Global Alliance For Responsible Media Launches To Address Digital Safety

Advertisers, Agencies, Media Companies and Platforms, Industry Organizations
Come Together Under the WFA at Cannes

CANNES, France (June 18, 2019) — Today, 16 of the world’s leading advertisers announced the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an unprecedented, global collaboration with agencies, media companies and platforms, and industry associations to rapidly improve digital safety.

With nearly 3.8 billion people online, the world is increasingly connected, and yet the increase in dangerous, hateful, disruptive and fake content online risks threatening our global community. Members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media recognize the role that advertisers can play in collectively pushing to improve the safety of online environments. Together, they are collaborating with publishers and platforms to do more to address harmful and misleading media environments; and to develop and deliver against a concrete set of actions, processes and protocols for protecting brands.

The Alliance was founded by World Federation of Advertisers members and will be also championed by the ANA CMO Growth Council, a member organization of the WFA. This effort enlists:

Advertisers including Adidas, Bayer, BP, Danone, Diageo, General Mills, GSK Consumer Healthcare, LVMH, Mars Inc., Mastercard, Mondelēz International, NBCUniversal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Shell, and Unilever;
Experts at Dentsu, GroupM, IPG, Publicis Media, and Omnicom Media Group, representing media agencies;
Media companies and platforms at launch include Facebook, Google/YouTube, Teads, TRUSTX, Twitter, Unruly, and Verizon Media; and
Supporting industry associations ANA, 4A’s, Interactive Advertising Bureau, ISBA, Mobile Marketing Association, Coalition for Better Ads, Effie Worldwide and WFA alongside their local advertising association members.

An immediate focus will be to form and empower an inclusive working group charged with developing a set of initial ideas and prioritizing next steps. This is the first time an alliance that represents all sides of the media industry is forming, underpinned by a working group committed to meeting regularly and reporting back on its progress to members and the industry.

The first formal meeting of the Alliance takes place Wednesday, June 19 at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and is hosted by the WFA Media Board. Prior, on Tuesday, June 18, at 9:00 am CEST, a panel with the Alliance, among them, representatives from founding members Unilever, Mars and Diageo, discuss their vision, goals and priorities, takes place at WPP Beach. Alliance members are asking for the industry to open all meetings in Cannes with a call to action for more collective responsibility in media practices.

About the Global Alliance for Responsible Media

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media was formed to identify specific collaborative actions, processes and protocols for protecting consumers and brands from safety issues. Alliance members will work collaboratively to identify actions that will better protect consumers online, working toward a media environment where hate speech, bullying and disinformation is challenged, where personal data is protected, and used responsibly when given, and where everyone is, especially children, better protected online. Alliance members acknowledge their collective power to significantly improve the health of the media ecosystem.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Unilever: Erin.godbold@unilever.com
Mars, Inc.: Kimberly.west@effem.com
Diageo: Michelle.Lavipour@diageo.com
WFA: M.Green@wfanet.org
GroupM: David.Grabert@GroupM.com

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