Shareholders have filed resolutions with Omnicom and The Home Depot seeking a third-party investigation of whether the companies’ ad policies are contributing to violations of civil or human rights. The proposals are particularly concerned about the companies’ ad placements on social media and the potential to support voter suppression, white supremacist and other hate groups.
“Advertising is the lifeblood of social media,” said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a corporate accountability nonprofit that’s coordinating the shareholder actions. “The rampant abuse we’ve seen proliferate on social media is impossible without financial support from some of the biggest brands on the planet. They are in no small part responsible for these abuses, and they have the duty to stop them.”
Connor added that “Home Depot and Omnicom are leading advertisers on social media. Home Depot was the top ad buyer on Facebook in 2019, spending a reported $179 million. [Home Depot disputes that it is the top spender as well as the accuracy of the reported figure]. Omnicom is the second largest advertising holding company in the world, managing a total of $38 billion in ad buys from clients including Disney and Apple. The company is also part of Facebook’s client council, advising on issues like content moderation. Neither of the companies formally joined over 1,000 advertisers who boycotted Facebook over the summer in order to curb the spread of hate on its platform.”