The #StopHateForProfit Campaign Launches For July 2020

Over the last month or so you will have inevitably seen the news that some large businesses and corporations around the world are pausing their ad spend on Facebook platforms for the month of July 2020. 

We wanted to use our reach and audience to explain what’s going on, why it’s happening and why we, a digital marketing ad agency with social media services, are supporting it.

What is the Stop Hate for Profit movement?

The campaign, #StopHateforProfit asks large Facebook advertisers to show “they will not support a company that puts profit over safety”.

The companies behind this campaign include ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), the NAACP, Sleeping Giants (great name guys, but nothing to do with us), Color of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.

The pause on advertising across the platform has been called because, quote “Facebook has fueled the spread of hate online” due to “the lack of moderation and actions” taken around the spreading of fake news, misinformation and hate speech across the platforms apps in recent months.

With 99% of Facebook’s $70 billion made through advertising, and some rather large name brands such as Coca Cola and Starbucks coming out to support the campaign, it’s sure to make quite the dent in Facebook’s purse.

If you’d like to learn more about this campaign, then we recommend checking out their website and doing a little Googling of your own.

Why are you, as an agency, supporting the campaign?

As a business, we have chosen to pause our own Facebook advertising through July. We have collectively decided as a group of individuals that make up Sleeping Giant Media that is a cause we want to support and be part of.

As a business, we have always strived to do the right things for our business and society in general. Our commitment to green issues is testimony to that. Over the last few months, however, we have done a lot of soul searching, learning and reflecting as a business and individuals with regards to our ability to actually effect social change.

We believe that we make decisions, not just for brand, but to represent those within the business who ultimately make up our brand.  Doing nothing is no longer an option, but with recent reflection, along with some other significant changes and initiatives, we will be pausing all ads planned to run on the platform.

We will use the opportunity to push organic content and test our creativity as marketers, as well as producing content on how to promote yourself using organic content to support those businesses over the next few weeks.

The irony isn’t lost on us as a digital marketing agency, so we will be informing all of our clients about the Stop Hate For Profit campaign. To some businesses and individuals, Facebook ads are so important to business activity, especially now with the relaxing of lockdown and starting of green shoots.

We are making all clients aware of this campaign in order for them to make educated, informed decisions based on their business, and we will fully support those decisions free of judgement; supporting them to adapt and pivot if required, like we have been doing since the outset of the pandemic. We want to help businesses be part of the awareness and support the campaign without conflicting business objectives. They are not exclusive causes.

As a result, If you run your own marketing and are in need of inspiration, we will consult with you for free if you want to move your Facebook marketing budget but don’t want to lose results. We can’t promise them of course, but we can definitely try and use our experience to help. Get in touch using the button below.