文章来自CNN 2020年6月29日文章

翻译：尚恩教育-一站式解决你的英语考试问题

For years, Facebook (FB) has been viewed as one of the only truly indispensable digital advertising platforms for big and small businesses looking to reach the social network's vast audience. Even as the company lurched from one controversy to the next, and endured viral hashtags calling for users to delete the app, its advertising machine kept churning out money, making Facebook seem all but unstoppable.

多年来，脸书（国外版人人网）一直被视为大型和小型企业想要吸引社交网络广大受众的唯一及不可或缺的数字广告平台之一。即使从该公司陷入争论困境，并遭受病毒性标签要求用户删除该应用程序至今，其广告投放平台仍在不断赚钱，这让人感觉脸书似乎完全不受其影响！

But in recent days, Facebook has looked a little less invincible. The social network is confronting a new pressure campaign from advertisers unlike anything in its recent history. A growing number of big household names has joined a Facebook advertising boycott over its handling of hate speech and misinformation, culminating on Friday with the news that home goods giant Unilever would halt ad spending for at least the remainder of the year on Facebook, as well as Twitter (TWTR). The move was enough to tank both companies' stocks and prompt speculation of a possible domino effect among large advertisers.

但是最近几天，脸书开始变得不那么无坚不摧了！ 社交网络正面临来自广告商的新的压力，这在最近的历史上几乎是不曾见过的。越来越多的大客户加入了脸书的广告抵制活动，从而以抵制仇恨言论和虚假信息。上周五，有消息称，家居用品巨头联合利华（Unilever）也将至少在今年剩余时间里停止在脸书和推特儿上的广告支出。此举足以使两家公司的股票陷入困境，而且在大型广告商之间很可能会产生多米诺骨牌效应。

（再一次尚恩教育的托福口语课上，就有同学们讨论过说这些平台上的内容真的是真真假假很难区分，如果正好在假消息旁边出现了广告，确实会对这个品牌产生一定的不好的影响。）

Unilever's decision illustrates how quickly an ad boycott that began with socially conscious lifestyle brands, such as The North Face and Patagonia, has spread to some of the world's largest corporations. The #StopHateForProfit campaign, which launched in the wake of Facebook's decision not to take action on incendiary posts from President Donald Trump, is now a force Facebook cannot ignore.

联合利华的决定表明，这种以生活方式品牌（例如The North Face和Patagonia）为起点的广告抵制已经迅速传播到了一些世界上的巨型公司。#StopHateForProfit#活动是在脸书决定对Donald Trump的帖子不采取行动之后发起的，现在这个活动已经成为脸书上不可忽视的力量。

In the past week, the company held a conference call to tell marketers it's working to close a "trust deficit." It sent out multiple emails to advertisers in hopes of containing the revolt. And on Friday, Zuckerberg himself addressed the public with new promises to ban hateful ads and label controversial posts from politicians. But despite the mounting pressure, Zuckerberg, the one person with the most power to decide what the company does next, did not address the boycott, a decision that may only strengthen his critics' resolve.

在过去的一周中，该脸书举行了电话会议，以告诉营销人员公司正在努力消除``信托赤字''。同时脸书向广告商发送了多封电子邮件，希望遏制反抗。周五，扎克伯格本人向公众致辞，提出了新的承诺，即禁止仇恨广告和禁止给一些相关人员贴上有争议的帖子。但是，尽管面临着越来越大的压力，但拥有决定公司下一步行动最大权力的扎克伯格并未解决广告客户抵制问题，他的这一决定只会加强批评者抵制的决心。

"Zuckerberg's address was 11 minutes of wasted opportunity to commit to change," tweeted Rashad Robinson, president of the civil rights group Color of Change, one of the boycott's organizers.

抵制的组织者之一Color of Change的主席拉沙德·罗宾逊（Rashad Robinson）在推特儿上说：“扎克伯格应该把这11分钟的讲话时间花费在改变这一现状上。”

In the weeks since Facebook decided not to take action on a series of controversial Trump posts — including one during the racial justice protests that said "looting" would lead to "shooting" — the company and its CEO have faced pushback from employees, politicians and even scientists backed by Zuckerberg's philanthropic organization. But more than any of these other protests, the advertiser boycott could pose a deeper threat to Facebook and its core business. Nearly all of Facebook's roughly $70 billion in annual revenue last year came from advertising dollars.

自从脸书决定不对一系列有争议的Trump发帖采取行动以来，该公司及其首席执行官就遭到了员工，政界人士和工人的抵制，甚至是受到扎克伯格慈善组织支持的科学家也对其采取了抵制。但是，与其他任何抗议活动相比，广告主的抵制行为可能对脸书及其核心业务构成更深的威胁。 脸书去年年收入中的700亿美元，几乎都来自广告收入。

A significant chunk of that came from big brands, said Laura Martin, an industry analyst at Needham & Co. — and big brands have only become more vital to Facebook as smaller advertisers scale back or go out of business due to the pandemic.

Needham＆Co.的行业分析师劳拉·马丁（Laura Martin）表示，其中很大一部分收入来自大品牌，而且脸书对于这些大品牌也会更加依赖。因为较小的广告商在疫情期间不得不开始缩减产业规模或直接倒闭了。

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement Friday after Unilever's announcement, Facebook stressed the steps it's taken to protect its platform, including banning hundreds of white supremacist organizations and investing in artificial intelligence to find and crack down on harmful content.

脸书没有立即给予置评。在联合利华公告发布后的周五声明中，Facebook强调了其为保护其平台所采取的步骤，包括禁止数百个白人至上主义组织，并在帮助打击有害言论的人工智能上加大投资！

"We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies," said company spokesman Andy Stone. "We know we have more work to do, and we'll continue to work with civil rights groups, GARM, and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight."

公司发言人安迪·斯通（Andy Stone）表示：“我们每年投资数十亿美元，以确保平台社区安全，并与外部专家不断合作，以审查和更新我们的政策。” “我们知道我们还有更多工作要做，我们将继续与相关组织，GARM（Global Alliance for Responsible Media 全球负责任媒体联盟）和其他专家合作，开发更多工具，技术和政策来继续这场斗争。”

Facebook may be vulnerable, but Zuckerberg is not

Facebook可能脆弱，但扎克伯格并非如此

As each new company lends its weight to the boycott, the economic pressure is growing on Facebook to change — somehow. The campaign carries echoes of a similar advertiser rebellion against YouTube in 2017. Then, as now, major household names announced one by one that they would reject YouTube's platform over concerns that its algorithms were placing ads beside hate speech. And ad executives say it led to some changes, including more controls to prevent ads from appearing beside controversial content.

随着每家公司加大抵制力度，脸书不得不在逐渐增加的经济压力下做出一些改变。这次的抵制活动与2017年广告商对YouTube的反对很相似。然后，像现在一样，大公司宣布，由于担心其算法会将广告置于仇恨言论的旁边，他们将拒绝在YouTube的平台投放广告。广告主管说，这些抵制措施确实带来了一些变化，包括公司会采取更多管控措施，以防止广告出现在有争议的内容旁边。

Despite some similarities, Facebook is less susceptible to outside pressure than most businesses, experts say. It's led by a CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who exercises complete voting control over the company and can't be removed by shareholders. And that could vastly complicate the campaign to hit Facebook where it hurts.

专家说，尽管存在一些相似之处，但与大多数企业相比，脸书不太容易受到外界压力的影响。它由首席执行官马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）领导，他对公司行使完全投票控制权，不能被股东罢免。这可能会使该活动在遭受打击的脸书上变得更加复杂。

"Disney couldn't do this, and Apple couldn't do this. They're run by committee," Martin said. "If it was a company run by committee, they would have to react, because the committee — the board of directors — would be threatening to fire the CEO to protect revenue. That doesn't have to happen here."

马丁说：“迪斯尼不能做到这一点，而苹果公司也不能做到这一点。它们由委员会管理。” “如果这是一个由委员会管理的公司，他们将不得不做出反应，因为委员会（董事会）将威胁解雇首席执行官以保护其利益。但在脸书这个将不会发生。”

Indeed, Facebook appeared to strike a defiant tone earlier in the week. "We do not make policy changes tied to revenue pressure," Carolyn Everson, Facebook Vice President of Global Business Group, wrote in an email to advertisers this week obtained by CNN. "We set our policies based on principles rather than business interests."

确实，脸书在本周早些时候似乎表现出挑衅的语气。脸书全球业务集团副总裁卡罗琳·埃弗森（Carolyn Everson）在本周向美国广告商发送的电子邮件中写道：“我们不会做出与收入压力有关的政策变化。” “我们根据原则而不是商业利益来制定政策。”

Whether the boycott will even have a measurable impact on Facebook's bottom line still remains very hazy. That's partly due to the number of participating brands, the timing of the campaign, and ambient factors such as the pandemic that may make it challenging to link any potential dip in Facebook revenue directly to the boycott. Additionally, there are few alternatives in reaching audiences the size Facebook can offer, along with a nearly unmatched data trove for ad targeting. The earliest any impact could become apparent will be when the company reports its third quarter earnings results this fall.

抵制是否会对Facebook的利润产生可估量的影响，仍然非常模糊。部分原因是参与品牌的数量，活动的时间安排以及疫情等环境因素使将脸书收入的任何潜在下降直接与抵制联系起来很具有挑战性。此外，几乎没有其他选择可以吸引到与脸书匹配的受众量，因为脸书有着其几乎无与伦比的广告定位数据宝库。而且此次抵制对于财务的影响可能会在该公司今年秋天报告第三季度财报时显现出来。

Of the companies that have joined the boycott so far, only three — Unilever, Verizon and the outdoor equipment retailer REI — rank among the top 100 advertisers on Facebook, according to data compiled by Pathmatics, a marketing intelligence firm. In 2019, Unilever ranked 30th, spending an estimated $42.4 million on Facebook ads. Verizon and REI were 88th and 90th, respectively, spending an estimated $23 million each.

根据市场数据公司Pathmatics收集的数据，到目前为止，脸书前100名广告商之中，参与抵制的公司只有三家即联合利华（Unilever），Verizon和户外设备零售商REI。在2019年，联合利华排名第30，在脸书的广告上花费了约4,240万美元。 Verizon和REI分别排在第88位和第90位，估计每个花费2300万美元。

The highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2 billion in Facebook advertising last year, according to Pathmatics data, or about 6% of the platform's ad revenue. Topping the list were Home Depot (HD), Walmart (WMT), Microsoft (MSFT), AT&T (T) (which owns WarnerMedia, CNN's parent company) and Disney (DIS).

根据Pathmatics的数据显示，去年支出最高的100个品牌在Facebook广告中所占的份额为42亿美元，约占该平台广告收入的6％。排在首位的是Home Depot（HD），Walmart（WMT），Microsoft（MSFT），AT＆T（T）（拥有CNN的母公司WarnerMedia）和迪士尼（DIS）。

Much of the rest of Facebook's ad revenue comes from small and medium-sized businesses, ad executives say. It would likely take tens of thousands of them, acting over a significant period of time, to put a big dent in Facebook's bottom line.

广告主管说，脸书广告收入的大部分都来自中小型企业。所以在相当长的一段时间内，如果要大幅削弱脸书的利润。可能需要数以万计的人同时采取行动。

The uncertain road ahead

未来的不确定之路

Since the #StopHateForProfit campaign asks for businesses to pause advertising only during the month of July, companies that stick narrowly to the campaign will only deny revenue to Facebook for a matter of weeks. That may show up as barely a blip, if at all, in Facebook's quarterly earnings, said Nicole Perrin, principal analyst at the market research firm eMarketer.

由于#StopHateForProfit 广告活动仅要求企业在7月份暂停广告，因此，那些坚持投放广告的公司只会在数周内停止在脸书上投放广告。市场研究公司eMarketer的首席分析师妮可·佩林（Nicole Perrin）表示，这可能只是脸书季度收益中的一点点，甚至根本不会有任何影响。

Nancy Smith, president of the advertising consulting firm Analytic Partners, said a driving factor for many of the participating companies is "brand safety" — the desire for their advertisements not to show up beside conspiracy theories or hateful rhetoric. As they stop investing in Facebook and Instagram, she said, many marketers will redirect those dollars. Unilever said Friday it would be shifting its own US digital ad budget to other platforms.

广告咨询公司Analytic Partners的总裁南希·史密斯（Nancy Smith）说，许多参与抵制的公司的驱动因素是“品牌安全”，即希望他们的广告不要出现在一些不好的言论旁边。她说，随着他们停止对脸书和Ins的投资，许多营销商将把这些资金重新投入。联合利华周五表示，将把自己的美国数字广告预算转移到其他平台。

"For our clients, we would advise them to reallocate those funds," said Smith. "Reallocating to other social media, potentially; reallocating to other digital publishers; reallocating to linear TV; reallocating to platforms like Hulu."

史密斯说：“对于我们的客户，我们建议他们重新分配这些资金。” “可能重新分配给其他社交媒体；数字出版商；线性电视；或是分配给像Hulu这样的平台。”

Then there's the pandemic, which has already driven a slowdown in the digital advertising industry this year. Companies scaled back dramatically on ad spending in March and April, and some, like Verizon and Patagonia, were just beginning to reinvest in Facebook ads when #StopHateForProfit began, according to Pathmatics' research.

然后疫情已经导致今年数字广告行业的发展放缓。根据Pathmatics的研究，公司在3月和4月大幅缩减了广告支出，而Verizon和Patagonia等公司则在#StopHateForProfit开始时才开始对脸书广告进行再投资。

As Covid-19 infection rates begin spiking again nationwide, it's going to be "extremely difficult to tease out" the reasons behind any slump in advertising numbers, Perrin said.

Perrin说，随着Covid-19感染率在全国范围内再次激增，将很难“弄清”广告数量暴跌的原因。

"It's going to be a very political argument where folks on the boycott side will want to say they had an effect, whereas those on the other side will say the boycott didn't really work," said Perrin. "It'll be tough."

佩林说：“针对广告暴跌的原因，抵制方面的人们会想说他们有效果，而另一侧的人们会说抵制并没有真正起作用。” “这很难去界定。”

Until Zuckerberg himself decides to change the limits of free expression on his platform, Facebook may simply lose brands until only those that don't object to the company's conduct or who cannot survive without the platform's reach are left, Martin said.

In that future, it would be hard to say whether the boycott truly "worked."

马丁说，在扎克伯格本人决定改变其平台上的自由表达的限制之前，脸书可能只会失去品牌，直到只剩下那些不反对公司行为或离开脸书无法生存的品牌。

在那个未来，很难说抵制是否真的“奏效”。

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