Political Polarization In A Programmatic World

In an era of heightened political awareness and division, brands are more and more sensitive to the nature of the content where their online ads are displayed. In an era of ever-increasing dominance of programmatic advertising via multiple levels of ad networks, real-time bidding, and behavioral targeting, brands have less and less control over where their ads appear.  

The tension between the desire for brands to have more control and their increasing lack of it came to light this spring in a series of news reports demonstrating that ads for major brands were appearing on YouTube, Facebook and other websites alongside various sorts of unsavory content such as pro-terrorism videos, racist content, and fake news. Many advertisers pulled their ads from YouTube and Google ad networks including AT&T, Coca-Cola and Verizon. Big brands have similarly taken measures, with mixed results, to prevent their ads from appearing through ad networks on controversial sites such as Bre