Both Unilever and Kraft Heinz have pledged to discontinue advertising on adult-video site Pornhub, following a media investigation published over the weekend.
The report in question, from The Sunday Times, highlighted campaigns on the site from brands associated with the companies.
One campaign from Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club told visitors to the site “if you use our bathroom products you won’t have to visit this site as much”, while a homepage takeover from Kraft Heinz’s frozen food brand Devour celebrated ‘foodporn’.
Along with exposing these campaigns, the Times report pointed out the porn site is “flooded with illegal content” including indecent images of minors.
Unilever, which has previously threatened to remove ads from both Facebook and Google due to offensive content, has since announced it will discontinue advertising on the site.
“We don’t support advertising on porn sites, and we are extremely concerned about the content that the Sunday Times shared with us,” a spokesman told the BBC.
“This type of content is deeply troubling, and we will ensure that none of our brands advertise on Pornhub again, or on any other porn sites.
“Dollar Shave Club has also confirmed that they will not advertise with Pornhub again, or on any other porn sites.”
However, the move comes after Dollar Shave Club creative director previously defended the decision to advertise on the porn site, telling Mi-3 in May, “there was a strategic reason why we went there. We are very much about having guys’ backs. We like to think that we’re looking out for guys. It’s no secret that guys go there, we turn up where guys are going to be.”
Unilever claims Dollar Shave Club has “operational independence” over its marketing strategy.
A Kraft Heinz spokesperson initially told the BBC “the brand was explicitly talking about #Foodporn, which has become a cultural phenomenon on Instagram”.
However, it has since it announced it will not promote Devour or any of its other brands on porn sites.
