Brands’ Fear of Cultural Backlash is Harming Media

Ah, the tangled web of advertising in the digital age. It’s something many New Yorkers might talk about over a cup of Joe at their favorite deli. Here’s the scoop — let’s break down the situation, step by step, and see what’s cooking.

Advertising: From Handful to Thousands

Back in the day, it was all simple. Rishad Tobaccowala, a big shot in the ad world, tells us it was straightforward—there were about 20 media owners covering TV, radio, print, and billboards. Everyone knew everyone in the business, and you had a point of contact in case of any hiccup. "The biggest thing there was airlines taking down all their advertising if there had been an air crash," he recalls. Nowadays, it’s a whole different ballgame.

Today, advertisers are splashing their cash across 44,000 websites! Imagine that mayhem. Thanks to automated ad buying, ads now pop up in all sorts of weird and wonderful places. Sometimes it’s not so wonderful—think porn sites, piracy hubs, and violent content. That’s when brand safety came under the spotlight. Companies started using sophisticated software to keep their ads away from the dodgier corners of the internet.

Culture Wars and Brand Safety

Picture this: it’s 2016, Trump just got elected, and brand safety took center stage. Enter Sleeping Giants, urging companies to pull their ads from conservative platforms like Breitbart. "Are you aware that you’re advertising on Breitbart, the alt-right’s biggest champion?" they tweeted. Their activism transformed into a full-blown movement pressuring companies to boycott conservative news outlets accused of spreading hate.

Around the same time, YouTube faced its own PR crisis. Ads were being found alongside extremist videos. Brands freaked out, not wanting their logos associated with such content, and an advertiser boycott ensued. To calm the waters, platforms like Google and Facebook teamed up with brand-safety firms to offer stricter ad controls. Brands created BLACKLISTS and WHITELISTS of sites they deemed safe or unsafe.

The Left Rewired Ad Market

Fast forward to recent times, Breitbart’s Alex Marlow summed it up nicely during an interview with PragerU. According to him, the Left’s activism around brand safety did more damage to their own outfits than to Breitbart. "They ended up doing far more damage to themselves than they ever did to Breitbart," he says.

On the other end, Mark Penn from Stagwell Group says everyone feels the pinch now. Whether you’re a liberal publisher or News Corp. It’s outta hand. "The left recentered the ad market," Penn quips. And it’s created a market afraid of controversy, more so than ever before.

Keyword Blocking: A Double-Edged Sword

When advertisers added keywords to blocklist unsuitable content, it sometimes got absurd. TIME magazine’s Taylor Swift cover was flagged as "brand unsafe" due to words linked to feminism. Advertisers blocked key cycles like the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine coverage. Media outlets lost ad revenue instead of gaining from increased traffic on big news stories.

Brand Safety: Still a Hot Mess

Mark Penn came into Microsoft in 2014 and noticed how brands were avoiding news sites. He found ads perform best on news sites for tech companies. Stagwell’s study showed the story content next to an ad hardly affects how people view the brand.

Yet, the marketplace remains fraught. "You can’t force brands to change their risk profile," says Richard Raddon of Zefr, arguing that brands will always avoid risky content.

The Media Future: Whales and Plankton

The current state has media companies scrambling for new revenue streams—subscriptions, e-commerce, AI licensing, and more. But for most, ads still bring in the bulk of the dollars. Ben Shapiro from The Daily Wire has suggested a mutual fund approach to ad buying, splitting ad spend across political divides to ensure fairness.

Then there are examples like Bud Light, which fell from top-selling beer to number three after featuring a transgender influencer in a social media post. Boycotts and brand risk avoidance are shaping ad strategies more than ever.

Conclusion

So here’s how the cookie crumbles: the ad industry is a chaotic mess. Brands are terrified of controversy, hitting both left and right-leaning sites. The future looks grim for mid-sized media outfits unless something changes. "The ecosystem will look like whales and plankton," Rishad Tobaccowala warns. So, whether you’re downing a deli sandwich or scrolling through your feed, know there’s a whole lot more behind those ads you’re seeing—or not seeing.

For more details, check out the original video interview.