Unilever says it will halt US advertising on Facebook and Twitter for at least the remainder of 2020, citing hate speech and divisive content on the platforms
to the point where it has de-indexed entire countries rather than do so — but that dam broke this week. Why? https://www.cjr.org/... Alexia Bonatsos / @alexia : Facebook on the other side of “platform risk,” for a change https://www.wsj.com/... Nancy Scola / @nancyscola : One metric here — Facebook held a cross-team meeting *within 24 hours* of just the boycott's announcement to discuss how to handle it. https://twitter.com/... @cjr : New from @mathewi: What better way to deflect some heat than to throw publishers some cash? https://www.cjr.org/... Bob Pickard / @bobpickard : This ‘PR ploy’ conjecture about the calculation of companies suddenly jumping on the @Facebook ad boycott bandwagon strikes me as more than slightly plausible. Via today's @ReliableSources newsletter: https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers : I was going to float this but it's Friday and I didn't want the Twitter wrath. https://twitter.com/... @cjr : “There may be a philosophical victory here, but it probably won't make a life-altering difference to any of the companies involved, as the tech giants continue to eat up all of the internet's advertising revenue.” https://www.cjr.org/... @hondainclusion : For the month of July, American Honda is withholding its advertising on Facebook and Instagram. We choose to stand with people united against hate and racism. This is in alignment with our company's values, which are grounded in human respect. #StopHateForProfit @slpng_giants : CONFIRMED: WOW! @unileverusa has joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign and will stop advertising on Facebook platforms through the end of 2020. https://www.wsj.com/... @unilever : We have taken the decision to stop advertising on @Facebook, @Instagram & @Twitter in the US. The polarized atmosphere places an increased responsibility on brands to build a trusted & safe digital ecosystem. Our action starts now until the end of 2020. https://www.unileverusa.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @slpng_giants : CONFIRMED: @LEVIS and @Dockers have joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign and will pause all advertising on Facebook and Instagram through at least the month of July. https://twitter.com/... Nick Wingfield / @nickwingfield : Brands pausing social media advertising is the new reporters taking a break from Twitter. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : If Facebook uses the lame excuse “we know we have more work to do” one more time, I am going to be irked. And you wouldn't like me when I'm irked. https://www.nytimes.com/... Shannon Coulter / @shannoncoulter : **whispers** zero companies have pulled their Facebook ad spend. They just moved it around. https://gizmodo.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Very cynical take: ad budgets are shrinking already during the pandemic. Why not get some applause for it? https://twitter.com/... Brian Fung / @b_fung : Candy company Hershey's says it's joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign. In addition, the company said it will slash its ad budget on Facebook's platform by a third for the rest of the year. Their statement to CNN: https://twitter.com/... Shannon Coulter / @shannoncoulter : I hate to say it, but the #StopHateForProfit campaign is essentially just helping corporations launder their press releases at this point. Exactly zero companies can confirm they'r actually pulling 100% of their spending from FB. https://gizmodo.com/... @dwnews : Shares of Facebook and Twitter plummeted 7% on Friday following a decision from consumer giant Unilever to pull US advertisements until the end of the year. https://p.dw.com/p/3ePk5 Cynthia Lansing / @mrsmaxdewinter : “Twitter has mostly avoided the controversy, in part because it put a warning label on Trump's incendiary tweets.” Facebook just lost one of the biggest advertisers in the world for the rest of 2020 https://www.nbcnews.com/... via @nbcnews @anthony : Unilever said it would halt U.S. advertising on Facebook joining a growing list including Verizon Communications Inc., Patagonia Inc., North Face, and Eddie Bauer citing Facebook's inaction on hate speech https://www.wsj.com/... Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla : WHOAH!! The @Detox_Facebook campaign & #StopHateForProfit has scored a major hit...with an instant response from Mark Zuckerberg. Extraordinary. Unilever controls some of biggest brands in world https://twitter.com/... George P. Slefo / @georgeslefo : Just in: Honda's U.S. division becomes the first automaker to join the Facebook ad boycott. https://adage.com/... @slpng_giants : This is a good point and we will be attempting to clarify whether brands joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign will also be stopping their advertising spend on the Facebook Audience Network, the adtech division of Facebook. https://twitter.com/... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : Turns out brands aren't going to stop funneling money through Facebook's platforms, story via @swodinsky. But the boycotts do show there is the leverage for policy changes, if that's where the movement wants to go. https://gizmodo.com/... Dell Cameron Blm / @dellcam : the #StopHateForProfit campaign needs to more closely examine what companies are actually promising to do before promoting them as change agents https://twitter.com/... Nancy Scola / @nancyscola : Another interesting aspect: on the other side of the boycott is a marriage of ‘old-school’ civil rights orgs with gravitas — like @NAACP — and Internet activists, namely @slpng_giants, who have figured out how to leverage social media to trigger corporate action. That's new. https://twitter.com/... Tyler McCall / @eiffeltyler : I hate to be cynical about this but if the economy is down and people need to pull back advertising budgets, this does seem like a good way to make cuts disguised as awareness, no? https://twitter.com/... @profcarroll : even “the car that sells itself” is boycotting fb ads https://twitter.com/... Ian Betteridge / @ianbetteridge : Unilever's marketing spend last year was $7.2 billion. This is a big deal. https://twitter.com/... @slpng_giants : CONFIRMED: BIG! @Honda has joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign and will pause their advertising on Facebook platforms. https://twitter.com/... Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers : Facebook critics won't buy this, but the last 10% of hate speech is actually really hard — because AI can't identify it as easily as it can nudity or terrorist content, and more importantly definitions of “hate” are more complicated, esp if you're trying to maintain open platform https://twitter.com/... George P. Slefo / @georgeslefo : Excluding Instagram, Unilever spent $43 million on Facebook ads in 2019. Unilever's big global rival, Procter & Gamble, has so far declined to join a Facebook boycott. https://adage.com/... Lora Kolodny / @lorakolodny : 1/ Can't stop thinking about FB saying, “We do not make policy changes tied to revenue pressure.” But policies are part of product design, UXP. And yes, they will change if enough paying customers pressure them, i.e. leave, until changes are made. https://www.cnbc.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : I'm still skeptical it will lead to any real change, but the advertiser boycott of Facebook is beginning to look like a movement Arjun Basu / @arjunbasu : Now P&G. https://twitter.com/... @stopfundinghate : This is really gathering momentum now... https://twitter.com/... @firefox : We stopped advertising on Facebook in 2018, not because we thought our tiny budgets were going to break their bottom line, but to send a message: people come before profits. So excited to see lots of other companies doing the same. https://twitter.com/... Josh Olszewicz / @carpenoctom : love it or hate it, $FB feeling the power of the advertising purse https://twitter.com/... Jonathan Ferro / @ferrotv : Joining Verizon and others, which will likely put pressure on their competition to do the same thing. This one can snowball quick... https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Right. Unilever alone probably means a loss of $150mm - $250mm in revenue for Facebook rest of year. https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : Facebook comment on the unilever thing: https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Cynical take & wrong. They're shrinking, Casey - some even down 30%. But almost all incremental spend in budgets was going to FB and Goog last 4yrs. Pulling out of Facebook/Instagram rest of year is a serious move and will shift share to more trusted environments. I hear u but... https://twitter.com/... Colm O'Gorman / @colmogorman : Informative thread. Watch the videos referencing Facebooks failure to remove posts which clearly contravened their rules, and which promoted murder and hate crimes. With horrific consequences. https://twitter.com/... Mark Scott / @markscott82 : Oh man, this takes the social media ad boycott to a whole new level. @Unilever estimated marketing/brand spend per year: $7.3bn (but not just on social media) https://www.bloomberg.com/... Sally Shin / @sallyshin : here is more from @claireatki here: Unilever is one of the largest advertisers in the world. Wonder if its rival and the largest advertiser, P&G will follow suit. Facebook is down more than 7%... https://www.nbcnews.com/... Dara Kerr / @darakerr : Wow, this is big. Unilever, which spent more than $11.8 million on Facebook ads in the US so far this year, is also joining the boycott https://www.cnbc.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : 🙏🏽 really, really want to thank the leadership of Unilever. Making this move and through the end of the year is absolutely the kind of leadership needed across the marketing community. It's a positive trust signal for every one of their brands. Well done. https://twitter.com/... Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers : This is important. We might just see a freeze across the major buyers who say to Facebook and Twitter, a pox on all your houses til post-Election. https://twitter.com/... Nancy Scola / @nancyscola : Unilever was one of the ‘big fish’ companies the Facebook boycott organizers were most eager to land. A lesson from past boycotts is categories follow each other, and this opens up the door to others in its class — pretty much every other multinational consumer product giant. https://twitter.com/... Nancy Scola / @nancyscola : Also, what Facebook's worried about here really isn't revenue — it's reputation. Goes without saying that Facebook *needs* advertisers, and advertisers coming to the conclusion that it's too costly to be on Facebook is an existential threat. https://twitter.com/... Sam Sabin / @samsabin923 : This is huge. Unilever is pulling advertisements from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter through at least the end of the year and joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott. For reference, Unilever brands include Dove soap, Hellmann's mayo, Lipton tea and many more! https://twitter.com/... Dina Srinivasan / @dinasrinivasan : This is now getting interesting. from @VranicaWSJ https://twitter.com/... Amol Sharma / @asharma : Unilever, owner of brands from Dove to Hellmann's to Lipton, will halt U.S. ads on Facebook and Twitter for the rest of 2020, an escalation in Madison Avenue's pressure on tech companies. Scoop from @VranicaWSJ. Full story to come. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis : They're not trying to change anything at Facebook or Twitter. They are—as ever—running away from controversy & the forces allying against free expression gave them an excuse. They don't want to be near the public conversation. They have have. Chicken. https://www.wsj.com/... John Battelle / @johnbattelle : OK. THIS is a very, very big deal. From a revenue standpoint, it's not going to matter to Facebook. But the optics, following on the heels of Verizon, means the war room at FB HQ just got very, very busy. https://www.wsj.com/... Sara Fischer / @sarafischer : Yes, but: - FB current crisis resembles 2018 YouTube ad boycott - After a year, many advertisers that boycotted, including big names like P&G, returned - YouTube still an ad powerhouse, bringing in roughly $15 billion annually Bottom line: This won't kill FB, but PR nightmare https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Bingo. I knew I recognized the name of the Facebook executive trying to convince advertisers not to join #StopHateForProfit in this report. Advertisers, please watch these three clips from hearing last year. @b_fung @MsHannahMurphy /1 https://www.cnn.com/... Shachar Bar-On / @shachar_baron : As @Verizon said in their old ad campaign: “Can you hear me now?” Facebook - time to listen https://twitter.com/... Jon Passantino / @passantino : Verizon becomes the biggest company yet to yank ads from Facebook over its handling of misinformation and hate speech https://www.cnbc.com/... @slpng_giants : @ATT Thank you. Speaking of fundamental change, will you be reconsidering you're advertising spending on Facebook and joining the #StopHateForProfit campaign as a result of their inaction on hate and disinformation on their platforms, as Verizon has? https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... John Battelle / @johnbattelle : I have a lot of thoughts about the FB boycott - in particular having to do with how its millions of SMB advertisers are more than happy to pick up impressions left by larger brands - but what matters far more than money is optics. Those just got WAY worse. https://www.theverge.com/... Jonathan Greenblatt / @jgreenblattadl : Amazing news. Thank you @verizon for joining the fight against hate and bigotry by pausing your advertising on Facebook's platforms. This is how we make real change. By coming together and telling Facebook it's time to #StopHateForProfit. https://stophateforprofit.org/ https://twitter.com/... Brian Fung / @b_fung : Verizon's decision today comes after the ADL said one of the company's ads had appeared on Facebook beside a post pushing conspiracy theories: https://www.cnn.com/... Jonathan Greenblatt / @jgreenblattadl : A message to companies advertising on Facebook: For years, Facebook has been unwilling to significantly address hate on its platform while making billions off it. They won't put people over profit, but you can. Join us. Tell Facebook to #StopHateForProfit. https://www.adl.org/... @slpng_giants : What you're seeing now is the dam breaking. Predicting that dozens of advertisers will follow Verizon's lead and will now decide that Facebook's policies on hate and disinformation do not match up with their brands, pausing their ad dollars. Hard to overstate how big this is. https://twitter.com/... George P. Slefo / @georgeslefo : Verizon halts advertising on Facebook moments after Anti-Defamation League sends open letter — https://adage.com/... Garett Sloane / @garettsloane : ADL claims to have screenshots of ads adjacent to some nasty looking content on Facebook. Screenshots are brand kryptonite in these types of “boycott” fights, and Verizon immediately paused. We've seen this play out before with YouTube boycott https://adage.com/... @adl : An open letter to companies advertising on Facebook: The platform is putting profits over people. Your money, in some cases, is placing your ads right next to hateful and extremist content. Join us. Tell Facebook to #StopHateForProfit. https://adage.com/... See also Mediagazer