Some call it “blacklisting.” That's when marketers, including TV advertisers, list certain content they don’t want to see next to their TV commercials — coming in or out of ad
breaks.
With grim stories of COVID-19, as the U.S. totals nearly 34,000 deaths, this has become an issue for major brand advertisers looking for the right content for their marketing
campaigns.
In the past, you might have had news of military casualties due to ongoing wars (Vietnam, Iraq, other places), and TV advertisers that objected to their messages running near
it.
In somewhat less traumatic times, when tragic events occur, airlines don't like to run ads near news of passenger jet crashes. And in the case of the events occurring around 9/11, this
restriction applied to airlines and other TV advertising categories too.
On the flip side, in recent weeks, we have seen a lot of COVID-19 references in TV ads from marketers, including cars,
insurance, and others that run near TV COVID-19 news.
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An IAB report
noted that while both TV and digital news consumption is up, ad revenues are down.
“News is being disproportionately affected in terms of pausing, cancellations and adjustments, in
addition to blacklisting,” stated David Cohen, president of the IAB, who did not go into details. But one expects this trend will continue to hurt an already depressed business environment.
The IAB survey found that 17% of news publishers said they were being adversely affected by blacklists. But this might be a low number — there are not always clear explanations for all the
reductions in ad spend.
The issue of blacklisting is so pressing that the IAB plans to hold a meeting with advertisers to urge them not to blacklist advertising next to COVID-19 news
content.
Cohen and others believe that facts and data about COVID-19 conditions continue to be of major value to consumers and advertisers.