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Omnicom, Home Depot Face Shareholder Resolutions Over Ad Channel Disputes

Ad channel ethics start to unravel.
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Francis Scialabba

3 min read

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You wouldn’t support a brand that didn’t share your values…but if you loved a brand that just so happened to pay rent to an unethical landlord for its storefront, would you still slap that brand’s stickers on your water bottle? That’s the kind of big-picture moral dilemma hanging over Omnicom and Home Depot.

What happened: On Friday, it came out that in November, Omnicom shareholder The Nathan Cummings Foundation and Home Depot shareholder Myra K. Young both filed separate resolutions against their respective brands.

  • The resolutions ask the Home Depot and Omnicom boards to produce third party reports proving that the brands aren’t contributing ad dollars to channels that violate civil or human rights.
  • For instance, certain channels could be accused of “violations of civil or human rights” because they either spread harmful misinformation or provide space for violent actors to organize.

Wait, what landlords?

If you’re not feeling the extended metaphor, the landlords are actually just advertising platforms—two specific kinds of them, in fact.

News sites: The murky programmatic advertising supply chain makes it hard for a brand to know if its ads appear on misinformation sites. Challenging as it may be, some experts argue brands have a responsibility to tightly audit their ads.

  • For instance, a recent NewsGuard report cited by the NYT showed “1,668 brands ran 8,776 unique ads on 160 sites that published misinformation about the 2020 election.”
  • It’s unclear whether Home Depot or Omnicom advertised on any of those 160 sites—that’s in part what investors want to find out.

Social media platforms: Aka a little thing called Facebook.

  • “Home Depot and Omnicom are leading advertisers on social media,” said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, per MediaPost. Connor also said Home Depot was the top advertiser on Facebook in 2019, though the retailer disputes that.
  • As for Omnicom, it’s on Facebook’s client council and advises the platform on content moderation and other issues.
  • Notably, neither Home Depot nor Omnicom joined the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott this past summer despite their major ad dollar power.

Looking ahead: Aside from this being a moral dilemma, it’s also a legal one—Home Depot and Omnicom could try to block these resolutions through the Securities and Exchange Commission. If that doesn't happen, shareholders will vote on the proposals in the spring.

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Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.

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