Unilever fires ads warning over fake news

Consumer brand giant Unilever has threatened to pull advertising from technology firms that fail to tackle fake news and online fraud.

The group’s chief marketing officer, Keith Weed, raised concerns over the spread of illegal and extremist content at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual leadership meeting in California yesterday.

He said: “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,

“Fake news, racism, sexism, terrorists spreading messages of hate, toxic content directed at children – parts of the internet we have ended up with are a million miles from where we thought it would take us.”

Weed said the digital media industry needed to listen and act “before viewers stop viewing, advertisers stop advertising and publishers stop publishing”.

Weed has already met several of Unilever’s digital partners, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snap and Amazon, to stress that Unilever “do not want to advertise on platforms which do not make a positive contribution to society”.

There are also concerns over how illegal content is impacting public perception of brands. The Anglo-dutch group - which is behind Dove, Marmite and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream - said it will not invest in “platforms or environments” that breed division, or promote anger or hate, or fail to protect children. 0 Concern over extremist content – Keith Weed