The report from U.S. based advertising research body Adalytics found a recruitment ad for the FBI on an explicit Italian site as well as on an Iranian steel company’s website.ARND WIEGMANN/Reuters
Ads bought through Google are appearing on Russian and Iranian porn sites and other controversial web pages without the knowledge of the companies and organizations they promote, a report by U.S.-based advertising research body Adalytics has found.
It discovered dozens of ads, including for major Canadian brands and the British intelligence agency, placed through Google’s search partner network on controversial and explicit sites from around the globe.
A recruitment ad for the British spy agency MI6 – saying the job offers paid parental leave and an on-site coffee bar – was placed on a hard-core Russian porn site.
Ads for the Disney+ channel, including The Little Mermaid movie, were placed on an Italian porn website, whose name translates as “hamster porn.” Adalytics found a recruitment ad for the FBI on the explicit Italian site as well as on an Iranian steel company’s website, which may be covered by U.S. sanctions.
A report by the advertising research company also found ads for vodka, beer and alcoholic cocktails placed on search engines designed for children.
Both Kiddle and Kidzsearch said they were unaware of the ads for alcohol, did not approve them and were taking steps to ensure they do not appear again.
Adalytics also identified ads for Canadian companies, including Air Canada, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada and Canada Goose, on questionable sites, including explicit foreign adult platforms, and the right-wing news site Breitbart.
A BMO ad was placed on a pornographic comic site and a Russian porn site without its knowledge. An ad for Air Canada’s Cyber Monday offers appeared on the same Russian adult site and Breitbart.
RBC said it was shocked to find its ads had appeared on the Russian porn platform.
“We are very concerned that our ads have been placed on this website, which absolutely does not reflect our values,” said Stephanie Bannan, director of brand and corporate citizenship communications. “We have reached out to our ad partners to ensure our ads are removed immediately.”
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The report was published as the House of Commons heritage committee held a hearing Tuesday on an inquiry into Google and Meta entitled “Tech Giants’ Current and Ongoing Use of Intimidation and Subversion Tactics to Evade Regulation in Canada and Across the World.”
Jason Kint, chief executive of trade association Content Next, said he was surprised that Google, with its vast resources, hadn’t found the ads identified in the report and taken them down.
“There a lot of victims who absolutely wouldn’t want their ads running on these sites,” he said. “There’s a halo effect of having your brand in clean, well-lit spaces. No one speaks of the opposite effect.”
Google says the ads identified in the Adalytics report appear to have been placed through a very small part of its search partners network, which enables ads to be placed on sites other than Google’s. Advertisers can opt out of the network when they set up a campaign with Google ads.
When contacted by The Globe and Mail with examples of ads, including for Canadian brands, on explicit and inappropriate websites, Google said it would take action to stop them appearing there. They said advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad, and can exclude them from specific sites by speaking to their account representative.
“The examples shared are from our Programmable Search Engine product, (a small part of our Search Partner Network), which is a free search tool we offer to small websites so that they can present a search experience directly on their sites. Ads may appear based on the user’s specific search query; they are not targeted to, or based on, the website they appear on,” said Dan Taylor, vice-president of global ads.
The report includes screenshots of ads for the British and U.S. armed forces, the U.S. government, British intelligence, as well as U.S. politicians’ fundraising ads, on Iranian and Russian sites, including porn platforms. It says that some of the Russian and Iranian companies would be covered by sanctions.
“We’ll of course review the report, but our analysis of the sites and limited information already shared with us did not identify ad revenue being shared with a single sanctioned entity,” Mr. Taylor said.