How Advertisers Spread Pain and Suffering

Sorry, but I'm not writing this article for you. I'm writing it for the CEO and board members of every company that advertises on the web. The issue I'm raising today is a leadership question of the highest importance, for it determines both what kind of company these leaders wish to run, and also what kind of society they are helping to create.

If you work for such a company - or simply buy their products - you can help by sharing this message with these leaders.

Here goes...

Twenty years ago, it cost money to be evil. There was no cheap and far-reaching way to spread derogatory messages, especially if you had aspirations to reach beyond your national borders.

Today, it costs almost nothing to share ignorant, clueless, and just plain silly messages. And the dumber the message, the further it spreads. Jackass and cat videos get millions of views, while intelligent articles often reach almost no one.

In fact, you can MAKE MONEY by spreading these messages. That's because mainstream advertisers have completely dropped any semblance of moral or other standards. They are willing to pay for views, regardless of how revolting the content that attracts those views.

To cite two examples, YouTube and Facebook generate advertising revenues by hosting sheer nonsense. They turn idiots into profit machines. This is only possible because advertisers eagerly cooperate.

Let's be honest, and aware... the societal cost to us is huge. In the name of ad revenues, we've given the dark underbelly of humanity a global voice. Some of these voices are simply immature and goofy, but others are certifiably evil.

The solution is incredibly simple: embarrass advertisers until they stop supporting this junk. By "junk", I mean anything - a video, article, update, or image - that portrays (or encourages) harm coming to human beings. You have the right to post a video of your sister slipping on mud and sending her head into a puddle, but no respectable advertiser should ever advertise adjacent to such works.

As ad revenues go down, it will become economically unfeasible for the YouTubes of the world to keep making it free to post such junk.

It's time to stop subsidizing ignorance

The Internet made it affordable to be crude, hateful, ignorant, and popular. Never before in human history could a complete dolt with no redeeming social value reach millions of people worldwide. Just to make sure you don't think I'm using "complete dolt" too loosely, I mean someone willing to film himself jumping off a roof and breaking his arm, just for a laugh... and five million views.

Here are three examples:

A YouTube video of a woman falling to her death off a roller coaster has 20 million views. I haven't watched it - and never will - but I just took a snapshot to show you how it starts with an ad for the furniture retailer Raymour & Flanigan. Really? Is that how far a company will go to sell furniture? In fairness, I bet they are not paying attention... but it's time to MAKE all advertisers pay attention.

No more profiting from pain and suffering.

Here's another example of a mainstream, well-respected advertiser supporting the lowest common denominator. A Pampers ad appears before the "10 People Who Fell into Animal Enclosures at Zoos" video:

Ready for something really horrific? (I promise this is my last example). A Christmas-themed 7Up ad displays at the beginning of "6 Animal Trainers Who Died on the Job".

So which message are we supposed to believe? That good cheer and warm neighborly values are associated with soda... or that soda supports tragic deaths recycled for entertainment value?

Enough is enough.

***

11:10 a.m. ET update: To be fair, right after publishing this article I tweeted at each of these brands asking why they were running their ads adjacent to such junk. So far, I have received one response: