• Summary

• Full Report

• Press Release

Summary

In this year's US Brand Safety Consumer Survey, 25% of respondents said any specific news topic should be off-limits to ads, while nearly half (46%) said all high-quality journalism should be appropriate for ads. Reinforcing those findings, by more than a two-to-one margin (69% to 31%), respondents said the importance of ad funding for coverage of the Ukraine war outweighed any risk of violent content in that coverage.

When asked about specific topics, only small minorities of respondents said news coverage of those subjects should not be supported by ads, such as news about the war in Ukraine (19%), COVID-19 (19%), riots/civil unrest (22%), police brutality (22%), drug abuse/overdoses (23%), LGBTQ+ issues (23%), abortion (23%), school shootings (25%), controversial politicians (26%), or murders/violent crimes (27%).

By contrast, far larger percentages of respondents said nine other types of non-news content should be blocked by advertisers. Those “noxious nine” topics, which align with equivalent categories in the GARM Brand Safety Suitability Framework, are:

• Sexually-explicit or pornographic content (70% said block nearby ads)
• Hate speech or racist content (70%) Unsafe or hacked websites (68%)
• Illegal drug-related content (65%) Terrorism-related content (59%)
• Content about violence, injury, or death (53%)
• Stolen/pirated movies or TV shows (48%)
• Profanity or obscene language (48%)
• Gun and ammunition-related content (46%)

Among other findings of the survey:

• Consumers believe that brand unsafe content is pervasive online, with respondents saying they believe roughly half (51%) of all online content is dangerous, offensive, or inappropriate.
• More than three-quarters (76%) said the US had the biggest problem with dangerous, offensive, or inappropriate content online vs. just 11% for the UK/Europe and 13% for the Asia-Pacific region.
• The large majority of respondents (85%) said hate speech has increased online over the last year, including 45% saying it increased "a great deal."
• The overwhelming majority (88%) said it is very or somewhat important that advertisers ensure their ads are not placed near brand unsafe content.
• A similarly large group of respondents (88%) said they would feel more positive about a company that required its partners to be independently certified for brand safety.
• Respondents felt the responsibility for brand safety should be shared across participants in the ad ecosystem, including advertisers (60%), ad agencies (58%), tech providers (48%), and publishers (59%).

Full Report

To download the full 2022 US Brand Safety Consumer Survey, click below. 

Press Release

To read the full press release, click below.