Brand Safety

Brand Safety Definitions - Web

Accidents	Media content related to accidents, crashes, accidents, natural disasters, and other calamities.
Alcohol	Media content related to alcoholic beverages.
Click-Baiting	Media content (web pages) whose purpose is to generate ad revenue at the expense of page quality. Users on these pages typically have low engagement with the entire page as the page is designed to drive new impressions.
Crime/Violence	Media content related to criminal activity or violence including both white and blue-collar crimes.
Gambling	Media content with content related to online social games, information on card, board, computer and electronic games.
Health Issues	Media content related to health issues and medical conditions.
Illegal Drugs	Media content related to illegal drugs (how to obtain, how to manufacture, how to use, or about evading or circumventing the law), drug and alcohol testing sabotage, drug smuggling, trafficking, selling or buying.
Manga/Anime	Media content related to type of comic originating in Japan including content referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation.
Negative News	Negative news classifies as any news content that is negative in nature; this includes but not limited to accident, terrorism or violent related news articles.
Not Safe For Work	Media content related to nudity, profanity, which the viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work.
Offensive	Gory: Media content related to extreme violence, murder, suicide, rape, the infliction of pain or injuries, violence towards humans or animals, torture, massive blood or gore, sadism and other types of excessive violence. Hate / Profanity: Web pages with content related to excessive or inappropriate use of profane language, cursing, pejorative language, swearing, expletive, strong and obscenity language, blasphemy, foul language, adult language or relating to social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, desecrating, or showing disrespect. Hate Speech: Web pages with content related to any speech perceived to disparage a person or group of people based on their social or ethnic group ‐ such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, occupation, appearance, mental capacity, and any other distinction that might be considered by some as a liability.
Online Illegal	Media content related to engaging in, promoting or facilitating illegal or legally questionable online activities such as pirating, hacking, spamming, infecting, distributing or promoting pirated contents via P2P such as torrent sites.
Pornography	Media content offering commercial pornographic content.
Terrorism	Media content related to terroristic activity.
Tobacco	Media content related to smoking and tobacco based products.
UGC	Web pages that contain user‐generated content, such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files, and other forms of media that was created by consumers or end‐users and is publicly available to other consumers and end‐users.
Weapons	Media content related to guns, rifles, bombs, ammunition, which display and/or describe how to obtain, manufacture or trade weapons, ammunition or weapons accessories (whether legal or illegally), or offer any of the aforesaid for sale.
Misinformation	Publishers that primarily produce news that is deliberately inaccurate or intended to deceive. Sources in this category have been confirmed by multiple third parties to consistently produce fake news, false rumors and/or debunked conspiracies.

Brand Safety - Content Ratings

Content ratings are based on the guidelines for Networks and Exchanges released by the IAB.

Comscore Content Ratings Segments

Rating	Description
"G" - General Audiences	Web pages and sites with content that is appropriate for all segments of the general public including no profanity, sexual content, violence depictions of alcohol, tobacco, weapons, gambling or drug use and user-generated content.
"PG13" - Parental Guidance Suggested	Web pages and sites with content that may contain material considered inappropriate for young children, including implicit references to vulgar language, kissing, violence to animated characters, journalistic references to alcohol, tobacco, weapons, gambling,- or drug use or user-generated content.
"R" - Restricted to 18 and Over	Web pages and sites with content that may contain material suitable only for mature audiences, including gory content, profanity, provocative images, nudity, violence to human beings or animals, depictions of alcohol, tobacco, weapons, gambling or drug use, etc., or user-generated content. "R" is not just porn. If (only) pornographic content should be excluded from a campaign, please use the non-standard content "PORN".

Brand Safety Definitions - Connected TV & Video

Brand Safety Segment	Description
Accidents	Video content related to accidents, crashes, accidents, natural disasters, and other calamities.
Alcohol	Video content related to alcoholic beverages.
Crime/Violence	Video content related to criminal activity or violence including both white and blue-collar crimes.
Gambling	Video content related to online games, information on card, board, computer and electronic games that involve monetary transaction.
Health Issues	Video content related to health issues and medical conditions.
Illegal Drugs	Video content related to illegal drugs (how to obtain, how to manufacture, how to use, or about evading or circumventing the law), drug and alcohol testing sabotage, drug smuggling, trafficking, selling or buying. *Please note that Illegal Drugs category covers cannabis. If you would like to target content related to cannabis but still want to avoid death caused by illegal drugs, please refer to Brand Suitability - Illegal Drugs and Featured Topics.
Negative News	Negative news classifies as any video content that is negative in nature; this includes but not limited to accident, terrorism or crime/violence.
Not Safe For Work	Video content related to nudity, profanity, which the listener may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work.
Offensive	Gory: Video content related to extreme violence, murder, suicide, rape, the infliction of pain or injuries, violence towards humans or animals, torture, massive blood or gore, sadism and other types of excessive violence. Hate / Profanity: Video content related to excessive or inappropriate use of profane language, cursing, pejorative language, swearing, expletive, strong and obscenity language, blasphemy, foul language, adult language or relating to social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, desecrating, or showing disrespect. Hate Speech: Video content related to any speech perceived to disparage a person or group of people based on their social or ethnic group ‐ such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, occupation, appearance, mental capacity, and any other distinction that might be considered by some as a liability.
Pornography	Video content offering commercial pornographic content.
Terrorism	Video content related to terroristic activity.
Tobacco	Video content related to smoking and tobacco based products.
Weapons	Video content related to guns, rifles, bombs, ammunition, which display and/or describe how to obtain, manufacture or trade weapons, ammunition or weapons accessories (whether legal or illegally), or offer any of the aforesaid for sale.

Q: What is Comscore’s recommendation for how to target brand safety?

A: Rather than relying on negative keyword avoidance, we recommend using Comscore’s standard brand safety segments. This helps eliminate the need to continually add keywords and helps to reduce the chance of avoiding a page that may be good for the brand. Here are two examples:

If a brand wants to avoid running alongside any content about a mass shooting, we would recommend that they use the standard brand safety segments, “Safe from Crime and Violence” and “Safe from Weapons.” Comscore’s technology will be able to identify an article about a new mass shooting in real-time without the need for the marketer to add the city where the latest shooting occurred.
If the brand includes the word “shot” on their negative keyword list to avoid articles about violence, they may also be avoiding sports articles that indicate “he shot 10 for 10 from the free throw line” or entertainment articles that note “Game of Thrones was shot in Croatia.”

Here is a full list of Comscore's standard brand safety segments:

Safe from Accidents
Safe from Alcohol
Safe from Click-Baiting
Safe from Crime and Violence
Safe from Gambling
Safe from Health Issues
Safe from Illegal Drugs
Safe from Manga
Safe from Negative News
Safe from Not Safe for Work (NSFW)
Safe from Offensive
Safe from Online Illegal
Safe from Porn
Safe from Terrorism
Safe from Tobacco
Safe from Weapons

Brand Suitability

Brand Suitability categories are applicable for web, video, and podcast content.

Brand Suitability Definitions - Web

Brand Suitability Category	High Risk	Medium Risk	Low Risk
Epidemic	Media content related to negative content such as death count, tragedy, caused by epidemic outbreak (COVID-19, SARS, Ebola, MERS...etc).	Main content or entertainment content related to epidemic outbreak (COVID-19, SARS, Ebola, MERS...etc) that does not contain context involving death	Main content not related to epidemic outbreak (novel coronavirus [COVID-19], SARS, Ebola, MERS...etc) but side bar contains epidemic outbreak content. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content. Please note that we do not categorize Taboola
Military Conflict	Media content related to negative content such as tragedy, casualties caused by military conflict	Main content or entertainment content about military conflict that does not contain context involving death	Main content not related to military conflict but side bar such as recommended articles does. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content.
Violation of Human Rights	Media content includes ethnic/racial slurs or related to negative content such as tragedy, deaths or injury caused by Violations of Human Rights	Main content or entertainment content about Violation of Human Rights that does not contain context involving death	Main content not related to Violation of Human Rights but side bar does. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content
Crime & Violence	Media content related to criminal activity or violence including both white and blue-collar crimes	Media content or entertainment content about Crime & Violence	Main content not related to Crime & Violence but side bar does. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content.
Death or Injury	Media content related to negative events such as harmful acts, accidents, natural disasters...etc resulting in death or injury	Entertainment content about death or injury	Main content not related to Death or Injury but side bar does. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content
Adult Sexual Explicit Content	Media content offering commercial pornographic content and contains full or liberal nudity	Entertainment content such as movie reviews, music lyrics, poem, artistic photography about Adult Content and nudity	Main content not related to Adult Sexual Explicit Content but side bar does. Also includes reference, dictionary, translation content.
Terrorism	Media content related to negative content such as tragedy, deaths caused by Terrorism	Depiction of Terrorism presented in the context of entertainment	Main content not related to Terrorism but side bar does. Also includes reference, dictionary, or translation, content.
Hate Speech & acts of Aggression (Definition: hateful and derogatory speech or harmful behaviors directed towards an individual or a group of individuals based on their identity such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or ability.)	Hateful and derogatory speech and insults or depiction of harmful behaviors appearing on articles, blog posts, user generated content, in-article comments, titles of recommended articles	Hate speech/acts of aggression presented in the context of entertainment	Main content not featuring hate speech or acts of aggression but side bar such as recommended articles does. Includes educational content
Obscenity and Profanity	Offensive and vulgar languages or depiction of repulsive and disgusting behaviors and actions appearing on articles, blog posts, user generated content, in-article comments, titles of recommended articles	Offensive and vulgar languages or depiction of repulsive actions presented in the context of entertainment	Main content not featuring vulgar or profane language but side bar such as recommended articles does. Also includes health issues/educational content
Tobacco/ eCigarettes/ Vaping	Media content featuring misuse of tobacco or eCigarettes such as illness and harm caused by tobacco or eCig, and controversial discussions on tobacco or eCigarettes	Tobacco or eCig usage presented in the context of entertainment or smoking cessation	Main content not related to tobacco/vaping but side bar such as recommended articles does. Includes educational content
Illegal Drugs	Media content featuring illegal drugs including drug addiction, drug abuse, death caused by illegal drugs	Illegal drug usage presented in the context of entertainment	Main content not related to illegal drugs but side bar such as recommended articles does. Includes educational content
Alcohol	Media content featuring misuse of alcohol such as alcohol addiction, actions under alcohol influence, illness or death caused by alcohol	Alcohol usage presented in the context of entertainment and recommendation context such as reviews, food and wine pairing, restaurant recommendations	Main content not related to alcohol but side bar such as recommended articles does. Includes educational content
Arms & Ammunition	Media content featuring illegal use or possession of arms & ammunition that may cause harm or damage to individuals or the society and community	Arms & ammunition topics presented in the context of entertainment or in non-crime context, such as forum based pages, like gun discussions, sales of guns, recommendations, etc.	Main content not related to arms & ammunition but side bar such as recommended articles does. Includes educational content

Brand Safety and Suitability FAQs