Vice unblocks words including ‘gay,’ ‘fat’ and ‘Muslim’ in its bid to get advertisers to reconsider what's brand-safe

Vice is unblocking words such as “gay,” “fat,” “Muslim” and “transgender,” calling on advertisers to reconsider the standard brand-safety practice of blacklisting keywords like these in their media buys. Vice argues that when marketers don’t want their ads juxtaposed with content containing those words, and others such as “lesbian,” “gender,” “queer” and “feminist,” it restricts the publisher’s ability to monetize content that promotes diversity and inclusion. CEO Nancy Dubuc plans to emphasize this point when she takes the stage at Jing Fong in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon. This is Dubuc’s first official NewFronts as CEO of the company, though she did make a brief appearance at Vice’s pitch last year, a few weeks before she officially started in the role. Dubuc has spent the last year attempting to clean up Vice’s image, which has been tarnished in recent years due to reports of a history of mistreatment of women. She is also cleaning up Vice’s digital business, announcing on Wednesday that the company will eliminate stand-alone sites including Waypoint and Tonic, and will bring its coverage of food, music and women’s issues, among others, back into Vice.com. Munchies, Noisey, Motherboard and Vice News will become branded sections on the site, while the other channels will evolve into other types of businesses, like podcasts and newsletters. Vice also announced Vice Stories, a vertical-video feature. To celebrate Vice’s 25th anniversary, it is bringing back one of its signature franchises, “The Vice Guide to Everything.” It will publish a series of 25 guides on topics including gender politics, climate change, fashion and relationships, and those guides will live as digital series and interstitials on its cable channel Viceland, among other places.

Vice unblocks words including ‘gay,’ ‘fat’ and ‘Muslim’ in its bid to get advertisers to reconsider what's brand-safe

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