Brand Safety in 2025: Ambiguity, Decisive Moves, and the Road Ahead

With policy shifts, recent brand safety practices come into question. The brand safety landscape isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about staying clear-headed and forging a defensible approach.

How do brands protect their values, remain agile, and navigate the noise with confidence? The path forward requires a thoughtful balance of innovation and integrity. Some have declared “brand safety is dead,” but they couldn’t be more wrong. When brand sales are tied to brand image, businesses must keep their reputational risks in sight at all times. In our 2025 Brand Safety Look Ahead, BSI COO AJ Brown and Senior Fellow Louis Jones clarify that brand safety is evolving to accommodate a new mood in the nation’s capital. In today’s polarized and fast-changing environment, a smart brand safety strategy is more crucial than ever. And if you’re reading this, you already know that.

One of the biggest forces shaping brand safety today is artificial intelligence. AI has the power to enhance brand safety detection and consumer engagement targeting, but without human oversight, seemingly sound decisions can carry serious reputational risks. As AJ and Louis discuss at length, the need for thoughtful experimentation must be central to integrating AI into brand safety strategies. Blind trust in automation isn’t just a gamble—it’s a liability. True brand safety effectiveness goes beyond technical compliance and machine led rules; it’s about decision that protect the long-term perception of your brand.

The Oscars provided a recent and stark example of how overly cautious strategies can be limiting. Based on broad keyword exclusions, 52% of potential ad placements were missed—including award-winning, culturally relevant content – it's the Oscars, after all. Brands that rely on broad or generically safe blocking tactics risk losing key opportunities to reach engaged (if not highly sought after) audiences. Brand safety shouldn’t mean avoiding complex topics altogether—it should mean understanding context and making informed choices to stay ahead of competitors - brand safety isn’t just about playing it safe.

For brands to manage these risks effectively, internal alignment is essential. Your communications and legal teams don’t need to be brand safety experts, but they do need to be on the same page. Misalignment leads to costly mistakes, while cross-functional training strengthens corporate resilience. That’s why the Brand Safety Institute created the Brand Safe Workforce—a practical course designed to equip adjacent teams with the knowledge they need to support brand safety efforts. No deep dives into technical minutiae—just clear, actionable guidance to keep key decision-makers in the loop.