Podcast Summary: AdExchanger Talks – "The Brand Safety Balancing Act"

Host: Allison Schiff
Guest: Brittany Scott, VP of Partnerships, Zephyr
Date: December 30, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode closes out 2025 with an in-depth conversation about the evolving landscape of brand safety and suitability in digital advertising. Host Allison Schiff is joined by Brittany Scott, VP of Partnerships at Zephyr, a leading measurement provider specializing in brand safety for social media's "walled gardens." Combining buy-side experience at major brands and platform-side work at Meta, Brittany offers a unique vantage point on the challenges, misconceptions, and emerging solutions in keeping brands safe without sacrificing scale, relevance, or revenue.

Key Discussion Points

Brittany’s Career Path and Perspective

• Empathy Across Roles:

  • Having worked on both the buy side (Kellogg, Goodyear, Hershey, SC Johnson) and the platform side (Meta), Brittany emphasizes an empathy-driven approach:

    "It's really easy to oversimplify everyone's jobs...but the truth of the matter is it's incredibly complex." (03:38)

  • Her experience helps bridge understanding between brands, agencies, platforms, and tech providers.

• Brand Reactions to Sensitive News:

  • Brands want to be responsive and respectful in times of tragedy, focusing on responsible monetization and not appearing insensitive.

    "You don't want to monetize these moments because you want them to be reflective and to be able to be about the victims and the people going through these things." (04:21)

The Nuance of Brand Safety & News Adjacency

• Against Overbroad Blocking:
  • Both Allison and Brittany agree that blocking all news is inefficient and unnecessarily restricts monetization.
  • Brands want customization: block certain types of breaking news or tragedy, but remain open to positive and relevant news content.

    "If you're operating under a framework where it's just like block all news, probably not a good idea, right? I think it's really important to have nuance to everything you're doing..." (07:34)

• Brand/Message Alignment:
  • Example: Entertainment brands may not want to advertise around tragic news, but are happy to appear near box office stories.

From Meta to Zephyr: Why the Switch?

• Zephyr’s Broader Impact:
  • Brittany explains that at Zephyr, she can drive industry-wide safety standards, unburdened by the complications of managing speech for billions of users.

    "At Zephyr, it's much easier, right? We're just erring on the side of brands...when I was at Meta...you have to make really tough calls." (08:39)

• Elevating Platform Standards:
  • Zephyr integrates with multiple walled gardens (Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube), allowing Brittany to advocate for broader and more flexible brand safety measures.

Breaking Down Zephyr’s Solution — Jargon-Free

• Brand Safety 101:
  • Zephyr enables advertisers to reach desired audiences while avoiding content misaligned with their values.
  • Example: "We want to reach this person, but we don’t want to be near their MMA fighting content. We want to be by cooking content, beauty content, local news..." (12:14)
  • The platform blocks unsuitable content and provides transparent reporting on where ads appeared.

Philosophical Take: When is Brand Safety Overreaction?

• Challenge of Overblocking:
  • Excessive keyword-based blocking can lead to missed opportunities and unduly restrict available ad inventory.

    "The industry by and large uses keywords and texts in a large way to block large swaths of content. And I think that's really misaligned." (15:33)

  • Common keyword oversights:
    • "Shot" blocks both violence and "shots on goal" in sports.
    • "Naked" blocks both adult content and "naked cake recipes" or "nude nail trends."
    • Allison’s favorite: "chicken breast." (16:09)
• Evolving to a 'Media Quality' Discussion:
  • Brittany sees a shift from viewing brand safety as a blunt tool to focusing on overall content quality, especially with the rise of AI-generated content.

    "I think when you put the lens of quality it brings forth obviously inherently safety is a part of quality..." (17:14)

  • "Set it and forget it" strategies are risky as content—and risks—change constantly.

The AI Content Challenge

• Defining Quality Amidst AI Proliferation:
  • With tools like SORA creating realistic but sometimes questionable content, brands must continuously re-examine what constitutes "quality."

    "The definition of quality has to get nuanced too...Production value is going to get so high, you’re not going to be able to tell the difference..." (19:11)

• Customizing Risk Tolerance:
  • Zephyr’s approach: A pyramid of risk categories, with AI amplification considered across all levels.
    • Example concerns: Celebrity defamation, fake children’s content with possible implications for brands like alcohol.

    "Slop is way too big of an umbrella. We can't just call everything slop. There has to be nuance." (21:52)

The Continued Reality of Keyword Blocking

• Current State:
  • Despite claims of progress, keyword blocking remains widespread, especially on the open web.

    "Keyword blocking still tends to be a big part of what I hear from a strategy perspective...We really try to educate that it isn't best practice and shouldn't be used in that manner." (30:05)

• Where It’s Useful:
  • Effective for search (e.g., TikTok) and for temporary responses to major real-time events.

Brand Safety Verification and the MRC Debate

• Meta’s Exit from MRC Audits:
  • In 2025, Meta stopped participating in independent Media Rating Council (MRC) audits, losing accreditation for Facebook and Instagram feeds.

    "I think it is very clear who owns...making sure those settings, controls, things happen and who's responsible ultimately for brand safety for advertisers. And I really think if you care about more than just monetization standards or community standards from a platform, I really think you should be working with a third party." (36:35)

• What Should Marketers Do?
  • Push platforms (especially Meta) for greater transparency—especially around less open placements like Stories.

    "If I were a CMO...I would be pushing Meta to continue transparency controls actions across every surface of the platform, because brands deserve to have that control in not just defined spaces, but everywhere." (40:09)

• MRC Accreditation: Valuable but Flawed:
  • Necessary for oversight but expensive, slow, and voluntary—creating loopholes for bad actors.

AI’s Role and Limitations

• Model Discrimination and Human Oversight:
  • Zephyr combines AI and active human moderation, constantly retraining models for new language, context, and edge cases.

    "We train models every single day. So it's again that kind of constant practice. But they aren't perfect. You're right. And I think human oversight is incredibly important." (44:03)

  • The balance is to avoid both over-labeling (hurting reach) and under-labeling (increasing brand risk).

Transparency in Walled Gardens

• Limitations Exist:
  • Ultimately, full transparency from platforms ("walled gardens") is elusive, relying on trust in APIs and integration feeds.

    "At a certain point, like I worked at Meta, I really feel like the team working on this really cares about it. And we do have to take a leap of faith and believe that those APIs and connections don't have any cleansing of any kind in it." (46:16)

• Feedback Loops Help Improve Ecosystem:
  • Zephyr shares findings of policy-violating content with platforms to help clean up the broader ad environment.

Notable Quotes

• On Keyword Blocking Limitations:

  "Keyword blocking still tends to be a big part of what I hear from a strategy perspective. What a shame..." (30:05) – Brittany

• On the New AI Content Challenge:

  "We have a SORA detector where we can understand content made by Sora. Specifically, we track all the models, but we're looking at what are the emerging trends and categories." (22:00) – Brittany

• On Brands’ Responsibility:

  "If you care about more than just monetization standards or community standards from a platform, I really think you should be working with a third party." (36:35) – Brittany

• On the Need for Constant Nuance:

  "Nuance, nuance, nuance. I mean that's the takeaway I think everyone should probably bring from this episode." (32:16) – Allison

Actionable Takeaways

• For Marketers:
  • Ask your teams: Are we using blunt keyword blocking? Challenge them to move toward nuanced, AI-powered, and actively monitored approaches.
  • Explore emerging AI-generated content (e.g., search "SORA" on platforms) and decide which types might pose a brand risk and why.

    "Go into any of the platforms and search Sora...find a piece of content that if there wasn't the watermark...you could actually be fooled by..." (50:35) – Brittany

  • Demand transparency and control from platform partners, especially as placement formats and content curation grow more automated.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Brittany’s Background and Empathy for All Sides: 03:38
• Nuances in Brand Safety & News: 06:18
• Moving from Meta to Zephyr: 08:39
• Zephyr’s Jargon-Free Brand Safety Solution: 11:36
• Overreaction & Quality over Blunt Safety: 15:33
• The Reality and Limits of Blunt Keyword Blocking: 30:05
• Meta & MRC Audits—What Marketers Should Know: 33:15, 36:35, 40:09
• How AI Tackles (or Struggles with) Brand Safety Edge Cases: 42:24, 44:03
• Transparency Limitations in Walled Gardens: 46:16
• Final Actionable Advice for Listeners: 50:35

Memorable Closing

"Stay safe and stay suitable and stay nuanced and smart out there." (52:03) – Allison

Bottom Line:
Brand safety has never been more complex—or important. Precise, nuanced, constantly updated strategies are key. Reliance on blunt tools is out; quality-focused, tech-enabled, and human-augmented verification is in. And in an age of increasingly sophisticated—and realistic—AI content, staying informed, vigilant, and collaborative is every marketer’s responsibility.