Online social networking company Facebook has promised to change the way its ads are delivered after several major brands complained of seeing their advertisements served alongside offensive content. The company’s advertising division was recently the target of complaints from retail brands Marks and Spencer and TV firm Sky.
The two firms complained that their advertisements were appearing beside pages for adult content. Both Marks and Spencer and Sky have suspended their Facebook advertising campaigns after their advertisements were seen alongside a page called ‘cute and gay boys’ that featured photographs of teenage models.
Facebook has responded to the complaints by promising to clean up its advertising platform, which currently delivers advertisements beside all fan pages. Facebook’s large inventory of fan pages includes controversial political groups and community pages, many of which have been the target of advertiser complaints in the past.
The company has also been subject to complaints about the way its advertisements are served, with customers noting that Facebook offers limited capacity for clients to separate mobile and desktop traffic. The company has also been targeted by US women’s groups over its delivery of advertising alongside misogynistic content.
Sky has announced that it will ‘review the situation in due course’ and resume its advertising campaigns after Facebook’s delivery method is adjusted. Facebook’s control panel currently does not allow advertisers to opt out of having their ads displayed next to potentially offensive or controversial content.
The removal of controversial pages from Facebook could be a difficult more for the company, which has struggled to achieve impressive earnings from its advertising platform after going public. Facebook has invested its resources in mobile ads over the past year, in an effort to capitalise on its growing mobile user base.
The company plans to create a database of ‘gold standard’ pages that will display all advertisements by default. Other pages will then be vetted for content to ensure that offensive pages are not accidentally targeted by advertisers.
