YouTube Ads From Major Brands Are Landing on Project 2025 Videos
(Bloomberg) -- YouTube’s automated advertising systems are placing video ads from major brands alongside content that promotes controversial Project 2025 policy proposals and election misinformation, according to a new report.
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Researchers from Eko, a nonprofit consumer watchdog, reviewed advertisements that appeared alongside a sample of 11 videos on Google’s YouTube that backed Project 2025 policies, conspiracy theories about the 2020 US election and hateful rhetoric. The videos included ads from over 60 global brands, including SKIMS, BetterHelp, Verizon and Slack. Several of the brands have publicly made diversity, equity and inclusion commitments that appear to run counter to the video messaging.
Some of the videos in the study appeared to violate YouTube’s content and monetization guidelines, which prohibit election misinformation and hate speech. Collectively the videos gathered nearly 1.3 million views, and the channels behind them had more than 25 million subscribers combined.
“Google and YouTube have a responsibility to make sure videos like this aren’t part of the monetized video catalog,” said Eko campaigner Maen Hammad, who led the research. YouTube is “bigger and more powerful than many countries. They have the resources to bolster content moderation and make a reality where civil society organizations aren’t doing their job for them.”
The study highlights a longstanding concern for major advertisers that their messaging may unintentionally appear alongside controversial content and look like an endorsement. The study also calls attention to the fact that ad money from major brands on YouTube is funneled to channels that promote misinformation and far-right narratives, sometimes without their awareness.
A YouTube spokesperson said the company reviewed the videos from the study and found most of them didn’t violate the company’s advertising policies. The spokesperson said YouTube removed ads from the videos that did violate policies, without specifying the channels.
“Our advertiser-friendly content guidelines don’t allow ads to run alongside content making claims that could undermine participation or trust in an election, nor on content that promotes hate speech,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We also offer advertisers the ability to control where their ads run across YouTube.”
All of the videos discussed Project 2025, a series of conservative policy proposals created by The Heritage Foundation, a political think tank, that includes plans to further regulate abortion, decrease focus on environmental concerns and ban transgender people from the military, among other ideas. That plan has become controversial, even among some conservatives, and was created independently from Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign, though several of his former aides and associates were involved. Trump has tried to distance himself from the project.
In one video from the sample, Daily Wire host Jordan Peterson interviewed Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who outlined Project 2025 and promoted anti-trans sentiments. The video had 104,000 views and featured ads from SKIMS, MasterClass, Verizon and Gillette, among others. In another video, entrepreneur Grant Cardone hosted Arizona Republican US Senate candidate Kari Lake to discuss unfounded voting fraud claims about the 2020 election. That video included ads from HelloFresh, eBay, Oracle’s Netsuite and more.
Spokespeople for SKIMS, Verizon, BetterHelp and Slack did not respond to requests for comment.
The exact dollar amount these YouTube channels earn from advertisements is unknown. YouTube pays creators 55% of ad revenue on longform videos, and social media analytics company Social Blade estimates that the 11 channels in the study collect $1.7 million to $27 million annually.
Brands can keep their ads away from controversial YouTube videos by blocking their messages from appearing in videos from specific channels, or blocking their ads from certain video categories, such as politics or childrens’ content. But Claire Atkin, co-founder and chief executive officer of digital advertising watchdog Check My Ads, said this is a whack-a-mole process that doesn’t provide consistent protection for brands.
“Google offers choice through a channel by channel inclusion list. That’s not very efficient,” Atkin said. “We need smart ways for Google to interpret what the advertiser wants.”
In some cases, brands only find out their ads appear alongside controversial videos following reports from nonprofits like Eko. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media was another industry watchdog that created tools to help advertisers avoid appearing next to harmful and illegal content. That group was disbanded earlier this month following an antitrust lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
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