THE $50 BILLION SWINDLE

Fast Company says, "Ad fraud has been called the most lucrative yet low-risk form of crime in the world.... it’s drawing tech fraud talent from other industries, like the financial sector, making the type of fraud that much more advanced."

Cheq says, "77% of that fraud is more sophisticated than the (ad) industry is prepared to deal with."

Separately, fraud researcher Dr. Augustine Fou says that ad fraud may be over $50 billion in the US alone. In a study he conducted, bot detection systems were able to identify less than 3% of actual fraud. 57% of fraud was not bot based and was consequently undetectable by bot detection systems.

Meanwhile in marketing dreamland, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) hasn't had much to say about fraud since 2017 when they hilariously claimed that ad fraud would drop 10% to under $7 billion and declared “Marketers worldwide are successfully adopting strategies and tactics to fight digital ad fraud.”  You gotta laugh to keep from cryin'.

"This comprehensive Self-Regulatory Program...will help protect consumers’ privacy rights and expectations in ad-supported online media.  This is the first time the entire advertising ecosystem has joined forces to implement a program empowering consumers to manage their data." 100% pure unadulterated horseshit.

What was their "self-regulatory program?"  Stand back, close your eyes, and let the online ad industry do whatever the hell they want. The result of this duplicity and incompetence is the crisis they are now struggling to contain.

Suddenly these double-talkers are all in favor of government regulation. In a display of hypocrisy thrilling to behold, Ad Age reported this week that "Ad industry groups push federal regulation for consumer privacy." The reason for their sudden deep concern for us poor suckers? According to Prof. David Carroll, of the Parsons School of Design, "The Cambridge Analytica scandal was the turning point," he says. "There is a high-pressure rush to beat the California Privacy Act from coming into effect."

You see, if the trade associations can get their friends in Washington to pass some toothless regulations they won't have to deal with real regulation which the states are working on. Here's what's really going on:

     1. The public is starting to wake-up to the way they have been abused by the online ad industry.
     2. State governments are starting to consider rigorous privacy regulations.
     3. The online ad industry thinks it can get a better deal from the clueless feds and short-circuit the states.

The stupid, short-sighted and dangerous policies of the online ad industry and their protectors in the advertising trade associations have lead them into the crisis they now face. They're right about one thing: If they have to deal with a maze of conflicting state regulations it's going to be a nightmare. But you know what? They have no one to blame but themselves.

This is the soundtrack for the tens of billions of dollars that have been pissed away on social media nonsense. Remember "like us on Facebook?"

Despite all the claptrap of marketing quacks, here on planet earth, consumers mostly don't give a flying shit about most of the brands they buy. As I've said about a million times (and Prof. Byron Sharp has said much more articulately in his book, How Brands Grow) most of what we call "brand loyalty" is simply habit, convenience, mild satisfaction or easy availability.

Recently Havas did a study of 350,000 consumers' attitudes toward 1,800 different brands in 31 countries. The results were released last week. Consumers said they would not care if 77% of brands disappeared tomorrow.

Don says, "when I look at the advertisers that Facebook lists as having uploaded my info, most of them are car dealers I have never visited or contacted. Someone has a pretty good racket going here. How much are they making from the car dealers?"

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