WPP has told local clients to steer clear until Google works out how to solve this problem. Credit:Bloomberg There is a sense of urgency as they switch into damage control. What started last week as a trickle in Australia looks like turning into a mini-avalanche. The big firms that advertise heavily that were contacted by Fairfax on Monday were looking at whether to pull out of YouTube, and others were keeping a watching brief. Holden and Kia unwittingly found their ad content appearing next to anti-feminist videos. The Australian arm of the world's largest media buying agency, WPP, has told its local clients to steer clear of "YouTube preferred" until Google works out how to solve this problem. WPP Australia chairman John Steedman is one of the first in the media buying arena to acknowledge that this is a real problem for advertisers.

Holden and Kia have pulled their ads from YouTube after they appeared on a video abusing Ita Buttrose. Credit:YouTube/MGTOW 101 A few weeks ago, when the issue blew up in the US, Google promised to deal with it, but thus far it appears to have failed. PepsiCo, Wal-Mart Stores and Starbucks confirmed on Friday they have also suspended their advertising on YouTube after The Wall Street Journal found Google's automated programs placed their brands on five videos containing racist content. AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen and several other companies pulled ads earlier last week. PepsiCo, Wal-Mart Stores and Starbucks confirmed last Friday that they have also suspended their advertising on YouTube. Credit:Adrian Brown In the UK, banking giant HSBC, Marks and Spencer, L'Oreal, Audi, BBC and Royal Mail head the ever-lengthening list.

The actions by these large US advertisers is costing Google dearly as the value of its listed parent company, Alphabet Inc, fell by $US31 billion last week. Buying advertising space has radically changed over the past 10 years to a point where algorithms rather than humans decide where ads will go, and much of this is based on price. In other words, the cheapest price for the highest number of "eyeballs". Most advertising contracts will involve screening based on keywords to ensure brands don't end up next to, say, pornography or gaming sites. But some slip through the net. For example, the video content that caused such offence to Holden and Kia was taken from a segment on Network Ten, which interviewed a men's rights activist who made sexist and disparaging remarks about Ita Buttrose. This wasn't a random piece of footage from an amateur that caught the public's attention.