A week after Google was forced to apologize for running customers' advertisements on objectionable videos, triggering a change in policy, its YouTube site is still rife with examples that are ensnaring more big advertisers and causing some to cut spending with the tech giant.
Google's automated system placed ads for some of the world's biggest brands -- including Coca-Cola Co. , Procter & Gamble , Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- on five YouTube videos peddling racist and anti-Semitic content, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal .
Asked about the Journal's finding that their ads were still appearing with such content on YouTube as of Thursday night, PepsiCo Inc. , Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Dish Network Corp. said Friday they were suspending spending on all Google advertising except targeted search ads. Starbucks Corp. and General Motors Co. said they were pulling their ads from YouTube . FX Networks, part of 21st Century Fox Inc. , said it was suspending all advertising spending on Google , including search ads and YouTube .
Wal-Mart said in a statement: "The content with which we are being associated is appalling and completely against our company values."
Other companies whose spots appeared, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Microsoft , said they were monitoring the situation.
The examples show how Google , the world's largest advertising platform, is struggling to keep its clients' ads away from controversial content, at least in the near term as it works on solutions. The cancellations by many of the biggest U.S. advertisers could dent revenue for Google , a unit of Alphabet Inc.
Google "had assured us over the past few days that our brands were safe from this type of content," said an executive at one of the affected companies. "Despite their assurances, it's clear they couldn't give assurance."
A Google spokeswoman on Friday reiterated the company's statement from earlier in the week that it is improving its policies and enforcement to better police content, pull more ads from controversial videos, and give advertisers more control over where their ads appear. Google has already begun some of those steps, the spokeswoman said, including strengthening technology to automatically screen videos and adding more reviewers to pull ads from problematic videos and websites. However, she acknowledged imperfections in the software.
Google removed four of the five objectionable videos flagged by the Journal and pulled ads from the fifth.
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