Scan QR code for overseas weekly selection
Sina Technology Muer
The annual advertising expenditure in the US market is nearly 100 million dollars Starbucks A few days ago, it was announced that "advertising will be suspended on all social media platforms to stop the spread of hate speech."
The rich and powerful advertiser suddenly said he would not buy the advertisement, and went up micro-blog Hot search. Perhaps it was not clear, Starbucks later clarified that "the suspension of advertising is only limited to the US market, not involving the Chinese market".
Starbucks is actually responding to the # StopHateForProfit (resistance to using hatred for profit) campaign jointly launched by the American Civil Rights Organization. So far, the boycott campaign has received Unilever 、 Coca Cola And PepsiCo, as well as hundreds of small advertisers.
The organization also said that they would encourage more American enterprises to join the opposition Facebook The campaign will spread to the whole world in the future to exert greater pressure on Facebook.
#StopHateForProfit
Color Of Change, one of the initiators of the campaign, said that more than 160 advertisers have participated in it. Although most of the participants are small and medium-sized enterprises, recently, some large companies that spend millions of dollars in advertising on Facebook platform every year have also started to take action, and some even suspended advertising on all social media platforms.
Unilever, a multinational company, has previously renamed a whitening product "Fair&Lovely" in India to support the campaign against racism. Recently, this company, which has the highest advertising expenditure in the world, released a statement again, saying that it will suspend its use of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter The reason for placing advertisements targeting the US market is to reduce splittism and hate speech in the polarized election season.
"During this period, continued advertising on social media platforms will not bring any value to users and society," Unilever wrote in a statement.
Then, Coca Cola and chocolate maker Hershey also announced that they would reduce advertising on social media platforms.
Coca Cola said it would "suspend global advertising on all social media for at least 30 days." The statement also said, "We will use this time to review our advertising standards and policies to assess whether internal adjustments are needed, and we hope that the social media cooperation platform will take more measures to combat hatred, violence and improper speech. We will tell them that we hope to see the other party take more responsibilities, take more actions and provide more transparency. "
Jill Baskin, the chief marketing officer of Hershey, said that the company would join the Facebook boycott in July and cut the advertising spending on Facebook platform by one-third for the rest of 2020. Baskin also said that at the beginning of June, the company had made it clear that it was "very dissatisfied with Facebook's position on hate speech".
Resist the spread of emotions
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has always opposed labeling users' posts. Until recently, he couldn't resist the pressure from all directions.
Since the beginning of June, Facebook has not taken any action against President Trump's controversial post of "dare to rob, dare to shoot", the company has been accused again after more than two years. The last time Facebook was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion was in early 2018, because the "Cambridge Analysis Scandal" triggered a crisis of trust in the platform, and the regulators made a stricter investigation of Facebook.
This time, angry employees, Democratic Party members and civil rights organizations plan to regulate the content on the platform, accounting for both new and old accounts.
When Zuckerberg said that the president's post did not violate the platform's rule of inciting violence, civil rights activists retorted that this dispute just reflected how Facebook became a platform where racist comments flooded.
To express their dissatisfaction, three employees have chosen to resign, and more than 5500 employees have launched an online strike campaign. However, these pressures are not enough to challenge their stubborn CEO, and only "will consider adjusting the policy of the platform".
In order to effectively exert pressure on Facebook and urge the platform to take stricter measures against racism and hate speech, on June 17, civil rights organizations such as the Anti Defamation Alliance, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Color Of Change jointly launched the "Stop Hat for Profit" campaign against Facebook, Accusing Facebook of profiting from "paranoid, racist and violent content", and calling on advertisers to suspend advertising on Facebook in July.
Small tie loose mouth
In the first quarter of 2020, Facebook's total global revenue was 17.74 billion dollars, of which more than 98% came from advertising. Most of the advertisements come from big advertisers such as Unilever. For example, according to the data of the analysis platform Pathmatics, last year, Unilever spent $42.4 million on advertising in the United States, Coca Cola $22.1 million, Verizon $22.9 million, and Starbucks more than $94.9 million.
The growth of Facebook's advertising revenue in the first quarter has slowed down. On the one hand, it is affected by the epidemic. On the other hand, the improvement of user privacy also limits the platform's advertising capacity.
If we encounter widespread resistance from advertisers of all sizes, it will be even worse. Last Friday, after Unilever's announcement, Facebook's share price plummeted 8.3%.
Later, Zuckerberg said in the live broadcast that Facebook would put a warning label on the content that violates the platform policy but is still considered newsworthy. Zuckerberg also stressed that "none of the policies I announced today will be exceptional for politicians."
In addition, Zuckerberg also announced a series of new policies aimed at combating voter repression and curbing hate speech. He said that Facebook would ban hate content in advertisements, including hate content against immigrants. The company will also take more measures to prohibit false content related to the election, tag all posts discussing the election, and link to "authoritative information".
Familiar routine, lack of sincerity
However, Facebook's new measures have not appeased critics. The latter said that they had been trying to let Facebook understand the seriousness of its platform problems for many years, but in the end the company only made "some concessions". They pointed out that Facebook already had a strict policy against suppressing voters and hate speech, but Zuckerberg hardly mentioned the relevant content at the press conference on Friday.
Rashad Robinson, President of Color Of Change, relentlessly pointed out that Zuckerberg's statement was nothing less than an "empty promise of 11 minutes", and again appealed to advertisers not to put advertisements on Facebook.
In the joint statement issued by the # StopHateForProfit boycott organizers, they scoffed at Facebook's new initiatives:
"All these measures will neither be reviewed nor verified - or play a small role in the problems on the world's largest social media platform. We are no strangers to Facebook's routine. They have not apologized before. After every crisis, they just take some painless measures. But this time, we can't let it go easily. "
Jim Steyer, CEO of non-profit organization Common Sense Media, believes that the next step should be to put pressure on Facebook globally, appeal to European regulators to take a tougher attitude towards the company, and mobilize international companies such as Unilever to stop Facebook advertising globally.
It's just a matter of heat
Holding the sword of justice, civil rights organizations vowed to exert pressure on the social media giant and force Zuckerberg to make more concessions by calling on advertisers to stop placing Facebook ads; On the other hand, critics pointed out pointedly that the original intention of # StopHateForProfit campaign was great, but these astute advertisers just took the opportunity to rub off enthusiasm.
Data can tell everything.
According to the data of Pathmatics, the retailer REI announced that it would withdraw all Facebook and Instagram advertisements in July. However, from the data in the figure, since REI announced to join the anti Facebook army on June 19, their advertising spending on Facebook seems to have increased significantly (dark blue curve). It may not be July yet, but will they keep their promises after the media fades in July?
This is one of them. Secondly, some advertisers don't spend much on Facebook. Taking Verizon as an example, their advertising spending on Facebook and Instagram accounted for 13% of the company's total spending on digital media, while 84% of their spending was spent on other programmatic channels, such as mobile video and desktop video. At this time, joining the Facebook boycott will win more reports and public favor, and have almost no impact on the actual business. Why not.
Combating hate speech and racism is the core of the # StopHateForProfit movement. If we boycott Facebook for this reason, but at the same time put advertisements on other programmed advertising websites full of hate speech, fake news, pornographic content, etc., what's the meaning of boycotting Facebook besides eye-catching?
Even so, Zuckerberg chose to give up the principle and agreed to tag his posts. Perhaps Zuckerberg is not as stubborn as he imagined.
Some of the big advertisers who joined the boycott campaign (the company's annual advertising spending in the United States in parentheses)
Starbucks ($94.9 million)
"Suspend advertising on all social media platforms to stop the spread of hate speech."
Unilever (US $42.4 million)
"We will suspend advertising targeting the US market on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the rest of this year", on the grounds that we will reduce splittism and hate speech in the polarized election season.
Verizon, a telecommunications company ($22.9 million)
"Suspend advertising on Facebook until the platform can provide a solution that we are satisfied with." The company will also suspend paid advertising and publish free posts.
Diageo, an alcoholic beverage company ($22.9 million)
Stop advertising on all social media from July 1, and "continue to discuss with media partners how to deal with unacceptable content."
Retailer REI ($22.5 million)
Withdraw all Facebook and Instagram ads in July.
Beverage giant Coca Cola ($22.1 million)
Will "suspend global advertising on all social media for at least 30 days."
Patagonia, an outdoor sports brand ($6.2 million)
The global ads on Facebook and Instagram will be deleted immediately until at least the end of July. But at the same time, the company said it would continue to publish free content on Facebook.
North Face, an outdoor sports brand ($3.3 million)
It will stop publishing content and buying ads on Facebook in July, but will continue to publish free posts on Instagram.
Clothing brand Levi's ($2.8 million)
At least the advertising on Facebook in July will be suspended. "When to resume cooperation depends on Facebook's attitude."
Sportswear retailer Lululemon ($1.6 million)
On Friday, he expressed support for the boycott movement on Twitter and said that he would "actively cooperate with Facebook to seek meaningful changes". A company spokesman said the company would suspend paid ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Retailer Eddie Bauer ($1.4 million)
Suspend paid ads on Facebook and Instagram in July.
Strong liquor company Beam Suntory (millions of dollars)
All advertising consumption on Facebook and Instagram for the US market in July will be stopped, and the response of Facebook will be watched to evaluate the advertising strategy after July.
