YouTube is selling advertising around its video streaming content that is raunchy, edgy and controversial—and the top prospect are R-rated movie marketers.
Putting forward edgy content runs counter to a broad trend in online media like YouTube of stretching to provide image-conscious advertisers non-controversial content environments.
“YouTube wants to help creators who use profanity — or otherwise produce videos that are deemed ‘advertiser unfriendly’— to make more money,” writes Todd Spangler in trade newspaper Variety. (The Variety article also details YouTube’s effort to flag controversial content that squeamish advertisers want to avoid.)
But movie advertisers are notorious for buying placements that are distress-priced adjacent to edgy content because of weak advertising demand. That’s because consumers gravitating to advertiser unfriendly content are prime prospects for Hollywood’s edgy, R-rated movies.
“Mainstream advertisers worry about negative rub-off on their ‘brands,’” says the third edition of book “Marketing To Moviegoers,” referring to car, soap, restaurants, etc. But brand awareness “isn’t a problem for movies because consumers view them as stand-alone products and don’t associate films with their distribution companies.”
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