I've been struggling to think about how to respond to the news that WFA has closed GARM under pressure from Linda Yaccarino and the team at X, possibly with passive support of the other media platforms. EVERYONE in advertising and marketing needs to think hard about what it is giving up by having a trade body championing high standards, removed. See below the sorts of guidelines that GARM are pushing for, some advertisers are enforcing, and X are fighting against - bizarrely threatening to sue clients that don't advertise with them. EVERYONE should think very hard about what sort of content they want to see, want their children to see, want the world to celebrate. They also should think how best to build their brands. Also, they may wish to consider that if the industry cannot self-regulate, then governments will (and that government may be left, right, or centrist). If you think that advertisers, agencies, auditors, media owners, and tech companies should align to ensure that advertising does not support toxic content, please like this post and comment and send a message to Linda that they have this terribly terribly wrong.... #advertising #mediaplanningandbuying #mediaaudits #brands #responsibleadvertising #marketing #responsiblemarketing Flock Associates
Ron de Pear
7mo
Totally agree with you Simon
Linda Jackson
7mo
I was dismayed to see the new that GARM was disbanding. It's not good enough to take into account principles of #responsibleadvertising during the #creativedevelopment process and the #mediaplanningandbuying process, we need to ensure that the media themselves are fully committed to the concept of #responsibleadvertising and support making their channels safe advertising spaces. We know which ones are not, and I agree with the comments in that it's v disappointing that we're not seeing other platform and network leaders supporting #responsibleadvertising. I'd hope that this becomes a tipping point for brands and agencies to leave X (and the other unsafe spaces).
Erez Levin 🎗️
7mo
I personally don't think that "agencies, auditors, media owners, and tech companies should align to ensure that advertising does not support toxic content", mostly because I don't trust anybody to decide what is or isn't toxic, acceptable, etc. I DO think that agencies, auditors, media owners, and tech companies should align to ensure that brands have transparency about the type of content that appears on various media platforms & publishers, and the controls to block anything they don't find suitable for them. I believe GARM was meant to do the latter, and did so nobly and effectively. The problem may be that they also started to facilitate the former, even though they were never entrusted by the industry or society to do so.
Brian Jacobs
7mo
Come along to www.advertisingwhocares.org on September 12th along with others from clients, indie agencies, consultancies, influencers, all of whom care. This is no doubt an issue that needs to be discussed. Nick Manning
Samuel Monnie
7mo
I think folks should stop platforming, lauding and coddling the person that instigated the litigation that got GARM shutdown. There are many in this industry privately and publicly enabling him. They have the power and access to champion brand safety. Their silence is deafening……
Mark Palmer
7mo
Musk is bullying GARM using court costs as a weapon. It’s understandable a not for profit with genuine good intentions disbands under this real threat. I’m not an advertiser, but there is a simple powerful response. All of them should now individually pull all ad spend on X before running one last ad on X. It would state. “We have the freedom to choose not to support X with advertising. Go F#$k yourself”
It is ridiculous that GARM was dismantled. This attempt by Elon Musk of X to sue advertisers and industry bodies for NOT advertising with a platform that disseminates lies, misogyny and disinformation that has spread hate speech and fueled not only violent rhetoric but violent action must not be stand. As business leaders in the field of marketing and advertising, we must not enable Elon Musk to threaten companies. Capitalism ensures free markets including the freedom to not fund hate speech! Media companies need to earn the respect and confidence of their clients not threaten with lawsuits. I hope every company and the WFA pushes back hard. This is a baseless lawsuit. We should expect content guardrails for every media platform to protect users from disinformation, racism, violent speech and gendered attacks.
Warwick Hill
7mo
will get worse under Trump
Joe Clift
7mo
Well said Simon Francis . Let’s all just not use X. End of. No great loss given its recent performance.
Maximising Value Creation in Marketing & M&A Deal Flow
7moSimon Francis spot on. Before acquisition X was underperforming, after X acquisition got worst. Brands should stay away of X at all costs, there is no content standards, no quality monitoring, poor tracking, full of dummy accounts etc. If Trump gets elected, Elon Musk will be the biggest winner. He is bankrolling the Trump campaign to drive change through policy.