Multiple “media trials” are currently going on across India. Common features include young actresses, daily leaks from investigating agencies to the media, cannabis and deliberate character assassination. Can you guess who is funding these trials? Brands and advertisers.

Mass media trials are economically profitable for media companies. Plus, they exist because various systemic faults around India’s laws, their enforcement and redressal. We wrote about a few days ago. https://the-ken.com/bfo/118/ 

To correct a “negative“ feedback loop in a system, you need to create counterbalancing loops. For media trials, you need to make them economically unviable. Currently, they’re enormously profitable, as @newslaundry explained. https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/09/10/how-the-justiceforssr-campaign-helped-republic-bharat-race-to-the-number-1-position

One possible solution is an ethical advertising blocklist that will prevent brand/advertiser spends on topics that aren’t healthy for brands to be seen associating with.

Marketing blocklists aren’t theoretical. They already exist in digital advertising and in the west. But they have potential side effects too. We wrote about this in Beyond The First Order. https://the-ken.com/bfo/118/