Six major firms have withdrawn advertisements from Facebook, after they appeared on a British National Party page.

First Direct, Vodafone, Virgin Media, the AA, Halifax and the Prudential have all withdrawn ads from the social networking site - to "protect its brand" according to a statement made by Virgin.

The advertisements appeared on a rotating basis on the BNP-related page.

"Our public policy principles state that we do not make political donations or support particular party political interests" said a spokes woman from Vodafone.

"We are obviously concerned about where our advertising appears." said First Direct spokesman Rob Skinner.

"We have got to make sure that the places we advertise are consistent with our own values and identity."

Vodafone said it wanted to continue to work with Facebook while "staying true" to its policies.


PROTECTING THE BRAND

"We want to advertise on social networks but we have to protect our brand" a Virgin Media spokeswoman said:

She said the company was now talking to its advertising agency to find ways of giving it some control over where its adverts would be placed online.

The AA also said it booked advertising space through a specialist agency and had "strict procedures in place with its agency to ensure it does not advertise on inappropriate sites."

It said it had recently pulled ads from YouTube after the BBC Panorama programme showed that videos of children fighting were being regularly uploaded.

In a statement, the Halifax said the position of ads on the site "is such that it may appear that we support the owners of specific pages. This is not the case."