Cisco Announces YouTube Ad Boycott, Citing Fear Of A “Brand-Tarnishing Experience”

After 300 brands — including telecom giant Cisco — were discovered to have run YouTube ads last month on videos promoting Nazism, pedophilia, and conspiracy theories, the video giant is once again facing advertiser fallout. Cisco announced in a blog post Wednesday that it was pulling all ads from YouTube due to brand safety concerns — though it promptly removed and re-edited the post 24 hours later.

“Sensitive issues in the media do sometimes spread faster than the media platforms’ algorithms can update, leading to what can be a brand-tarnishing experience,” wrote CMO Karen Walker in the original missive, per a screenshot obtained by Business Insider. “While Google and Facebook have made some strides to combat the issue, at this time we have pulled all online advertising from YouTube until the platform has met our standards.” Walker added that the company would continue to share its own YouTube videos.

Business Insider reports that after it contacted YouTube for comment, the unusually pointed post was removed and subsequently replaced with another entry

discussing brand safety in the arena of online advertising, but making no mention of any platform specifically.

“We are incredibly grateful for the trust brands put in us every day,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider. “We have partnered with advertisers to make significant changes to how we approach monetization on YouTube with stricter policies, better controls, and greater transparency. We are committed to continuing this dialogue and getting this right.” Since the Adpocalypse first kicked off last spring, Google has also committed to hiring 10,000 people to contend with objectionable content on YouTube by year’s end.

“Our intent was to address an industry-wide issue without singling out any partner or customer,” a Cisco spokeswoman told Business Insider about the posts. “We reposted the blog with our position on brand safety as intended.”