BBB National Programs today announced a collaboration between its National Advertising Division and Google to allow for direct reporting of potential Google Ads policy violations.  This dedicated intake channel will allow NAD to share its case outcomes involving advertising running on Google directly via the Google Priority Flagger Program.  Google's Priority Flagger program, designed to provide “robust tools” to government agencies and non-governmental organizations to report content that likely violates Google's Community Guidelines (or, as with NAD, Google's Ad Policies) does not get flagged content automatically removed but it is prioritized for review.  

What does this mean?  It means that if a challenger prevails in a challenge before NAD regarding advertising running on Google, with NAD issuing a Decision recommending that the advertising be modified or discontinued, NAD can help ensure that that recommendation is implemented. By flagging the ad subject to the Decision through this dedicated channel, NAD can ensure compliance more quickly and easily than the challenger probably can itself. While NAD’s relationship with Google has already helped to get non-compliant ads off the platform (even in cases where the advertiser refuses to participate), this dedicated channel makes the process more streamlined and, importantly, known to the public. 

This is one of two “official” dedicated intake channels available to NAD for reporting of non-compliant advertising. The other is for advertising running on Meta-owned channels, i.e., Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. While NAD has informal reporting relationships with other platforms, those relationships are not “official” and have not been publicly announced.

Compliance with NAD Decisions is always a thorny issue, especially with cases involving aggressive new entrants to a market, who may or may not have a physical presence in the US and who manage to flood social media and e-commerce platforms with eye-popping ads and claims.  Even with an NAD Decision in hand that recommends the removal or modification of an ad, it can sometimes be difficult for a successful challenger to get the ad out of the marketplace.  Even the threat of a referral to a regulatory authority is not always enough, especially if an advertiser wants to drag its heels. By implementing these dedicated channels, NAD – and the challenger – have one more tool to ensure that recommendations for modification or removal of an ad will be implemented.