Major companies such as Nissan and Nationwide (the UK's largest construction company) have decided to suspend their Facebook advertising campaigns after their names were placed next to posts with objectionable content.
The incident is attributable to the new targeted advertising service, which allows companies to reach their chosen target customers more easily, who are identified on the basis of their expressed tastes and web searches. This new technological tool, having identified a potential customer, automatically places the advertisement alongside any page viewed on the web by the aforementioned user.
Unfortunately, this mechanism has led to the unfortunate association between the name of reputable companies such as Nissan or Nationwide and images with misogynistic content, removed following a specific complaint received from twitter and various organizations for the protection of women, and after having been widely circulated in net. The damage to the image suffered and the absence of immediate technological solutions to the problem therefore convinced the damaged companies not to make use of the Californian company's advertising services.
As revealed by the Financial Times, it is a fundamental moment for Facebook: it must be able to control the contents that are published to prevent them from ending up near advertisers with a reputation to defend. This is mainly because the 38% growth in revenues recorded in the first quarter of this year is mainly due to the targeted advertising services now under fire.
