Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
AI On The Prize?
Generative AI can only go so far.
Google launched a generative AI image tool last week within Demand Gen, its planning tool for campaigns across YouTube, Gmail and Discover. The new AI update is meant to help marketers streamline their buys by generating their ad creatives much more quickly.
But there are key restrictions to the tool that marketers should be aware of, Ad Age reports.
For one, Google’s AI product won’t generate people or human faces.
Google may be rolling out AI capabilities gradually to make sure it doesn’t produce images that might offend people, according to several ad execs testing Demand Gen. Which makes sense, considering Google publicly apologized in February for its AI chatbot, Gemini, which generated historically inaccurate depictions of people in an attempt to portray racial diversity and subsequently became a talking point for the anti-woke movement.
Demand Gen’s new AI tool also doesn’t generate brand logos unless advertisers upload reference photos first, which creates more steps in the campaign setup process.
Despite the guardrails on Google’s latest AI feature, advertisers say it’s a step in the right direction to upgrade the Demand Gen product, which is helping them drive impressions and web traffic.
Private Matters
Dating app Grindr faces a class-action claim alleging it shared sensitive user information with third parties without obtaining user content, Business Insider reports.
Law firm Austen Hays contends that Grindr broke UK data protection laws because it shared personal information – such as HIV status, ethnicity and sexual orientation – with app optimization company Apptimize and analytics and marketing platform Localytics.
In turn, Apptimize and Localytics shared this data with companies so they could serve up targeted, personalized ads to users. These companies also hung onto some of this data even after ads had run.
The alleged data violation isn’t Grindr’s first. Back in 2020, the US Committee on Foreign Investment forced a company that had already sold Grindr to a Chinese firm to undo the acquisition and find a US buyer instead. Then, in 2021, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority fined Grindr $6 million for divulging data to third parties for advertising purposes. And in 2022, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office issued a reprimand to Grindr for infringing upon the UK GDPR because it didn’t clearly and transparently inform users of how it handles their private data.
Grindr has to clean up its act if it wants users to keep entrusting it with matters of the heart.
The Perils Of Political Ads
Politics and social media should be a perfect match. But not all social platforms welcome political ad budgets.
Take TikTok. Although it’s a sure way for politicians to reach Gen Z, the chilly relationship between TikTok and US regulators means it refuses to run political advertising.
And then there’s Meta, which distanced itself from politics after the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal shed unwelcome light on Facebook’s political advertising ambitions.
Now, as 2024 campaign season heats up, Snap – often the forgotten kid brother among the top social platforms – hopes to provide a home for Facebook’s former political advertisers, Bloomberg reports.
It’s rolling out political-focused programming on college campuses this year, after first launching its own political news programming and also partnering with NBC News.
Snap also forged a partnership with Vote.org that lets users register to vote, sign up for election reminders and formulate an Election Day plan, all within its app. Those are valuable targeting signals for political campaigns.
But whether Snap can avoid the same pitfalls that sent Meta running from the political arena remains to be seen.
But Wait, There’s More!
X’s brand safety fiasco is devolving into a finger-pointing fest (h/t Ari Paparo). [Marketecture]
Ads for nonconsensual AI-generated nude photo creation apps are running on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Meta’s in-app ad network. [404 Media]
The EU is investigating TikTok Lite for not complying with the Digital Services Act. [TechCrunch]
The Guardian US is vying for political advertising dollars. [Digiday]
Apple may scoop up streaming rights to FIFA’s 2025 World Cup. It’s the latest sports-related move for Apple, which launched a sports app this year and has a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer. [New York Times]
