Adding to
the prior post on the YouTube Kids App, I wanted to highlight 2 aspects of the
complaints against the app:
- "Many of the [unboxing] videos on YouTube Kids
appear to be user-generated. Some, however, have undisclosed relationships with
product manufacturers," reads the complaint. Unboxing videos are
immensely popular on YouTube accounting for 20 Million searches alone last
year. From one perspective, if the unboxing video truly provides entertainment
and/or informative value to the viewer, then does it qualify as native content
or an ad? Furthermore, if the unboxing video does not include a call to
action to buy the product but simply concludes by showing the unboxing, can it
still be characterized as an ad?
-
Secondly, the complaint points out that videos and advertising on YouTube Kids
are played in a continuous stream, counter to the TV rules that require a
five-second "bumper" between ads and shows. The ads are certainly
denoted as promotional considerations by the sponsoring brands, but the ads
themselves purportedly come across as content such that the viewer (in this
case a child) isn’t immediately aware that they are watching an ad.
Both
these complaints hold weight (pun unintended). YouTube is definitely waltzing
on the blurry lines between ads and content here. And it doesn’t help that the
viewing audience is more gullible. This is another example of how digital, mobile-first
guidelines need to be contemplated keeping these mediums and platforms in mind;
and that advertisers will constantly push the envelope to break through to
their audiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment