year-later https://hbr.org/2024/03/lessons-from-the-bud-light-boycott-o... Advertisers don’t have to believe the content is actually objectionable to fear reprisal. Outrage machine types on all sides will make an issue out of anything they can use to score points for themselves. The marginal value of putting a Johnson & Johnson ad (say) in front of some furries is nothing compared to dread of the headline “J&J wants your children to be furries!”

20after4 2y ago
> putting a Johnson & Johnson ad (say) in front of some furries A very real possibility when advertising on DeviantArt. But a no-adult-content policy would have (probably) satisfied adsense terms but would not have eliminated (most) of the furrie content on DeviantArt.
silenced_trope 2y ago
This. The advertisers care about getting bad press and having to do the rounds in the "news cycle". By now everyone knows that advertisers don't choose which posts, tweets, images, etc. their ads are shown next to, but that still won't stop the CNNs of the world from writing a "<Brand> advertises next to Nazi content on <Platform>!" article.
- zbentley 2y ago
  While many media outfits are very good at manufacturing outrage, I’m not sure whether a big ad farm putting (say) Walmart ads on PornHub would materially move the needle on bad-press-risk. Like, if a media outlet or politico wants to make hay about Walmart being advertised next to nazis, I’m sure that’s trivially easy to find today (and you only need to find one instance of that adjacency to make hay for a news cycle). So why isn’t this already an issue in the status quo? Why aren’t brands being pressured into changing their ad placement habits right and left? Sure, some businesses are being called out for things they explicitly endorse (e.g. Budweiser pride ads), but that’s not the same thing as running an ordinary ad in a questionable place. Perhaps advertisers have written off adult content sites as places where there isn’t enough money to be made to risk it? If so, I’m curious what consumer behavioral data backs up that conclusion.
  - callalex 2y ago
    >So why isn’t this already an issue in the status quo? Didn’t this just happen to Xhitter? Their ad revenue has dropped like a brick.

20after4 2y ago

> putting a Johnson & Johnson ad (say) in front of some furries A very real possibility when advertising on DeviantArt. But a no-adult-content policy would have (probably) satisfied adsense terms but would not have eliminated (most) of the furrie content on DeviantArt.

silenced_trope 2y ago

This. The advertisers care about getting bad press and having to do the rounds in the "news cycle". By now everyone knows that advertisers don't choose which posts, tweets, images, etc. their ads are shown next to, but that still won't stop the CNNs of the world from writing a "<Brand> advertises next to Nazi content on <Platform>!" article.

zbentley 2y ago
While many media outfits are very good at manufacturing outrage, I’m not sure whether a big ad farm putting (say) Walmart ads on PornHub would materially move the needle on bad-press-risk. Like, if a media outlet or politico wants to make hay about Walmart being advertised next to nazis, I’m sure that’s trivially easy to find today (and you only need to find one instance of that adjacency to make hay for a news cycle). So why isn’t this already an issue in the status quo? Why aren’t brands being pressured into changing their ad placement habits right and left? Sure, some businesses are being called out for things they explicitly endorse (e.g. Budweiser pride ads), but that’s not the same thing as running an ordinary ad in a questionable place. Perhaps advertisers have written off adult content sites as places where there isn’t enough money to be made to risk it? If so, I’m curious what consumer behavioral data backs up that conclusion.
- callalex 2y ago
  >So why isn’t this already an issue in the status quo? Didn’t this just happen to Xhitter? Their ad revenue has dropped like a brick.