Holden and Kia have suspended all advertising from YouTube after they unwittingly paid to promote their cars alongside an offensive video that directed misogynistic insults at journalist and businesswoman Ita Buttrose.
The car makers are joining a slew of major global companies who in recent weeks have boycotted the Google-owned video hosting giant because their ads were appearing before or alongside objectionable content.
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Backlash over YouTube ads
Big-name companies are suspending digital advertising on Google's YouTube site over concerns their ads run next to offensive videos.
Holden and Kia pulled the pin on YouTube after it came to light their ads were appearing on a video featuring an interview with "men's rights activist" and author Peter Lloyd on Channel 10's Studio Ten talk show.
The video calls Buttrose, a former Australian of the Year, an "old hag", an "old bag" and other explicit misogynistic insults.
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Holden told Fairfax Media it had decided to pull all advertising from YouTube until it could be confident it would not appear next to objectionable content.
"We value our good relationship with Google but in line with General Motor's global response and Holden's diversity stance, we have instructed our media agency to temporarily suspend all advertising on YouTube until we are confident Google can protect our brand from inappropriate or offensive content," a Holden spokesman said.
"We'll work closely with our partners at Google to achieve this."
A spokesman for Kia Motors Australia said its "programmatic advertising" had been suspended as soon as the company was made aware of the video.
"It will remain suspended until such time as we can meet with Google to further clarify the application of this type of advertising," he said.
The moves came after major media agencies had said last week they were keeping a close eye on the scandal.
Google has been embroiled in a global controversy over ads being placed on objectionable YouTube videos and has scrambled to reassure its customers it can stop them from being associated with anti-semitic, racist and other extremist content.
Johnson & Johnson, AT&T;, Sainsbury's, Toyota, Volkswagen, BBC and the British government have all pulled ads from YouTube in recent weeks.
We have instructed our media agency to temporarily suspend all advertising
Holden spokesman
Google's parent company Alphabet's market value fell by $31 billion last week.