It seems a safe bet to say that it’s an advertising agency issue to avoid placement on questionable websites.  Or a tech solution from the programmatic companies to avoid placing ads on ad networks that rely on fake news websites.

That’s not how U.S. marketers feel, though, according to a November 2017 survey done by the Society for New Communications Research of The Conference Board.  They hold Publishers and Media Companies most responsible.  83% of those surveyed said publishers and media companies need to take the lead in solving the issue, followed by 73% who blamed Social Media platforms.

Fake News Ads

Hmmm.

Quality publishers don’t create the problem.  They are, in fact, the solution.

If you stay with brand name publishers who have quality news organizations, you will avoid the fake news issue.  You’ll also avoid the problem of having your ads appear alongside questionable content or hate speech.

Here’s the problem with how the 115 marketers and advertisers responded in this survey:

  1.  The quality publishers aren’t the problem.  They don’t publish fake news.
  2.  The people that do publish fake news are doing it knowingly and profiting from it.   Why would they stop?
  3.  Don’t the people placing the ads – ad agencies – have the biggest responsibility to make sure they are spending their client’s money appropriately?

I can see the argument that since so many people get their news via Facebook that social media needs to help police the problem.  But I can also argue it’s not really their job to do so.  Again, aren’t the quality publishers – mainstream news sources – the solution?

H/T eMarketer