Over the past fortnight, three leaders have called on the industry to reconsider its brand safety approach and ensure blocklists do not mean lost revenue for either news brands or advertisers
In the light of growing evidence of the damaging effect of keyword blocklists on trusted, quality journalism, journalist and commentator Alison Phillips, Newsworks agency and client relations director Mel Leslie and Electric Glue CEO Pippa Glucklich have given their own unique industry perspective on how advertisers can better approach brand safety in news brands.
Alison Phillips
Journalist and commentator
“By blocking our ability to monetise reporting about poverty, human rights abuses or even ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, advertisers are complicit in the blitz on journalism.
Then there is the fear some news organisations are tailoring content to satisfy the blocklist to avoid losing money. A news editor may be thinking: “Hmm… how do we report on those British kids not getting a hot meal all day, or shoes that fit or a clean school uniform without mentioning the terribly unpleasant and unpaying ‘P’ word?”
The logical result of all this is that brands have become responsible for the words people read. Or, more crucially, don’t read. And that feels horribly Orwellian to me.
In 1946, shortly after the defeat of Nazism, George Orwell wrote in his essay ‘Politics and The English Language’: “Language is a political issue.”
The words we use – and don’t use – shape the world we live in.”
Read Alison’s full piece in Campaign here.
Then there is the fear some news organisations are tailoring content to satisfy the blocklist to avoid losing money. A news editor may be thinking: “Hmm… how do we report on those British kids not getting a hot meal all day, or shoes that fit or a clean school uniform without mentioning the terribly unpleasant and unpaying ‘P’ word?”
The logical result of all this is that brands have become responsible for the words people read. Or, more crucially, don’t read. And that feels horribly Orwellian to me.
In 1946, shortly after the defeat of Nazism, George Orwell wrote in his essay ‘Politics and The English Language’: “Language is a political issue.”
The words we use – and don’t use – shape the world we live in.”
Read Alison’s full piece in Campaign here.
Mel Leslie
Agency and client relations director, Newsworks
“If this is really about brand safety, then the practices we use are blunt instruments for such a delicate matter; they overlook contextual matter but, perhaps most importantly, they overlook the audience.
Time and again, research shows us that audiences understand the relationship between the content they’re reading and brands appearing alongside it — regardless of whether they’re reading about news, sport, politics or anything else.
If we know this, then as Mark Penn, chairman and CEO at Stagwell asked: “What is all the fuss about?” Shouldn’t we be trusting our audiences more? After all, trust is key in any relationship, particularly when it comes to readers and their preferred news brands.”
Read Mel’s full piece in InPublishing here.
Time and again, research shows us that audiences understand the relationship between the content they’re reading and brands appearing alongside it — regardless of whether they’re reading about news, sport, politics or anything else.
If we know this, then as Mark Penn, chairman and CEO at Stagwell asked: “What is all the fuss about?” Shouldn’t we be trusting our audiences more? After all, trust is key in any relationship, particularly when it comes to readers and their preferred news brands.”
Read Mel’s full piece in InPublishing here.
Pippa Glucklich
CEO, Electric Glue
“We live in a world where there is so much misinformation and fake news, terrifyingly so, and there’s no doubt that we, as an industry, have a role to play in supporting and helping to fund properly curated, regulated news and journalism.
I’d like to challenge agencies and advertisers to check their blocklists. Only recently it transpired that nearly half (45%) of Reach publications’ Euro 2024 final coverage was blocked from receiving advertising, having been wrongfully deemed “not brand safe” due to words such as “shoot”. It is time to consider a more nuanced approach.
We all need to take responsibility for the longer-term effect of where we spend our media money.”
Read Pippa’s full piece in The Media Leader here.
I’d like to challenge agencies and advertisers to check their blocklists. Only recently it transpired that nearly half (45%) of Reach publications’ Euro 2024 final coverage was blocked from receiving advertising, having been wrongfully deemed “not brand safe” due to words such as “shoot”. It is time to consider a more nuanced approach.
We all need to take responsibility for the longer-term effect of where we spend our media money.”
Read Pippa’s full piece in The Media Leader here.
