P+G has asked Facebook and Google to gain accreditation from Media Ratings Council (MRC) for their third-party audience measurements. Both companies have responded by giving P+G the middle finger. BUT, since they are making an effort at improving measurement and accountability, P&G is considering keeping their digital budgets in place. How nice. Marc Pritchard appreciates “not only… the progress but the attitude.” Leave it to Facebook to release a statement like this – “We have over-invested in building new experiences and under-invested in preventing abuses.” Now if that’s not a positive attitude I don’t know what is! P+G must have made some kind of deal with the devil here. They have already acknowledged that precision targeting was actually harmful to their marketing efforts. In July’17, they eliminated $140 Million of online display and saw no noticeable effect.
Unilever on the other hand is angry! CMO Keith Weed said, “We cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of its transparency.” Ouch! A swamp!? Hey, hold the phone friend. Brands that fund terror or exploit children are just plain old bad for the bottom line, I get it. But surely you can see past that and make an exception for the most powerful motivational tool of all time, display advertising. I mean, click through rates are sky high; 7 in 10,000. Fraud is only estimated to be around $30 billion (according to The World Federation of Advertisers).
Maybe.. and this is purely conjecture… Weed saw how much press P+G was getting by putting a faux foot down on Digital shenanigans and wanted in. After all, they spent $9 Big ones (billion) on advertising last year and so dammit, they want their butt kissed too!
Good for Weed and his crew. And speaking of weed…to memorialize Unilever’s stance on keeping ad spend away from “bad actors”, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (a staple of the Unilever product suite) has announced a new flavor for a limited time: Fully Baked. A mix of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, hashish, fudge, chocolate chips, cookie dough, pretzels and caramel swirls. One spoonful and you’ll forget all about this nonsense…guaranteed.
