Advertisers Flee YouTube Over Offensive Ad Placements
Several top U.S. advertisers -- including AT&T, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson -- this week pulled out of their agreements with YouTube due to their ads appearing with videos advocating extremism, or with other offensive content. Such placements represent violations of their agreements with Google, according to the companies. "Once we were notified that our ads were appearing on non-sanctioned websites, we took immediate action to suspend this type of ad placement and launched an investigation," Verizon said in a statement.