Charity is bewildered after its ad gets the boot. This story has been updated.
A hard hitting charity campaign has been banned by Facebook – which ruled it is too negative.
The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) has had the video ad for its #seetheneed campaign knocked back because Facebook reckons people should only see “neutral or positive” messages.
RNIB’s latest drive aims to promote the need for sight loss advisers in every UK hospital.
The video, launched on the charity’s YouTube channel where it has been viewed more than 50,000 times, aims to make viewers think about how they would feel if their sight was under threat.
In the ad, a women is seen becoming tearful as a voiceover explains that she has just been told she will lose her sight.
The voiceover states: “You’ll fear for your job, your home, your life. You’ll see everyone losing their sight needs the right support.”
RNIB wanted to pay to run the ad on Facebook, but the company blocked it, saying it breaks its guidelines on language that is “profane, vulgar, threatening or generates high negative feedback”.
The charity’s social media team was also told Facebook just doesn’t like hard-hitting ads.
“Ads should not single out individuals or degrade people. We don’t accept language like 'fear of losing your sight, losing your job?' and the like" - Facebook
A member of Facebook’s advertising team told RNIB: “We’ve found that people dislike ads that directly address them or their personal characteristics.
“Ads should not single out individuals or degrade people. We don’t accept language like “fear of losing your sight, losing your job?” and the like.
“Instead, text must present realistic and accurate information in a neutral or positive way and should not have any direct attribution to people.”
Despite the huge amount of times it has been viewed on YouTube, RNIB said it has not received any complaints.
Natasha Dickinson, group head of marketing and communications at RNIB, said: “We were really shocked to find out that Facebook had banned our advert but even more surprised when they couldn’t tell us exactly why, we’re still not sure what we’ve really done wrong here.
“Facebook is a really effective way for RNIB to raise awareness of sight loss and reach thousands of people who might not otherwise know about our work and how we help blind and partially sighted people. Facebook is the world’s biggest social media site and it would be great to see them working with, and not against, charities.”
