Brands realize they've been advertising on Alex Jones' YouTube channel, instantly peace out
The hits keep on coming for Alex Jones.
Associating with Jones and his Infowars website is a bad look unless you're a Donald Trump-stanning conspiracy theorist. So when a bunch of brands discovered their ads were running on YouTube accounts associated with Jones, they all had roughly the same response: lolno.
Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba, and OneFamily all suspended their ads running on Infowars-connected YouTube channels after CNN reached out for comment. With the exception of Alibaba, which didn't comment, all of those companies claimed they weren't aware their ads had been appearing on The Alex Jones Channel.
It's not unusual for online ads to appear in unexpected places. Companies pay interests like YouTube for ad placement based on broad user demographics. An advertising company can use filters to make sure an ad doesn't appear somewhere it shouldn't, but that's a manual process.
In spite of this, CNN's queries raised concern among some brands, since there are behind the scenes checkboxes for filtering ad placement out from destinations that deal in "sensitive" subjects, such as "Tragedy and Conflict" or "Sensitive Social Issues."
Concerned brands such as Nike or Acer expressed confusion to CNN over the fact that their ads appeared on The Alex Jones Channel. "Existing filters should have prevented this," an Acer spokesperson told the news network.
YouTube didn't respond to CNN's request for comment.
This is the second time Alex Jones' controversial YouTube presence has made headlines in the past week. On Tuesday, the Alex Jones Channel received its second "Community Guidelines Strike." If one more is doled out within three months of the first strike -- which came on Feb. 23 -- YouTube will terminate the channel.
"As our community guidelines outline, YouTube is not a platform for things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, bullying, or intimidation," YouTube's notice to Infowars, shared on Twitter by Will Sommer, reads.
"We take this issue seriously and there are no excuses for such behavior. We remove comments, videos, or posts where the main aim is to maliciously harass or attack another user."
UPDATED March 3, 2018, 12:08 p.m. ET An earlier version of this story included a headline that erroneously stated ads were running on Infowars. Infowars is the website belonging to Alex Jones; the ads were in fact appearing on YouTube channels owned by Infowars founder Alex Jones.
Topics Activism Advertising
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
