• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, March 23, 2017 9:33 AM

Marketers that have suspended advertising with Google over concerns about offensive content on YouTube are using the controversy to demand improvements in brand safety and ad tools. The controversy, which started in the U.K., has now expanded to the U.S. It was kicked off by a newspaper report in The Times of London and now includes more than 250 advertisers that have pulled ad spend from the tech giant. A global beverage brand "has pulled most of its ads from Google services in about 30 countries including the U.S., according to a person familiar with the situation," according to the Wall Street Journal. "The pullback does not include search ads, and in a few smaller markets the beverage giant will continue to buy inventory from “Google Preferred,” which is considered to have YouTube’s most brand-friendly content, the person said. 'We don’t comment on individual customers but as announced, we’ve begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear,' Google said in a statement." The report quoted David Cohen, president of Interpublic Group of Cos.' Magna Global North America: “We’ve been talking about brand safety for 20 years. It’s not a new phenomenon. ...We have had a couple conversations with Google over the past couple days. We’re exerting pressure to do more.”

Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »