Google’s advertising crisis went global after some of the biggest marketers including AT&T Inc. and Johnson & Johnson halted spending on YouTube and the Internet company’s display network, citing concern their ads would run alongside offensive videos.
The controversy erupted last week after the London-based Times newspaper reported that some ads were running with YouTube videos that promoted terrorism or anti-Semitism. The UK government and the Guardian newspaper took down ads from the video site and Havas SA, the world’s sixth-largest advertising and marketing company, pulled its UK clients’ ads from Google’s display ad network and YouTube.