Social media ad backlash

Kiwi firms plan to flex muscle against Facebook and Google to discourage repeat of gunman’s livestreaming

Acollective of some of New Zealand’s biggest brands is set to pull advertisements from Facebook and Google after a gunman live-streamed his massacre of 50 people at two Christchurch mosques.

The Herald understands ASB, Kiwibank Lotto NZ, Burger King, Spark and several other firms have banded together to take a stand against harm caused by unmoderated content.

It’s understood marketing managers from the different firms spoke at the weekend about what they could do promote change in the industry.

At this stage, it is still unclear how extensive the pull-back will be or for how long the companies are likely to pull their digital ads.

Other brands have also acted independently. Kiwibank, for instance, suspended all digital ads on Friday after news of the attacks broke.

This is not the first time New Zealand companies have pulled ads from these platforms.

Several weeks ago Spark pulled all its advertising from YouTube over concerns about paedophilic content targeted at children.

Spark’s move was part of an international response that also included Disney and Nestle.

Spark corporate relations lead Andrew Pirie said the telco was in talks with other companies, but had not yet finalised details of the action it would take. Several years ago, numerous Kiwi brands also pulled their money after it was revealed their ads appeared alongside extremist content.

Reducing the flow of money like this is the one way companies can get an immediate reaction from the big tech entities — as illustrated by YouTube’s decision to ban all comments on content featuring minors after brands took exception to the unsavoury remarks made.

Industry bodies the Association of New Zealand Advertisers (Anza) and the Commercial Communications Council (Comms Council) yesterday called on social media platforms to do more to ensure that such horrors are never again live-streamed.

Anza chief executive Lindsay Mouat said Kiwi companies seriously need to consider where they want their advertising money spent.

After the Christchurch killings he had “a real outpouring of concern” from senior marketers asking what they could do to help change this.

Mouat said he believed New Zealand’s businesses had a role to play in encouraging change.

“Perhaps when the dollars start to go, you’ll get a response,” he said.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated she intends to look into how social media can be better regulated, Mouat noted this can take time.

Meanwhile, he says, NZ brands do have the power to choose where they would like to put their money.

He stopped short of calling on more companies to pull ads from Facebook or Google, but said businesses need to seriously consider “if they wish to be associated with social media platforms unable or unwilling to take responsibility for content on those sites.”

He took particular exception to livestreaming, which he said poses a huge risk of the same thing repeating.

Mouat said he found it really hard to believe that more couldn’t be done to moderate the content on social media sites.

“If the site owners can target consumers with advertising in microseconds, why can’t the same technology be applied to prevent this

Perhaps when the dollars start to go, you’ll get a response. Lindsay Mouat Anza chief executive

kind of content being streamed live?”

Facebook and Google make hundreds of millions of dollars from digital advertising in New Zealand every year.

The latest figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau showed a total of $659.5 million was spent on search-based advertising in 2017.

Conservative estimates suggest 90 per cent of that figure can be attributed directly to Google, meaning the company makes well in excess of half a billion dollars from its New Zealand advertising business.

The IAB figures showed only $41.96m goes to the social media category; however, this figure doesn’t account for all the money spent through bookings directly with Facebook. A Facebook spokesperson said the company had “nothing to share at the current time”, while Google is yet to respond.