Assassination attempt poses ethical questions for ad platforms

Hello my lovely readers. Thanks once again for opening our email and actually reading what I have to say.

Just checking in on you guys. There’s a lot going on right now!

War in Ukraine, war in Palestine, war in the Congo. The UK has a new government. The climate crisis is here. We don’t know what information we can trust. And I can’t get that Sabrina Carpenter song out of my head.

We’re living through some pretty hefty historical events.

Oh yeah, and we just witnessed former President Donald Trump almost get assassinated live on social media.

Which I’m sure isn’t news to anyone here. But whether you hate him or love him (I’m not judging), we can’t deny it has a significant effect on us, the election, and of course, the media and marketing landscape we operate in daily.

We’re already seeing the effects of this major political event unfold in our industry.

After all, in the words of Kamala Harris, 'You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.'

The assassination attempt highlights the thin line between profit and ethics that platforms are walking as we edge toward the election.

In the chaotic aftermath of the incident at Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday July 13th, opportunists that I liken to the trope of a greasy car salesmen rushed to cash in on the hysteria and speculation.

Advertisers on Meta platforms instantly began using the famed images of the former president being pulled off-stage by the Secret Service. We saw them plastered over mugs and t-shirts with the typical slogans you’d expect from this genre of merch, like 'Legends Never Die!' or 'Not Today.'

According to Digiday’s analysis of the publicly available record of all political ads bought on Meta, these were just a few of the examples shown in the Meta ads library. This highlights the fact that small right-wing e-commerce websites were eager to capitalise on this event. And this made Meta money in the process.

Of course, outside of selling actual products, there’s a multitude of other political ads on social platforms. These are making all kinds of claims about the shooting, spreading a whole lot of misinformation, as I’m sure you can imagine.

The question is, how will ad platforms respond to this mess?

Especially as the race heats up and the ads become potentially more contentious. Will ad platforms block them? Will they restrict their reach? Is it too soon to predict?

Last year, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, revealed the platform’s plan for elections. He confirmed that around 40,000 experts would be working on safety and security across its family of apps. In fact, Meta has invested $20 billion since 2016 into these efforts.

Whatever the game plan, the platforms will have to balance policing political content while still recognising free speech. And police them enough that advertisers aren’t scared to spend their money in increasingly risky environments (i.e. their platforms).

To be fair, advertisers have a right to be concerned after the incident.

Particularly because we’re now operating in a completely different landscape to the last election.

During the 2020 election, the main political conversations took place on Meta platforms and (then) Twitter.

Since then, TikTok and AI have thrown us a huge curveball.

More and more, how we perceive events (and thus, how we feel about them) is based on the content we consume.

What we see on social media is more important than the actual events themselves.

As we consume content, the algorithm pushes more content in line with what we're watching. And there's no way of knowing how accurate any of it is. This can easily snowball into a mammoth of misinformation.

What does this mean for marketers?

Well, if you advertise on social platforms, your ads could appear alongside questionable content. This could significantly impact your brand's reputation. And, if this happens to enough advertisers, it could cause a drop in ad spend across socials.

In fact, marketers aren’t the only ones halting their media spend.

The Democrat’s presidential campaign has been thrown into suspension after the failed assassination attempt. The party has taken down attack ads and all criticism of Trump. This means a $50 million advertising blitz is on pause in an attempt to 'lower the temperature' in politics.

What do we do in the face of all this chaos?

Monitor and adapt to platform policies. Stay updated on the latest changes in platform policies, especially around political content. Review the guidelines and adjust your campaigns accordingly to make sure your content or ads follow the rules. Setting up alerts can be useful for this.

Prioritise brand safety. Place your ads in safe environments to protect your brand image as best you can. Use ad verification tools that offer brand safety controls. These ensure your ads don't appear next to misleading or harmful content.

Be socially responsible. Unlike the greasy political car salesmen of Facebook, develop a content strategy that includes socially responsible messaging and actions.

And most of all, protect your energy! At risk of sounding like a woowoo witch, these things we experience and witness and try to navigate are real life events, despite being on our screens. Know when to disengage if you need a little break.

-Sophie, Writer