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- guardian.co.uk, Thursday August 2 2007 18.10 BST
Facebook: firms pulled their ads after they appeared on the page for the British National Party group
Vodafone has pulled all its advertising from Facebook after its skyscraper ads appeared on the group profile for the British National Party.
A spokesperson for Vodafone said the company had clear policies on avoiding affiliation or support for any political party.
Vodafone's advertising was bought through the agency OMD as a package across multiple sites.
"We have withdrawn our advertising from Facebook and will be working with OMD to ensure there are more controls on the site," she said.
"We want to continue to advertise on Facebook but only when we are comfortable that this is compatible with our other policies."
Ads for several major brands were being displayed alternately on the BNP group page today including Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media, Capital One and Help the Aged.
The ads are displayed on the BNP's Facebook page, which lists party policies including ending foreign aid, the restoration of capital punishment and ending immigration.
BNP spokesman Phill Edwards said: "There is no reason at all why anyone should avoid the BNP. There's nothing wrong with the BNP.
"Unfortunately the media have created a bogeyman and really the fault lies with the media, who for some reason have vilified the BNP, and it has scared these people off."
Facebook had not commented at the time of publication.
T-Mobile declined comment.
Guy Phillipson, the chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, said the body has introduced a sales networks council called the Internet Advertising Sales House to help identify "brand safe" environments for advertisers.
The council works with some sales networks to vet every page of social networking sites by hand, classifying content as either standard, which is suitable for all advertisers, or optional, which might include more controversial or adult material.
A Facebook spokesman said the company did not have any comment to make but that it is looking into the issue.
Orange's spokesman said the company would not be removing its advertising from Facebook, adding that it wanted to work with the site to resolve this issue.
"That would be a kneejerk reaction. There are so many other benefits to advertising on social network sites," he said.
"We closely monitor customer feedback and if they are offended, we will take that into account."
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