Vodafone Australia and Nestlé have joined a growing number of Australian companies pulling their ads with Google Inc., The Australian Financial Review reported March 27.
The move is reportedly fueled by concerns that the companies' ads may appear next to inappropriate content, after Holden, Kia and electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi, among others, saw their ads linked with anti-feminist and men's rights content on YouTube Inc., the Alphabet Inc. unit's video-sharing platform.
Vodafone Group Plc confirmed that the company's global boycott will also apply to Australia, according to the report.
U.S. healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have recently pulled digital advertising from Google after their ads started appearing alongside offensive videos, following AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., which removed their ads a few days earlier.
The boycott began in the U.K., after The Times reported that the U.K. government and several brands had their ads placed alongside offensive content.