YouTube ad ban to cover gambling and more

In its most recent revamp of masthead advertisement regulations, YouTube has elected to ban promotional content that includes any mention of gambling, politics, election, alcohol and prescription drugs.

These changes have come into force with immediate effect, with gambling added to YouTube’s Prohibited Categories for masthead ads. It now states: “assets that depict or reference gambling-related content” will be banned, including “offline gambling, online gambling, online non-casino games, and social casino games”.

Being a Google-owned platform, YouTube addressed its advertisers in an email announcing the changes following from the 2020 move to get rid of all-day masthead ads, like ones used during  Donald Trump’s Election Day campaign.

To replace these, there is an aim for more targeted ads that are effective on a per-impression basis, which should prevent a single advertiser from dominating YouTube’s homepage space.

This unit now presents a running banner across the top of the homepage, which is considered to be the most prominent Google advertisement placement available to advertisers.

A spokesperson for Google said: “We believe this update will build on changes we made last year to the masthead reservation process and will lead to a better experience for users”.

In addition, ads that favour election candidates for office or promote alcohol and prescription drugs sales will also be added to the list of banned content.