
Good morning. Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: People are suddenly taking a much closer look at Facebook ads and how they work. And they’ve made some unsettling discoveries. Reporters for ProPublica found it was possible to target Facebook ads to people interested in anti-Semitic topics (“Jew haters.”) Facebook cut that possibility off and said it would stop similar schemes in the future, as noted by Ad Age’s Garett Sloane. But when Slate tried targeting ads to other hateful groups, including “Ku-Klux-Klan,” the ads were cleared. “In our case, it took Facebook’s system just one minute to give the green light,” Slate wrote.
Note that Facebook built its entire empire on advertising, the source of 97% of its revenue in the most recent quarter.
It’s no surprise that reporters are turning over stones. The company said last week that a Russian company tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda had targeted U.S. voters with ads before and after the 2016 U.S. election. Digital advertising is suddenly big news. This issue is going to follow Facebook around for a long time.
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