Advertisers' social-Web headaches

It's a fascinating dilemma advertisers have these days, and it's related to a concern of parents we see turning up in the ConnectSafely.org forum time and time again: How to control standards in a medium the user controls? How can an advertiser be guaranteed its ad won't appear next to inappropriate user-generated content? "In London, with the number of Facebook users swelling, government agencies and six companies, including Vodafone, Virgin Media and First Direct, made a jumpy, temporary exodus from the site this month. The companies withdrew advertising accounts from Facebook after their brands surfaced in blind purchases alongside a page for the anti-immigrant, right-wing British National Party," the International Herald Tribune reports. Also in the UK, where junk-food ads have been banned from TV programs targeting kids 4-9 (and that will soon be extended to include ads targeting 10-15-year-olds too), Bebo and HabboHotel are drawing criticism for displaying selling candy and food ads, the Herald Tribune adds. "But the controversy in Britain has had an impact on all companies in the social networking category, many of which have been taking steps to highlight their ethical responsibilities." Here's Reuters on the UK Facebook story.