According to Axios, Microsoft suspended advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the United States last month and recently expanded that to a global pause.
Axios has managed to access an internal Yammer post where Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer responded to an employee’s question with “Based on concerns we had back in May we suspended all media spending on Facebook/Instagram in the US and we’ve subsequently suspended all spending on Facebook/Instagram worldwide."
Capossela said that the company objected to its ads appearing next to inappropriate content and has been in touch with Facebook and Instagram leadership to resolve this and return as an advertiser. "The timeline on resuming our media spending is dependent on the positive actions they take, but I expect our pause will continue through August," he added.
The move, though, is unrelated to the ongoing #StopHateForProfit campaign that has urged U.S. corporations to stop advertising on Facebook until it fixes its attitude towards racist and hateful content on its platform. Many advertisers like Unilever have suspended advertising on Facebook and Instagram (and Twitter) till the end of the year, while others like Starbucks and Coca Cola have not joined the campaign but suspended advertising for 30 days to review their advertising policies.
While Microsoft isn’t taking part in the larger boycott effort, for Facebook, it is the loss of another big advertiser. Capossela wrote that Microsoft doesn’t publicize its media spend strategy and prefer impactful means like ‘suspension of real marketing dollars’ to effect long-term change.
Source: Axios