Appreciate you bringing this to our attention! This ad violates our shocking content policy and it's no longer running as an ad. More info here: https://t.co/dOUocjUevh
— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 14, 2018
A jump scare ad for the upcoming The Nun film got banned from YouTube after a tweet warning about its effect on people went viral. Via The Independent:
The video – which was intended to promote a film called The Nun – looked innocent enough when it began. It was mostly dark and meant to look like the volume of the phone was being adjusted up and down.
But anyone watching for long enough would see a horrifying jumpscare appear. Now YouTube says that the ad is too scary and that it will not be shown to anyone anymore.
The video first came to many people’s attention because of a tweet warning users that it could come up. The post was shared 140,000 times. YouTube’s content policy explicit outlaws ads that are likely to scare the people who see them.
“We value diversity and respect for others, and we strive to avoid offending or shocking users with ads, websites, or apps that are inappropriate for our ad network,” it reads, and says that it will not allow “promotions that are likely to shock or scare.”
Important thing to note for future preroll ads, especially the unskippable ones. In the meantime, the full-length trailer for the Nun is still out there, which has a jump scare of its own. And we’re sure the publicity over the banned ad was probably worth it for the marketing of the film.