Brand Safety
Summary definition
Brand safety means ensuring that advertising and content do not appear next to material that could harm a brand’s reputation.
Detailed definition
In digital media, brand safety refers to the practice of protecting advertisers from having their ads displayed alongside content that is illegal, offensive, misleading, or otherwise harmful to brand perception. This includes topics such as violence, hate speech, extremism, adult content, or misinformation.
Historically, brand safety was handled using keyword-based blocking and manual review. While simple to implement, keyword-based approaches often produce false positives and lead to over-blocking of legitimate journalism.
Typical examples of false positives include:
- An article describing a “miracle drug” for cancer treatment being blocked due to the word “drug”, even though the content is medical and informative.
- A technology article referring to a “killer app” being flagged as violent content, despite the phrase being a common metaphor in business and technology reporting.
Such over-blocking reduces available advertising inventory, penalizes high-quality reporting, and can distort coverage of important public-interest topics.
Modern brand safety solutions address this by using semantic analysis, which evaluates the meaning and context of content rather than individual words.
Brand Safety Floor & Suitability Framework
What it is
The Brand Safety Floor & Suitability Framework is an industry standard that defines how content risk should be classified for advertising purposes.
It was originally developed by GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) and is now maintained and distributed as part of the IAB Content Taxonomy. Although GARM itself is no longer active, the framework remains widely adopted across the advertising ecosystem.
The framework is designed to create a common language between publishers, advertisers, and ad platforms.
Structure and levels
The framework distinguishes five suitability levels for content:
- Level 0 – Suitable for all brands Content with no meaningful brand safety risk.
- Level 1 – Low risk Mild references that are generally acceptable for most brands.
- Level 2 – Medium risk More explicit or contextual references that may be acceptable only for some brands.
- Level 3 – High risk Content that many brands will want to avoid but that may still be legitimate journalism.
- Brand Safety Floor Content that most advertisers consider unacceptable under any circumstances (e.g., illegal or highly harmful content).
This separation allows advertisers to define brand suitability, not just brand safety — meaning they can decide how strict they want to be, instead of relying on binary block / allow rules.
Content categories
The framework defines the following brand safety categories, each of which can be assessed across the suitability levels described above:
- Adult & Explicit Sexual Content
- Alcohol
- Arms & Ammunition
- Crime & Harmful Acts
- Death, Injury, or Physical Harm
- Drugs & Tobacco
- Gambling
- Hate Speech & Acts of Aggression
- Illegal Activities
- Online Piracy
- Profanity & Obscenity
- Sexual & Reproductive Health
- Terrorism
- War & Conflict
Each category has a clearly defined description that explains what qualifies for each suitability level, allowing consistent classification across publishers and platforms.
(Reference definitions: https://www.brandsafetyinstitute.com/resources/frameworks/brand-safety-floor-suitability)
Geneea context
Geneea applies semantic analysis to evaluate brand safety and suitability according to the Brand Safety Floor & Suitability Framework.
Instead of relying on keyword blocking, Geneea assesses what the content is actually about and assigns appropriate categories and suitability levels. This allows publishers to:
- protect advertisers without penalizing high-quality journalism
- offer transparent, standards-based brand safety controls
- increase monetization by avoiding unnecessary blocking
Geneea’s approach aligns editorial reality with advertising requirements using an industry-recognized framework.