LOS ANGELES — Voodoo Toys CEO Kevin Mirarchi announced the company has temporarily paused its Facebook marketing and joined other brands in protest against "hate speech and other harmful content" on the platform.
"The 'Stop Hate for Profit' campaign is gaining steam as big brands are choosing to 'hit pause on hate.' The movement began as a resistance from advertisers fighting to gain more control over where their content appeared after Facebook continued to allow content that could incite violence against protesters," a rep explained.
Mirarchi "has given the movement his full support" and chose to pause advertising at the beginning of the month, said the rep. "Social media is notoriously difficult for adult brands to advertise on, with Voodoo pausing its advertising of its branded podcast ‘Oral Fixation’ across Instagram and Facebook."
"While Facebook continues discussions with their advertisers on how to move forward," the rep continued, "so far the company’s promises to improve their fact-checking and change their policies to ensure they don’t allow content that contributes to racism and radicalization do not seem to adequately meet the concerns of advertisers involved in the boycott."
Voodoo "brand evangelist" Danielle Seerley supports the decision.
“As a Voodoo employee, I applaud our company for taking a stand for solidarity in the 'Stop Hate For Profit' [campaign]. Facebook is one of the largest-grossing companies for advertising and is recognized for their massive audience. Facebook had the opportunity to be leaders in change and raise Black voices on social media. Instead they took a passive role when they were needed most. We recognize this and choose to be a part of the change in doing better.”
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