The Refresh News: June 9 - Brand Safety Scandals, AI Missteps, and FTC Crackdowns

Summary

AdTechGod Pod: The Refresh News – June 9, 2025

Host: Kate
Release Date: June 9, 2025
Episode Title: The Refresh News: June 9 - Brand Safety Scandals, AI Missteps, and FTC Crackdowns

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Introduction

In this episode of the AdTechGod Pod, host Kate delves into three major stories shaking the advertising technology landscape: a significant brand safety scandal, Meta's ambitious foray into AI-driven ad creation, and the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) latest investigation into advertiser boycotts. Kate provides insightful analysis, backed by recent reports and her professional observations, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of these pivotal issues.

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1. Major Brand Safety Scandal: Ads on Inappropriate App X Shorts

Kate opens the discussion with a troubling revelation reported by Kendra Barnett of Adweek. Late last week, it was uncovered that prominent brands such as Verizon, Amazon, and Popeyes had their advertisements running on X Shorts, a highly ranked Android application. Disturbingly, X Shorts was found to feature sexually suggestive and racially offensive content, despite being rated as a teen-friendly app on Google Play.

Kate [02:15]: "When it comes to brand safety, the ad industry is relying on everyone to do their due diligence. But here's the thing. Time and time again, it's been proven that very few are actually doing their."

The issue was exacerbated by the app serving explicit content alongside banner and interstitial ads through major ad servers, including Meta's Audience Network, Amazon, and Epsilon. As a result of Barnett's report, Google swiftly removed X Shorts from the Play Store, and multiple ad platforms and brands took immediate action to block the app.

Kate emphasizes the systemic failures that allowed this breach in brand safety:

Kate [02:45]: "The app wasn't classified appropriately and Google didn't catch it, obviously, to some degree."

She underscores the dependency on top-tier platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon to uphold adequate checkpoints for brand safety—a responsibility they are allegedly neglecting due to conflicting interests. This incident highlights the complexities and challenges within the programmatic advertising ecosystem, where ensuring brand safety remains a persistent struggle.

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2. Meta's AI-Driven Ad Creation: Promise and Skepticism

Shifting focus, Kate addresses Meta's recent announcement to fully automate campaign creation and targeting using artificial intelligence. By the end of 2026, Meta intends to offer advertisers the capability to input a product image and budget, with AI handling the generation of complete ads—including imagery, video, and text—and determining optimal targeting across Facebook and Instagram platforms.

Kate [04:30]: "I'm skeptical of this application of AI. I just don't think we're at a point where the tools are legitimately smart and fine-tuned enough to do this successfully."

While recognizing the potential benefits for small and mid-sized businesses lacking creative resources, Kate voices significant concerns regarding creative control and the quality of AI-generated content. She recounts a personal anecdote highlighting the pitfalls:

Kate [05:05]: "I came across an ad from a race I'd run back in the fall. They were promoting the 2025 race with what was clearly very bad AI generated Creative. Many commenters were perplexed and upset, saying, why couldn't you have just used the plethora of race photography you surely have available to make these ads?"

The backlash from consumers points to a broader issue: the risk of generic, poorly executed AI-generated ads leading to consumer fatigue and diminished effectiveness, even from well-loved brands. Kate remains hopeful yet cautious, suggesting that AI's true value in ad creation will only be realized once it can genuinely understand and resonate with target audiences on a deeper level.

Kate [06:00]: "I'm an AI believer, but I'm also a believer that good creative will always be the most effective creative and brands should have control over how they're showing up, especially when they're paying for it."

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3. FTC Investigation into Advertiser Boycotts: Implications for the Ad Industry

The final segment of the episode covers the FTC's initiation of an investigation into advertiser boycotts, probing whether coordinated efforts by advertisers to withdraw spending from specific platforms constitute anti-competitive behavior. This move aligns with the broader governmental push to enhance free speech, influencing how advertisers interact with content moderation policies and platform controversies.

The investigation has extended to organizations like Media Matters and Ad Fontes Media, with the FTC issuing civil investigative demands seeking detailed disclosures about their operations, communications, financials, and partnerships with entities such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Check My Ads, DoubleVerify, and IAS.

Kate [07:30]: "Choosing not to fund hate speech or misinformation is not censorship and also should not be controversial, but advertisers have found themselves in an era where it is."

Kate explores the delicate balance advertisers must maintain between supporting quality content and navigating the evolving landscape of content moderation. The FTC's scrutiny could have far-reaching consequences, potentially reshaping how brands make advertising decisions amidst social and political pressures and impacting the efficacy of media quality gatekeepers.

Kate [08:15]: "The investigation could have significant implications for how brands navigate social and political pressures in their advertising decisions, while also having serious implications for how effective our media quality gatekeepers and watchdogs are able to be."

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Conclusion

Kate wraps up the episode by emphasizing the gravity of these stories and their deserving attention within the adtech community. She reiterates the need for heightened vigilance in brand safety, cautious optimism regarding AI advancements in advertising, and the importance of understanding regulatory impacts on the industry.

Kate [09:00]: "These are important stories that deserve more airtime, and I'm glad you joined us to talk about them. Catch you next week."

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Note: This summary excludes sponsorship segments, intros, outros, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantive discussions presented in the episode.

Transcript

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[Kate]

Last week's adtech headlines were ones that should have caused more of a ruckus across the industry. Alas, maybe we were all too distracted by Elon and DJT's relationship melting down in real time. I have some good news though. If you're listening to this pod, you have nothing to worry about. I'm Kate with marketexture and this is the Refresh, your weekly download on what went down in advertising. Today is Monday, June 9th, and this week we're covering off on those headlines that should have caused more uproar than they did. Adweek found blue chip brands running on what should have been an X rated app. The FTC launched an investigation into media quality watchguards like Media Matters and ad fontes, and Meta announced plans to fully automate campaign creative with AI software. So let's get into it, starting off with the biggest brand safety scandal of late that nearly no one talked about. Late last week, Kendra Barnett over at Adweek reported on her investigation that found ads from major brands like Verizon, Amazon and Popeyes running on X Shorts, a top ranked Android app featuring sexually suggestive and racially offensive content. The app, which was rated teen on Google Play, was serving explicit content alongside banner and interstitial ads. These ads were delivered through major ad servers including Meta's Audience Network, Amazon and Epsilon. For following the report, Google removed extras from the Play Store and several ad platforms and brands took steps to block the app as well. I'll admit, when I first started reading this article, my initial reaction was to make a joke about it being a good reminder to go pull a site list if you haven't done so recently. That joke pretty much immediately fizzled as I kept reading and realized that this issue came all the way from the top. The app wasn't classified appropriately and Google didn't catch it, obviously, to some degree. When it comes to brand safety, the ad industry is relying on everyone to do their due diligence. But here's the thing. Time and time again, it's been proven that very few are actually doing their.

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[Kate]

I think adtech itself is starting to make genuine efforts at resolving issues of brand safety and media quality, we're being handicapped by some of the biggest players Google, Meta, Amazon, all failing to put up adequate checkpoints because, quite honestly, it's not in their best interest to do so. This incident yet again underscores the challenges we're facing when it comes to ensuring brand safety within an enormously complex programmatic advertising ecosystem. And while AI is poised to solve for these problems in a more sophisticated, granular, reliable capacity, it's still early days. I would love to see the industry start to use advanced AI tools like LLMs and a broader capacity to analyze page data, understand where ads are running, and evaluate where ads have run. And I have no idea if this would be effective, but I'm so curious. Can someone upload a site list into ChatGPT and let me know how it goes? Is it worthwhile? Is it a total bust? Does it identify any low quality or completely undesirable sites? Or is the data not standardized or reported out on in a way that ChatGPT would be able to easily identify these? Moving on. Earlier this year I said that Meta would make a more earnest or maybe aggressive push for advertisers to use more of their AI? And so far, this seems to be exactly what's happening. The company announced plans to fully automate ad creation and targeting using AI. By the end of 2026, advertisers will be able to input a product image and budget and Meta's AI will generate complete ads including imagery, video and text, and determine optimal targeting on Facebook and Instagram. While this could be a boon for small and mid sized businesses lacking creative resources, many brands of all sizes are concerned about ceding creative control and the quality of AI generated content, especially within systems that aren't exactly known for their transparency. As of today, June 9, 2025 I'm skeptical of this application of AI. I just don't think we're at a point where the tools are legitimately smart and fine tuned enough to do this successfully. And it's not because I don't think the tech itself isn't capable. It's become very clear that AI can now generate some incredibly convincing ad creative and product photography. Personally, I just don't think the platforms like Meta are incentivized to do this well on behalf of advertisers Personal Anecdote Recently I was perusing threads, as some of us will do, when I came across an ad from a race I'd run back in the fall. They were promoting the 2025 race with what was clearly very bad AI generated Creative. Many commenters were perplexed and upset, saying, why couldn't you have just used the plethora of race photography you surely have available to make these ads? The brand replied back, saying, and I quote, these were a mistake auto generated by the Facebook ad variations and we just caught them and stopped them all. Sorry y' all. I think people are generally pretty forgiving in these scenarios, especially for brands they like or respect. But I don't think that this can be relied on. Because at what point will we become so disillusioned and numb to the sea of sameness that we tune out ads even more than we already do, and even from brands that we like? I do have to play devil's advocate with myself for a moment. The only way I see AI generated Creative being worthwhile is if these platforms can get it right. If at some point the AI can truly understand a given user well enough to know exactly what creative messaging and not just imagery will be most effective. And I just don't think we're there yet. I'm an AI believer, but I'm also a believer that good creative will always be the most effective creative and brands should have control over how they're showing up, especially when they're paying for it. Finally, the FTC has initiated an investigation into advertiser boycotts, examining whether coordinated actions by advertisers to pull spending from certain platforms constitute anti competitive behavior. The move comes amid increasing scrutiny over how advertisers respond to content moderation policies and platform controversies. The FTC issued civil investigative demands, which are basically subpoenas to organizations like Media Matters and Ad Fontes Media, requesting that they disclose details around their operations, communications, financials and industry relationships with partners like the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Check My Ads, doubleverify and ias. The FTC and the government more broadly have been clear that they're on a mission to give more freedom to free speech, and these efforts are spilling over into the ad industry's domain. Whether that's meta choosing to loosen up their content moderation policies or industry watchguards and media quality providers being subject to legal scrutiny, advertisers should absolutely have agency to spend their media dollars in spaces that align to their brand values or standards and wherever allows them to meet their performance goals. What was once a positive for advertisers, the ability to fund the quality of content you want to see more of and you want to support on the web has now become a negative and a risk. Choosing not to fund hate speech or misinformation is not censorship and also should not be controversial, but advertisers have found themselves in an era where it is. All in all, the investigation could have significant implications for how brands navigate social and political pressures in their advertising decisions, while also having serious implications for how effective our media quality gatekeepers and watchdogs are able to be. That's all for this week's refresh. These are important stories that deserve more airtime, and I'm glad you joined us to talk about them. Catch you next week.