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YouTube ads from major brands land on Project 2025 videos

The YouTube Inc. logo is seen on an Apple Inc. iPhone in a staged photograph taken in Brooklyn, New York, in May. Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

YouTube's automated advertising systems are placing video ads from major brands alongside content promoting controversial Project 2025 policy proposals and election misinformation, according to a new report.

Researchers at Eko, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, reviewed ads that appeared alongside a selection of 11 videos on Google's YouTube that supported Project 2025 policies, conspiracy theories about the 2020 U.S. election, and hateful rhetoric. The videos included ads from over 60 global brands, including SKIMS, BetterHelp, Verizon, and Slack. Several of the brands have made public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion that appear to conflict with the video messages.

Some of the videos examined in the study appeared to violate YouTube's content and monetization policies, which prohibit election misinformation and hate speech. In total, the videos were viewed nearly 1.3 million times and the channels behind them had more than 25 million combined subscribers.

“Google and YouTube have a responsibility to ensure that videos like this do not become part of the monetized video catalog,” said Maen Hammad, eco-activist and head of the investigation. YouTube is “bigger and more powerful than many countries. They have the resources to strengthen content moderation and ensure that civil society organizations do not do their work for them.”

The study highlights a long-standing concern among major advertisers that their messages could inadvertently appear alongside controversial content and look like an endorsement. The study also draws attention to the fact that major brands' advertising dollars on YouTube are flowing to channels that spread misinformation and far-right narratives, sometimes without them being aware of it.

A YouTube spokesperson said the company reviewed the videos in the study and found that most of them did not violate the company's advertising policies. The spokesperson said YouTube removed ads from the videos that violated the policies, but did not specify the channels.

“Our advertiser-friendly content policies do not allow ads to appear next to content that makes claims that could undermine voter turnout or confidence in an election, or next to content that promotes hate speech,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We also offer advertisers the ability to control where their ads appear on YouTube.”

All of the videos discussed Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation, a policy think tank. These include plans to further regulate abortion, reduce the focus on environmental concerns and exclude transgender people from the military, among others. This plan is controversial even among some conservatives and was developed independently of Republican candidate Donald Trump's campaign, although several of his former aides and associates were involved. Trump has tried to distance himself from the project.

In one video from this selection, Daily Wire host Jordan Peterson interviewed Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, who introduced Project 2025 and spread anti-trans sentiments. The video had 104,000 views and included ads from SKIMS, MasterClass, Verizon, and Gillette, among others. In another video, entrepreneur Grant Cardone hosted Arizona Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake to discuss unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud surrounding the 2020 election. That video included ads from HelloFresh, eBay, Oracle's Netsuite, and more.

Spokespeople for SKIMS, Verizon, BetterHelp and Slack did not respond to requests for comment.

The exact dollar amount these YouTube channels earn from advertising is unknown. YouTube pays creators 55% of ad revenue for long-form videos, and social media analytics firm Social Blade estimates the 11 channels in the study make $1.7 million to $27 million annually.

Brands can keep their ads off controversial YouTube videos by blocking their messages from appearing in videos from certain channels, or by banning their ads from certain video categories such as politics or children's content. But Claire Atkin, co-founder and chief executive of digital advertising watchdog Check My Ads, says this is a whack-a-mole that doesn't offer brands end-to-end protection.

“Google offers choices through a channel-by-channel inclusion list. That's not very efficient,” Atkin said. “We need smart ways for Google to interpret what the advertiser wants.”

In some cases, brands only learn that their ads are appearing next to controversial videos after reports from nonprofits like Eko. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media was another industry watchdog that developed tools to help advertisers avoid appearing next to harmful and illegal content. That group was disbanded earlier this month following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.

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