• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, December 1, 2016

Fake news may or may not have influenced the outcome of the presidential election, but that’s not the only reason to be concerned about it. Advertisers, who typically take great pains to associate their brands only with reputable content, are also understandably concerned about the potential for their marketing messages to appear next to false (and often inflammatory) news stories.

With that need in mind, brand safety outfit DoubleVerify has launched a product that will help advertisers avoid sites that publish unsubstantiated and controversial news stories, including those with a political angle.

The new service is part of the company’s DV Digital Impression Quality offering, and is available on most of the big programmatic buying platforms, which should allow advertisers to rule out these controversial sites as part of pre-bid screening.

DoubleVerify CEO Wayne Gattinella stated: “Trust and transparency are critical to the growth of digital media. Our newest offering shines a bright light on the fake news sites that are deceiving millions of consumers and siphoning millions of media dollars from unsuspecting brand advertisers.”

As noted, the new service from DV debuts amid mounting concern over the impact of fake news on the presidential election, as well as the general tendency of spurious online news publishers to stir up racial animosity and other kinds of social tension.

In the most recent development, Kellogg Company has become the latest to stop advertising on the right-wing Breitbart News Web site due to concerns about its content. Other brands that have recently announced they'll stop allowing their ads to be on Breitbart, in response to complaints from consumers, include Allstate, Nest, EarthLink, Modcloth, Warby Parker and SoFi.

Media watchers have noted that given programmatic digital ad placement and retargeting practices, brands frequently have not been aware of all of the sites on which their ads are appearing.