There has been some pressure put on Facebook of late by advertisers asking that their ads not appear next to any Holocaust Denial content.  In the case of  Dominos Pizza, they asked that ads not appear  next to any type of  Anti-Semitic content at all.

While I am no tech guru, I suspect that are some tricky internal Facebook technical issues with regards to ensuring the ads do not appear in any manner including search results.  I suspect there is also added expense in making this happen.  Case in point.  Dominos Pizza insisted that their ads not show up anywhere at all in this regard including search results.  According to their email to me, Facebook initially pushed back on  certain issues but ultimately agreed to make it happen.  Would they have done this if Dominos had not had a social media savvy representative handling the issue?  It appears not if you believe an email from a Progressive Insurance representative posted on this web site. The email in part states:

“Please know that we have taken necessary action to insure our advertising never appears within the pages of an offensive group on Facebook. Currently, however, there is no technical way to block ads from appearing in Facebook search results”

It only makes sense they were told this by Facebook. This is in direct contradiction to what Dominos has stated in their emails to me.   I today emailed Phil Lozen, Dominos  Social Media Specialist.  I asked if he was specifically told whether Dominos ads would appear in Holocaust Denial search results.  Here was his response:

From: “Phillip Lozen (COMM – InvstrRel)” <phil.lozen@dominos.com>

We’ve been told our ads won’t appear in search results either.

There are several possible scenarios here. (Not an all inclusive list of possibilities, just the ones that immediatley come to mind)

1. Phil Lozan misunderstood what Facebook told him about the ability to block ads from search results.

2. Facebook told Phil Lozen they would block Holocaust Denial content from search results to appease him without ever intending to do it.

3.  Progressive Insurance just assumed it could not be done.(Unlikely In My Mind)

4.   Progressive was not social media savvy enough to know what could nor could not be blocked and took Facebook’s word that it could not be done.(More Likely Scenario)

I frankly do not have enough tech expertise to know whether search results can be blocked or not.  I would be one of those people who took Facebook’s word for it.  In the end, one would hope Facebook, is not taking the “dishonest path of least resistance” simply because they are lazy and want to save a few bucks at the expense of advertisers concerned about brands that many have invested many millions of dollars. Only further inquiry from advertisers on this issue will flesh this out.