Brand Safety Institute Blog

AI: Friend or Foe? It’s All About Context

by Victor Mills on Jan 16, 2026, 8:45:00 AM

Public trust in generative AI remains fragile. At the same time brands and agencies accelerate adoption of AI-powered tools. For brands and their partners, the mandate is balance. Brand safety in 2026 is no longer just a media problem or a technology...

When Gaming Creators Clash with AI Protocols – Brands Beware!

by Victor Mills on Jan 9, 2026, 3:04:01 PM

Gaming sits at a unique crossroads of culture, commerce, and creativity. As AI reshapes content creation and distribution, brands must rely more heavily on human judgment, platform self-accountability, and creator partnerships grounded in brand safe...

How to maximize your ad spend this holiday and beyond

by Victor Mills on Dec 5, 2025, 9:15:00 AM

People aren’t just buying, they’re evaluating. Evaluating what? Evaluating whether brands understand their responsibility to consumers and respect their intelligence. Trust & safety, core pillars of brand safety, must be advertisers' core value...

Gobble Gobble - Reach not Risk

by Victor Mills on Nov 27, 2025, 8:59:59 AM

The digital advertising world is a veritable feast of options, like a crowded Thanksgiving table, & advertisers have more choices than ever. For advertisers, that’s something to be thankful for. The programmatic space has reached the point where scale &...

Brand Relevance is the Key to Brand Safe Content

by Victor Mills on Oct 17, 2025, 2:14:38 PM

Brand safety was born out of frustration, but the industry’s future requires “continuous improvement” in defining suitable content for marketers to drive their businesses. Beyond 2025, the safest brands will be those that understand, adapt, and...

Building the Best Defense in Uncertain Times

by Victor Mills on Oct 2, 2025, 1:00:39 PM

Brand safety used to be about simple avoidance. In 2025 though, the stakes are higher & wider. The definitions blurrier. Defense is no longer about patience, it’s about speed and emotional resonance, paired with evidence.

Online Safety for Youth: A Chasm of Alarming Proportions

by Victor Mills on Aug 20, 2025, 6:10:18 PM

The topic of brand safety and the online safety problem now extend well beyond gaming and social media, into the broader ad tech ecosystem. Advertisers can help transform brand safety from a defensive posture into an opportunity for leadership, aligning...

Rethinking Brand Safety in the Age of AI

by Victor Mills on Aug 11, 2025, 9:00:00 AM

In 2025, safety isn’t the absence of harm, it’s the presence of responsibility. You can’t build trust if your content, like much of today’s generative media, is engineered to approximate meaning rather than actually say something.

Brand Safety or Suitability in the Age of AI?

by Victor Mills on Jul 28, 2025, 12:48:52 PM

The adoption of AI tools has outpaced the industry’s ability to regulate their use. For advertisers, this means adapting from risk avoidance to proactive strategic risk management, where intentionality becomes a competitive advantage. Upgrade your stance...

Brand Safety in an Age of Constrained Optionality

by Victor Mills on Jul 11, 2025, 10:46:32 AM

Are we trading in brand suitability for brand sustainability in the near future? The answer is important. What began as an industry-wide effort to keep ads away from the internet’s darkest corners has since evolved into a highly politicized dilemma.

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