Google defends Cathay ad aired on Alaska Airlines news report

Airline carrier Cathay Pacific has found itself in a difficult position after one of its ads popped up before a YouTube video by CNN detailing an incident where an Alaska Airlines plane lost a piece of its fuselage mid-flight. 

The YouTube ad was seen on 7 January by a MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reader shortly after it was reported that the door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out midair during an Alaska Airlines flight. The incident happened shortly after the plane took off from Portland, Oregon and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after. 

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While no one was seriously hurt, dozens of Boeing Max 9 planes have since been grounded for checks.

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out to CNN, it said that advertising is managed by Google via AdSense, its YouTube monetisation platform. A spokesperson said:

We have not placed any Cathay Pacific Ads on YouTube directly.

CNN added that the brand safety of the YouTube environment is paramount to its direct customer offering. "This wouldn’t happen if [the ad was] bought directly from CNN as we have controls in place to ensure brand suitability of any content ads are delivered against," its spokesperson explained. 

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out to Google, it said that it has since reviewed the video and found that it is not violative of Google's advertiser friendly guidelines. 

"However, we recognise that even when a video has been deemed policy compliant, we understand that some advertisers may not want their ads appearing alongside certain kinds of content. This is why we provide advertisers on Google and YouTube with robust controls to decide exactly what kind of content their ads show on. These controls give advertisers the ability to block specific videos, channels or topics," a spokesperson said. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached to Cathay Pacific but has not yet received a response. 

This unfortunate ad placement, while not uncommon, has resurfaced the ever-present issue of brand safety when it comes to advertising on news stories. In a 2021 MAGNA study, it was found that news perceived as “heavy” isn’t necessarily a bad place for brands to appear adjacent to. The study showed that it can actually drive brand impact. Brand favorability rose 7% and intent to recommend the brand rose 5% from ads in news perceived as “heavy” or “sad” by participants.

Meanwhile, 57% of the study’s respondents also felt that brands should vet the news source before advertising on it, but that rose to 61% among more affluent households (incomes of US$100K+) and dropped to 52% among households making $35K or less.

Unfortunately, when it comes to news stories, many brands unintentionally find themselves placed next to the wrong types of news without their knowledge. For example, in 2021, BMW found itself in a difficult position after one of its ads emerged on popular local content site Mothership, alongside an article detailing a horrific car crash along Tanjong Pagar which took the lives of five individuals over the Lunar New Year weekend.

The ad seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, on the morning of 16 February 2021, was located midway through the article and had a video promoting the purchase of BMW vehicles through a behind-the-scene point of view.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE at the time, BMW Singapore said it is investigating the matter and that Mothership was not part of its initial media plan. As such, it is uncertain how the ad emerged on the publication's platform. Moreover, a spokesperson clarified that all media plans were halted immediately after news of the accident emerged. 

"Once we were made aware of the accident on 13 February, we instructed our media agency to stop all digital communications. Unfortunately, these changes take some time to go into effect. While some vendors were able to immediately respond, others took time as it was the CNY holiday," a spokesperson said. "Brand safety is taken very seriously at BMW and we have measures in place to ensure that our ads do not appear alongside negative keywords or content," the statement added. 

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