How do you plan beside religious content without blanket exclusion?
Part of Fair publisher planning
The short answer
Religious content can stay in a plan when a policy separates faith publishing, religion news and community coverage from content that attacks people for their religion. Judge each page by whether it informs, teaches or reports, or instead demeans a group, and review the creative for respect. Blanket exclusion removes responsible publishers and protects little.
Key takeaways
- Platform limits on religious ads, such as YouTube's ban on religious ads on made for kids content, govern what an ad promotes, not whether a page about faith can carry ads.
- Google and YouTube draw the hate line at content that incites hatred against, disparages or humiliates people on the basis of religion, not at content that discusses religion.
- The IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy 3.1 treats Religion and Spirituality as an ordinary top level topic with ten subcategories.
- A religion clause should cover devotional, news, community and opinion content separately, and set the hate floor once for every religion.
- US and Canadian plans differ in religious makeup, language and the codes that govern ad content, so one list may not fit both.
Why does religious content get excluded from plans?
Religion can be excluded by association. Industry guidance lists it next to politics as a topic that can divide: the IAB Tech Lab taxonomy implementation guide (opens in a new tab) asks publishers to consider "potentially divisive topics like Politics, Religion, and Debated Sensitive Social Issues" when deciding which ad categories trigger manual creative review. That advice is about reviewing ads, but when the same wording lands in a buy side exclusion list, it removes every page about faith.
Platform rules about religious ads add to the confusion. YouTube's page on ads on made for kids content (opens in a new tab) prohibits "religious ads of any kind" there, such as religious schools and religious books. Google's personalized advertising policy (opens in a new tab) lists religious beliefs among its sensitive interest categories, so advertisers promoting in them cannot use advertiser curated audiences. Both rules concern what an ad promotes or whom it targets. Neither says a secular brand should avoid a page about a church food drive.
How do you separate faith publishing from hateful content?
The test is who the page is against, not which faith it is about. Google Publisher Policies (opens in a new tab) do not allow content that "incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group" on the basis of characteristics that include religion. YouTube's advertiser friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab), which govern which YouTube videos earn ad revenue (checked October 2026), name religion as a protected group, and count "news content which describes a protected group in a non-hateful way" and "public debates on protected groups without inciting hatred" as advertiser friendly.
Definition
- Faith publishing
- Editorial content produced by or about religious communities to teach, inform or connect people: devotional writing, religion journalism, congregation and community news, theology, and culture such as sacred music, food and holidays.
| Content type | Typical example | Starting decision | What moves it out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religion news | A newsroom's report on a synagogue's restoration or a church closure | Eligible | Normal news checks only |
| Devotional and teaching content | A daily reflection, a sermon text or a study guide | Eligible, creative reviewed | Stays eligible; check creative tone |
| Community and holiday coverage | Ramadan iftar listings or a Diwali festival guide | Eligible | Normal quality checks |
| Faith and culture | Gospel music reviews or a feature on a Sikh langar kitchen | Eligible | Normal quality checks |
| Opinion on religion and public life | A columnist argues about religious exemptions in law | Client choice under debated issues tolerance | Inflammatory language about a group |
| Interfaith criticism | A theologian disputes another tradition's teaching | Review the page | Disparaging people rather than arguing ideas |
| Content attacking a religious group | Pages calling followers of a faith inferior or dangerous | Excluded under hate speech | Does not move back |
Which brands fit beside religious content?
Fit follows the moments faith coverage serves. Holidays, weddings, funerals, community meals, travel to gatherings and family life all appear on faith publishers' pages, and brands that serve those moments have a natural place there. The Religion News Foundation's ReligionLink primer (opens in a new tab) makes the reporting case: religion "shapes people's actions and reactions in very private and very public ways across the range of news and features."
| Brand type | Typical fit | Creative note |
|---|---|---|
| Florists, bakers and caterers | Strong | Holiday and life event creative suits the setting |
| Event venues and travel | Strong | Avoid assuming every reader keeps the same holiday |
| Books, music and education | Strong | Faith specific products follow platform rules on religious ads |
| Family, home and everyday retail | Good | Neutral creative works; avoid religious imagery used as decoration |
| Alcohol, gambling and dating brands | Case by case | Fit varies by publisher; decide per publisher, not per religion |
| Political or advocacy advertisers | Client choice | Separate platform policies apply to political ads |
Creative needs the most care. In Canada, the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards (opens in a new tab), last revised in July 2019, says in Clause 14 that advertisements shall not "condone any form of personal discrimination", naming religion among the grounds. Humor built on religious practice, or sacred symbols used as props, can breach a brand's own standards long before it reaches a code.
How should a policy describe religion as a topic?
Use the standard category and add the hate floor separately. The IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy 3.1 file (opens in a new tab) has Religion and Spirituality as a top level category with ten children: Agnosticism, Astrology, Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Spirituality. Hate Speech and Acts of Aggression sits elsewhere, under Sensitive Topics. A policy that excludes the religion branch to avoid hate excludes the wrong thing.
What a religion clause in a brand suitability policy should state
- Religion news, devotional content, community coverage and faith culture are eligible on the same terms as other coverage.
- The same rules apply to every religion and to nonreligious perspectives.
- Content that incites hatred against or disparages people for their religion is excluded under the hate speech category.
- Opinion on religion in public life follows the brand's debated issues tolerance, set once for all topics.
- Names of religions and religious terms are never used as exclusion keywords.
- No audience segment is built or labeled by religious belief.
- Creative beside faith coverage is reviewed for respect, and sacred symbols are not used as props.
How do faith based publishers in the US and Canada differ?
Start with the religious makeup each plan serves. Pew Research Center's 2023 to 2024 Religious Landscape Study (opens in a new tab), released February 26, 2025, found 62 percent of US adults identify as Christian, 29 percent as religiously unaffiliated and 7 percent with other religions, and reported that the decline of Christianity in the US has slowed and may have leveled off. Pew's global analysis (opens in a new tab) of June 9, 2025 put the Christian share of the US population, including children, at 64.0 percent in 2020, down from 78.3 percent in 2010.
Canadian plans add language and law. A faith plan for Quebec or francophone communities elsewhere needs French language publishers reviewed in French, not an English list with a translated keyword file. Canada's Canadian Human Rights Act (opens in a new tab) names religion among its grounds of discrimination, and Canadian ad content falls under the Ad Standards code. Write the policy so it reads the same in both countries, then build each country's list from its own publishers.
A five step review for a faith publisher
- Identify the publisher type. Note whether it is a denomination's own outlet, an independent religion news site, a community paper or a general newsroom's faith section.
- Sample across sections. Read eight to ten recent pages, including opinion, not only devotional or holiday content.
- Apply the hate test to every page. Ask whether any page disparages people for their religion or for another protected characteristic.
- Check that the site is a publisher. A congregation's website with service times and no advertising is not inventory, however relevant.
- Record the decision and the pages read. Keep the reasons so the same call can be repeated for the next holiday flight.
How does PlacementGraph treat religious content?
What does a religion clause change on a real plan?
Fictional example
A fictional florist group's holiday and wedding season plan
A fictional group of florists in Nashville and Louisville briefs a display plan for Easter, Passover, Eid and wedding season, beside holiday, family and community coverage, in English. The brand's old policy excluded "religion" as a whole.
The first list holds only lifestyle and home magazines. The planner removes the religion exclusion, adds the hate speech category at the client's tolerance and searches for faith and community coverage. Candidates include a regional religion news site, a Jewish community paper, a Muslim community magazine and the faith section of a city newsroom.
Each site is read across sections. One candidate drops out because several opinion pages disparage another faith's followers. A congregation's site is set aside as a non publisher. The others join the list with their reasons, and the creative team drops a bouquet design that used a sacred symbol as decoration.
Frequently asked questions
Does advertising beside a devotional article mean the brand endorses that faith?
No more than an ad beside a sports column endorses a team. The ad sits in the publisher's commercial space, apart from the editorial. The brand chooses the setting for its fit and quality, and the creative should stay neutral about belief unless the product itself is religious.
Can a brand advertise beside one religion's publishers and not another's?
A brand can choose publishers for fit, such as a kosher bakery choosing Jewish community media. A policy that excludes one faith's publishers while accepting comparable ones from others is a different matter: it turns a suitability rule into a judgment about a religion. Apply the same quality and hate tests to every faith.
Are atheist and humanist publications treated as religious content?
Yes, for planning purposes. The IAB Tech Lab taxonomy lists Atheism and Agnosticism under Religion and Spirituality. Judge them with the same rules as faith publishers: eligible when they inform or argue ideas, excluded when they disparage people for their beliefs.
Should holiday campaigns run only on faith publishers?
No. Faith publishers are one useful part of a holiday plan, beside food, family and local news coverage. Running only on them can narrow reach; never running on them leaves out publishers whose readers are planning the holiday. Build the list by fit and let the creative carry the seasonal message.
Sources
- Taxonomy implementation guide (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab
- Content Taxonomy 3.1 (TSV file) (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab
- Google Publisher Policies (opens in a new tab)Google Publisher Policies Help
- Advertiser-friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- How ads work on YouTube for supervised accounts and content set as made for kids (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Restricted targeting in personalized advertising (opens in a new tab)Google Advertising Policies Help
- Decline of Christianity in the U.S. has slowed, may have leveled off (2023-24 Religious Landscape Study) (opens in a new tab)Pew Research Center, February 26, 2025
- How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020 (opens in a new tab)Pew Research Center, June 9, 2025
- The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards (opens in a new tab)Ad Standards (Canada)
- Canadian Human Rights Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-6) (opens in a new tab)Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada
- Reporting on religion: a primer on journalism's best beat (opens in a new tab)ReligionLink, Religion News Foundation
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.