Comments on: How advertising can regulate itself

By: Doug Kessler

Doug Kessler — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:30:33 +0000

Great post. One day, the online marketing industry will look back at this as the warning call everyone ignored.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:58:18 +0000

I have learned that the self-regulation aspect of advertising is not a replacement of statutory legislation, but a compliment to a current framework of law that offers proportionate protection to customers with significant advantages to consumers, governments and business enterprises. Yes, transparency and permission are of great significance to the regulatory measures for advertising. I’m taking into account the relevance of data collection as well considering the fact that there are now myriad of ads offering attractive products and services, but don’t have the same end-results. However, the best decision as to what ad is best still relies on the audience.

By: James

James — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:17:33 +0000

According to the ad data firm Krux, there are 50 “events” per page load this year online compared to just 10 a year ago. Just to make sure you understand, that’s every time you hit a URL, you are exposed to 50 efforts to obtain data, and not all are evident to the publisher. Data “leakage” is a big, nasty business.

By: Brent

Brent — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:08:10 +0000

I see data collection as a modern day equivalent to tracking register receipts. Frito-lay has done it for 25 years. Cookie tracking IMO is kin to observing in-store behavior. Did the person touch the shirt, try it on, view the display. The fact that today it happens in the convenience of one’s home is the only twist. Tracking cookies across unaffiliated sites is where it gets a little bit touchy but in some respects can be tied to capturing data in a mall and share it among the stores within.

We Colligent.com) are not criticised for tracking, but we do have to ensure we communicate that our observation of online behavior is clearly disclosed and that no identities are captured during our monitoring.

Lastly, I think it is within everyone’s right to control their privacy with either browser or online settings to address comfort their personal level of paranoia.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:22:52 +0000

data collection, while certainly an issue, is at least anonymous (or is supposed to be). I don’t see the industry self-regulating this one anytime soon. You’d have thought that blogger would at least have the decency to disclose certain factors , including when they are making commissions from products they recommend or link to, but often times they don’t. Some people, including Maria Popova (A regular author for The Atlantic and owner of brainpickings.org) even don’t believe this to be a form of advertising, yet the gov’t does. FTC 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guidelines Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonial in Advertising” Does however require disclosure.

This blogger had an interesting “open letter” type response; http://on-advertising.tumblr.com/post/42994773187/maria-popova-have-you-made-1m-on-affiliate-ads-while

By: Terry Heaton

Terry Heaton — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:57:29 +0000

By: Tom Myers

Tom Myers — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:50:35 +0000

I happened to see this just after seeing Derek Thompson’s “The Incredible Shrinking Ad” in the Atlantic — an ad needs to change to be effective in the mobile space, e.g. needs to become a “full interactive engagement”; something people want to see and relate to. It seems to me that he’s describing precisely the ads that could be permissions-based, such that “if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.”

Maybe.