::: spoiler Summary Part 3
21. In some cases, third-party YouTube creators upload “re-distributed” content, such as
ESPN, CBS Sports, or Fox Sports college football game live streams or episodes of TV
shows such as Family Guy. After ~12 hours, the creators edit the videos to cut out the
“re-distributed” content and they edit the title, description, and meta-data of the videos to
something unrelated. This appears to prevent brand advertisers from knowing against
what sorts of content their ads were served on in their original form, and suggests that
YouTube ad delivery placement reports may not accurately convey what sorts of content
the ads were served against before the videos were retro-actively edited and re-named.
22. Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal/Focus Features, Bleecker Street, and
streaming services like Disney+, Peacock, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and Hulu/FX, in their
capacity as advertisers, have run ads against uploaded copies of their own intellectual
property on third-party channels, thus potentially funding it.
23. The presidential election campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, as well as
major brands such Procter & Gamble, had ads served on videos that appear to belong to
various professional film studios, such as “Deadpool & Wolverine”, whilst the film was
being shown in movie cinemas in the summer of 2024.
24. The list of brands whose ads were served on third-party, “re-distributed” content
YouTube channels which were later deleted by YouTube (and thus, likely retroactively
redacted from their ad delivery placement reports), includes:
a. the New York Times, the presidential election campaigns of Donald Trump and
Kamala Harris, the House Majority PAC (a Democrat Super PAC), Procter &
Gamble (P&G),Unilever, BMO Bank, Ben & Jerry’s, McDonald’s, US Bank,
Crossmedia, Samsung, Disney+, FX networks, WarnerMedia (HBO Max), Mint
Mobile, Focus Features (owned by NBCUniversal), Kellanova (Special K, Frosted
Flakes), State Farm, Verizon, Visible (by Verizon), T-Mobile, Disney, Hulu,
Mazda, the Wall Street Journal, Nissan, North Face, Paramount+, Health for
California Insurance Center, A&E Television Networks (Lifetime), NBCUniversal
Media (Peacock), Volvo cars, Lionsgate, Macy’s, Adobe, SlingTV, Hyundai,
Genesis, AAA (American Automobile Association), Amazon, AMC Plus,
Mindshare USA (part of GroupM/WPP), Peloton, Linkedin, TD Bank, Grammarly,
General Mills, Ubisoft, Zaxby's, Dentsu X, Dentsu Carat, OMD (part of
Omnicom), Publicis Media, Alfa Romeo (part of Stellantis), Starcom Worldwide,
Horizon Media, Canvas Worldwide, Safelite, Ricolino (owned by Mondelez), Save
The Children, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hasbro, Kinder (Ferrero), TruGreen,
California Teachers Association, Frontier Internet, Ticketmaster, Meta
(Facebook), Ray Ban, JetBlue, Quest Nutrition, Shopify, General Motors, Ruiz
Foods, JPMorgan Chase, Currax Pharmaceuticals, TikTok, B&H PHoto & Video,
Invesco, VaynerMedia, Kingsford, St. George’s University, Empower insurance,
Ezcater, Philo, GolfNow, World Vision Fund, Discover Puerto Rico, Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute (Jimmy Fund), Novo Nordisk, Ooni, Aquasana, Panasonic,
Atlassian, Caterpillar, Fandango, Harbor Freight Tools, Castlery Furniture, Blue
Diamond Hotels, and others.
b. Zefr, which is a Partner of the YouTube Measurement Program, appears to have
been observed transacting ads for Dexcom on a “re-distributed” video of Netflix’s
“Squid Game 3” which was later removed. Channel Factory, which declares itself
to be a Google Premier Partner, part of the YouTube Measurement Program, and
is TAG “Certified for Brand Safety”, was observed transacting ads on behalf of
brands such as:
General Mills on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the movie “John Wick:
Chapter 4” on a channel which was removed from YouTube,
Sephora and Quest Nutrition on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the
movie “Spider Man: Homecoming” on a channel which was removed from
YouTube,
Tena (part of Essity) on “re-distributed” YouTube videos of the movie:
“Deadpool & Wolverine” on a channel which was removed from YouTube
“because it violated [YouTube’s] Community Guidelines” (archived here:
https://www.loom.com/share/9fff55d650eb4fd68ae938fc19aa0299)
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