Under Strict Embargo

Well, the impact of this week’s Panorama seems to be gathering pace with Vodafone, Virgin Media, and First Direct (so far today) announcing that they are suspending all advertising on Facebook after skyscrapers appeared on a page promoting the far-right British National Party. The growing crisis of confidence has resulted in advertising industry bodies the IPA, ISBA, IASH and the IAB rushing out new guidelines this morning for agencies using online advertising networks. The key recommendations include:

1. Advertising agencies that purchase media space through intermediary online networks should require, in their contracts, specific warranties and obligations that the company’s advertisements will not be associated with any objectionable content.

2. When these are breached by mistake or human error, every effort should be made to withdraw the advertising immediately and no fee should be paid to the media owner.

3. Additional measures can also be considered by an agency:
- Reconsideration of trading relationship with network
- Legal action against the network

Other brands seem to have taken the decision that the benefits of advertising on social networks at the moment out weight the disadvantages. According to New Media Age, eBay are refusing to retract their advertising with an Orange spokesperson claiming that they will be working with Facebook to resolve any issues,“There are so many other benefits to advertising on social network sites. We closely monitor customer feedback and if they are offended, we will take that into account”.

Call me naive but something tells me that Orange is likely to be facing a number of calls today from offended customers and that anti-BNP political groups are likely to put a lot of PR pressure on those brands who have so far taken no action. In terms of the new guidelines the question is not if they are too little too late but whether like some previous pronouncements they will simply be ignored by the social networks themselves. Interesting times.

Update 5.09pm: The AA, Halifax and Prudential have also pulled their advertising…