15946: More Moronic Media Mumbo Jumbo.

 

MediaPost reported on a new heat shield from Mindshare—Impact Index—a tool designed to assess “the social impact of editorial content on groups who have historically been underrepresented or marginalized by media, using custom algorithms that have been trained to identify content that is detrimental to those communities.”

 

The Impact Index algorithms spot “detrimental or hateful content” directed at minority groups and communities. According to the MediaPost article, the tool “ferrets out content that is toxic” to minorities—so media planners can “adjust a brand’s paid media spend accordingly.”

 

Does this mean that prior to the invention of Impact Index, media planners were allowing brands to indirectly support and advertise within racist content? Was Mindshare mindless—i.e., culturally clueless—in its media placement duties?

 

Perhaps someone should create an Ignorance Index to assess the questionable practices of media companies.

 

Mindshare’s New Impact Index Ferrets Out Content That Is Toxic To Minority Communities

 

By Richard Whitman, Columnist

 

Mindshare announced today that it has launched a tool called the Impact Index to drive more inclusive media planning for brands, with Tyson Foods as the launch client.

 

The Impact Index accounts for the social impact of editorial content on groups who have historically been underrepresented or marginalized by media, using custom algorithms that have been trained to identify content that is detrimental to those communities.

 

The algorithms identify detrimental or hateful content towards minority groups and communities. Media planners can use this page-level data to adjust a brand’s paid media spend accordingly.

 

Tyson Foods is working with Mindshare and socialcontext.ai, a contextual intelligence startup to analyze content around minority communities and drive more inclusive content. The index identifies content that is positive, negative, neutral or “Toxic” on the community in question.

 

“Brands and ad placements have an impact on consumers, be it consciously or subconsciously,” says Jared Greene, director of Invention+ at Mindshare, who co-led the launch of the Impact Index. The new tool, he asserted, “is a positive step in addressing the role human well-being plays in creating our media plans, and our ambition to make media more intentional and equitable for all consumers.”

 

The new tool is the latest collaboration with client Tyson Foods on advancing diversity in paid media. Last year Tyson pledged to increase its investment in minority-owned media as part of Mindshare parent GroupM’s “Responsible Investment” initiative to support and grow diverse media companies and creators.

 

As part of that effort several Tyson Foods brands have run campaigns through Mindshare’s Black Community private marketplace, which drives media dollars to Black journalists and content creators across the U.S. The agency’s private marketplace series is part of Mindshare’s larger “Good Growth” positioning.