New shareholder resolutions call upon advertiser Home Depot Inc. and agency group Omnicom Group Inc. to investigate whether their advertising policies inadvertently contribute to “violations of civil or human rights” by funding platforms that spread inappropriate content, according to copies of the proposals filed in late 2020.
The effort was organized by Open MIC, an organization that uses shareholder engagement to promote causes such as diversity and privacy.
“The ad buyers and the big ad agencies are typically behind the scenes, and yet they have an enormous amount of influence on what happens in the media environment, particularly on social media,” said Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, which stands for Open Media and Information Companies Initiative. “They are making recommendations and helping their clients manage billions of dollars in spending, and all too often they escape any kind of scrutiny for what they do.”