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Black Friday Parody Ad Rejected by Facebook

11/04/2019 09:00 - United States, California, San Francisco - (PR Distribution™)

Facebook certainly does filter ads that they do not feel are appropriate for their platform.  We at 247 Retro, the first always-streaming classic television channel on the internet, know this first-hand.  While Facebook has infamously taken a hands-off approach to political ad filtering, allowing ads that feature what many call blatant lies and false political propaganda, when it comes to provocative content in the commercial sector, Facebook suddenly becomes quite discriminating.  This "we know what is best for our users" approach is in stark contrast to their refusal to become "truth cop" in the high-dollar political ad arena.

At 247 Retro, we launched a November advertising campaign that parodied Black Friday sale ads.  In the ad, 247 Retro promoted film noir movies every Friday night in November, calling the campaign "Blackmail Friday" with the ad parodying typical sales ads that you might see on television during Black Friday.  "Deals" were presented that consisted of a ransom note, "Doorbusters" with a man breaking down a door, "20% off all extremities" showing a man with a knife, and "everything else broken in half" with a film noir fight scene.  Edgy content indeed.

247 Retro attempted to promote the ad on Facebook to film noir buffs but the ad was rejected by Facebook's ad department.  According to Facebook, the ad "uses an image or video that contains shocking, sensational, or excessively violent content. This type of material creates an unexpected experience for users, and goes against our [Facebook's] core value of fostering a positive global community."

It is understandable to us at 247 Retro that the ad content may not be suitable for a general audience. The ad was, however, targeted only to film noir fans using Facebook's interests filters.  Such audiences are typically delighted by content of this nature.

The interesting take-away here is that Facebook does indeed have a filter for advertising content on their platform despite news stories of the contrary.  "Shocking, sensational, or excessively violent content" apparently is grounds for ad disqualification.  Ironically, truthfulness, as reported in the mainstream media, does not appear to rank nearly as high of a core value to Facebook when vetting ads.

Who should decide what is true and what is false?  Who should decide what is shocking, sensational, or excessively violent?  These are difficult questions for the time that we live in.  One thing that we do agree on with Facebook, however, is that our Blackmail Friday ad is indeed "sensational."

The Facebook-rejected ad can be viewed at http://www.247retro.com/FacebookRejectedAd


247 Retro, Inc. is an internet broadcasting company showing free classic television and movie programming on their Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV apps as well as on their website at http://www.247retro.com.


Media contact:
Ron Benditt
[email protected]
Phone: 209.800.5806


#FacebookAds #BlackFriday #SocialMediaAdvertising #Censorship

Media Contacts:


Full Name
Ron Benditt
Company
247 Retro, Inc.
Phone Number
209-800-5806
Website
Email
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