Holden and Kia remove&nbsp;ads from YouTube as part of Google boycott

Car manufacturers Kia and Holden are the latest brands to suspend their advertising from Google after marketers' content appeared next to extremist or controversial videos on the YouTube site. Brands including Walmart, Starbucks, Pepsi and Johnson & Johnson are among more than 250 US, and UK companies who have suspended their ads on the site. Google, owned by Alphabet, has raced to solve the situation. "While we recognise that no system will be 100% perfect, we believe these major steps will further safeguard our advertisers' brands and we are committed to being vigilant," a spokesperson has said.

"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. We'll work closely with our partners at Google to achieve this."

A Bunnings spokeswoman declined to comment. A JB Hi-Fi spokesman noted they were aware of the issue and had a watching brief, but it was an immaterial portion of their advertising spend.

The series of videos by one YouTube user centred around a men's rights movement known as MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) – a group of straight men who will not date women and believe feminism has ruined society.

One included an edited segment from Ten Network's Studio 10 that showed an interview with controversial author Peter Lloyd, who wrote the book Stand by Your Manhood. The video insults the Ten hosts, including calling former Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose a "hag".

Holden and Kia have joined the YouTube boycott. AP

Another video is titled "'Feminism A Mental Disease MGTOW".

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Over the last week and a half a number of major brands across the globe have pulled advertising from Google's YouTube after their brands appeared before or next to videos promoting extremist material and hate speech.

Brands to take action include two of America's biggest telecommunications companies AT & T and Verizon, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Starbucks and Pepsi.

The Google boycott started in the United Kingdom when The Times revealed the UK government, and many major brands, had their ads next to extremist content, hate preachers and anti-Semitic material. The government subsequently pulled its advertising.

The extent of the problem for Google is so large many have found examples of Google's own advertising being pre-rolled to racist videos.

Last week, in response to an exodus of advertisers from YouTube, Google announced it would be revamping its ad policies to tackle the issue.

A Google spokeswoman on Sunday said: "We don't comment on individual videos but as announced, we've begun an extensive review of our advertising policies and have made a public commitment to put in place changes that give brands more control over where their ads appear.

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"While we recognise that no system will be 100 per cent perfect, we believe these major steps will further safeguard our advertisers' brands and we are committed to being vigilant and continuing to improve over time."

The saga underlines the perils that come with digital advertising where brands have little control over where and when their ads are served, because they often make a purchase across a wide variety of content, or across a network of websites.

The issue doesn't pertain only to Google. In the past, brands have unwittingly appeared on piracy websites such as The Pirate Bay.

Advertising is one of the major sources of revenue for Alphabet, Google's parent company.

The boycott highlights a growing concern about brand safety, particularly in digital advertising, where having oversight over all content is difficult, especially on user-generated content sites such as YouTube.

Google will be keen to fix the problem as soon as possible. The problem for the San Francisco-based technology giant is the ads are automatically served and keeping on top of the hundreds of hours per minute uploaded to YouTube is difficult.