PewDiePie Show Canceled by Google's YouTube -- 2nd Update
February 14 2017 - 7:46PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
YouTube canceled its top star's show on Tuesday over his
anti-Semitic jokes, complicating its efforts to court television
advertisers while also retaining its edgy video stars.
YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, distanced itself from
its most popular creator -- 27-year-old Felix Kjellberg, who goes
by PewDiePie -- after The Wall Street Journal reported he made
anti-Semitic jokes or showed Nazi imagery in nine videos since
August. Walt Disney Co., which helped run Mr. Kjellberg's business,
severed ties after the revelations.
YouTube canceled the second season of Mr. Kjellberg's show,
"Scare PewDiePie," which anchored YouTube's $10-a-month
subscription service. The company also pulled his YouTube channel
from its Google Preferred program that lets advertisers buy space
before "some of the most engaging and brand safe" videos on
YouTube. The PewDiePie channel has amassed 53 million subscribers,
nearly double the next most popular YouTube channel.
However, Mr. Kjellberg can still maintain a significant presence
on YouTube. He will be able to post videos to his channel and ads
can appear before his videos, generating income for him through
shared advertising revenue with YouTube. Most ads on the site are
placed through automated auctions that match ads with the
demographic of viewers marketers choose. In Mr. Kjellberg's case,
his viewers are mostly male teenagers. Companies can blacklist his
channel.
One advertiser who worked with Mr. Kjellberg has already
distanced itself. The YouTube star in December posted a paid
promotion for Nissan Motor Co.'s Micra compact car. "We strongly
condemn this highly offensive content and will not work with him
again," a Nissan spokeswoman said in an email Tuesday. She said
that Nissan had paid him for the creation of the one ad spot but
had no ongoing relationship.
YouTube has positioned itself as advertisers' preferred
alternative to television by cultivating its video creators, or
so-called influencers, who draw teenage audiences. But the sheer
variety and unpredictability of much of YouTube's content still
makes advertisers wary of shifting more of their spending away from
proven TV commercials.
"YouTube and even Disney have some blame in this situation,"
said Adam Kleinberg, head of San Francisco ad agency Traction Corp.
"YouTube is marketing their influencer network as a safe place for
brands to interact...and [PewDiePie] is their biggest
property."
He said beyond the anti-Semitic content, PewDiePie has for years
posted profane and sexual videos. Mr. Kleinberg said his firm has
spent several million dollars on YouTube ads over the past year and
would likely blacklist PewDiePie's channel on all future campaigns.
By pulling the ads that run before videos, thereby depriving
creators of shared revenue, or by removing the videos outright,
YouTube risks angering its influencers.
"Influencers are saying YouTube is too strict, and advertisers
say it isn't strict enough," said Jesse Leimgruber, chief executive
of NeoReach, which helps companies advertise on social media
influencers' content.
YouTube's crackdown on PewDiePie "is definitely going to have a
ripple effect in the influencer community," he said.
Like other social media firms, YouTube is caught between
satisfying its users and its advertisers. Companies such as
YouTube, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. sell advertising on
user-generated content, over which they have little control,
sometimes ensnaring them in controversies. Facebook has battled
false-news sites, while Twitter is grappling with online
bullying.
YouTube moved tentatively on Mr. Kjellberg's videos before
Tuesday. It deleted ads within days of the posting of one of the
most controversial videos, in which two men held a sign for 23
seconds that read, "Death to all Jews."
But the company left ads running before the other eight videos
played until after the Journal reported on them, when the
online-video platform determined they had violated its
"advertiser-friendly content guidelines."
YouTube said it left the videos on its site because it
determined they don't violate a separate set of rules, their
community guidelines, which have a higher bar for removal. Those
rules ban content that "promotes or condones violence against
individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin [or]
religion." But in reviewing videos, the company says it also
considers the intent of the creator, and content intended to be
provocative or satirical may remain online.
Mr. Kjellberg's account pulled three of the nine videos in
question after the Journal contacted Disney on Friday, and then
reinstated one on Tuesday.
In a video responding to media criticism of the "Death to all
Jews" sign, he said it was a joke and that he wasn't an
anti-Semite. Mr. Kjellberg wrote in a Tumblr post Sunday that he
doesn't support "any kind of hateful attitudes" and understands
"these jokes were ultimately offensive." Mr. Kjellberg didn't
responded to direct requests for comment on the videos.
On Tuesday, Mr. Kjellberg was silent on the controversy
surrounding him, only making one public post: a YouTube video
titled "Valentine's Special!" in which he and his girlfriend play a
videogame as penis-shaped characters that fight each other.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 14, 2017 19:31 ET (00:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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