Friday, 19th February 2021 at 12:06pmThe ‘overtly sexual’ cow: Social media’s great balancing act

Digital advertising is great – especially for small and medium sized businesses. Why? Well, it’s relatively cheap media space to buy – especially compared to, say, a TV spot. It’s also cheap to produce in comparison to traditional methods of advertising. Finally, it’s efficient. That’s because (when done correctly) it’s highly targetable and measurable. You can reach relevant audiences easily and optimise the content you produce by analysing how your ads perform.

While it’s been around for donkey’s years, digital advertising is still in a rapid phase of evolution.

Let alone the advertisers, it can sometimes seem as though the platforms themselves are struggling to keep pace with the applications, limitations and responsibilities that come with ‘new media’: just look at how frequently ad specs change on the likes of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook in particular seems to be struggling with something of a balancing act.

On the one hand, it needs to make the advertising process simple and frictionless for its advertisers. On the other, it faces increasing pressure to limit fake, misleading, inappropriate or dangerous content.

Historically, digital media owners have not always fared well when it comes to self-regulation. Which? launched an experiment  to see just how simple it is to go live with deliberately false communications and claims to have had misleading ads up and running within the space of an hour. 

Following much scrutiny, platforms do seem to be taking notice. You may have seen, for example, recent articles about content relating to COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud being blocked.

But the plight of one poor advertiser – a small image library in the UK – tells us that restrictions are often overzealous.

One ad, which showed an image of a cow in a field, was banned for being ‘overtly sexual’. The same judgement was levelled at a picture of group of cricketers in a huddle. Another ad (featuring an image of a simple set of disco lights) was banned on the grounds that it encouraged the use of recreational drugs.

The media owner’s overreliance on automation (which of course, makes administrative processes quicker and cheaper) is no doubt to blame. And, had the advertiser been able to speak to a real, rational human being, these issues could no doubt have been quickly solved with a dollop of common sense.

Sadly, reports state that no such support was forthcoming.

Getting your ad live is just one hurdle to overcome. Advertisers must also ask: does my ad have creative standout? Is my message clear and compelling? Are the right people seeing it? How can I improve my ROI? Am I getting value for money?

In most cases, you’re best-off sticking to your day job and asking an expert sweat over these details on your behalf.

For a digital campaign that ticks all the boxes, you know where to find us.