SURPRISE! YOU'RE PAYING FOR TERRORISM

The Times also said that these ads are running as pre-roll on YouTube for videos "created by supporters of terrorist groups such as Islamic State and Combat 18, a violent pro-Nazi faction."

A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said it had a “zero-tolerance policy for content that incites violence or hatred.”  Wow. Zero tolerance. I'm impressed!

Except later that day Fox News (which had me on to comment on this story, see below) reported that it had found spots for Snickers, Budweiser, Hyundai and other advertisers (that had just run in the Super Bowl at $5 million a pop) running as pre-roll on jihadist videos on YouTube.

No, you can't make this shit up.

Anyone who's not comatose knows that in the insane world of "adtech" and "programmatic buying" (in which computers buy ad space from other computers) all kinds of wonderful opportunities for corruption, fraud, and appalling awfulness exist.

Let me repeat what I've said so many times. Online advertisers...
   ..,.don't know what they're buying
   ...don't know who they're buying it from
   ...don't know where it's running
   ...don't know what they're paying

If these appalling episodes don't prove it, I don't know what will.

The only surprise here is that sophisticated advertisers believe the bullshit their agencies tell them about the "systems they have in place" to protect them from this kind of crap.

FACEBOOK GIVING US A PEEK?

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, under mounting pressure from marketers (and almost none from the feckless ad industry) Facebook has apparently agreed to have some of its key metrics audited by independent third parties. Over the years Facebook has resolutely refused to allow third party auditors to see some of their real numbers. Instead, they have issued their own metrics which in recent months have been found to be, ahem, unreliable.

How much daylight we'll actually be allowed to see is still uncertain.

According to the Journal, in announcing the news, a Facebook genius made this point...

"...she also laid out some of the downsides (of better metrics)... For example, buying ads based on how long they are viewed can lead to reaching older users who scroll slowly through their newsfeeds and can drive up ad costs, she told marketers."

Oh my god! Older users! The horror!

Hell no. You wouldn't want people to scroll through their newsfeed slowly and actually SEE the fucking ads. You just want idiots who scroll really fast. That's the Facebook way in a nutshell -- we don't care if anyone actually sees the ads, just as long as we get paid for them.

And by the way, missy, I'm about 100 years old and I can scroll through your crappy newsfeed faster than you can come up with idiotic PR horseshit.

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