Digital transition triggers ad industry trust crisis

The $220 billion US advertising industry is facing an unprecedented wave of scandal and controversy, causing frustration amongst marketers, consumers, and lawmakers. The advertising industry is loosely regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, which has the jurisdiction to punish people or business for unfair trade practices, including deceptive advertising. The Federal Communications Commission also has the right to set rules around non-digital ads, like TV and radio. But regulators have struggled to enforce the broad "don't be deceptive" standard with digital marketing, and particularly automated marketing, which has dramatically increased the number of advertisers and ads that are active at any given moment. A lack of government oversight in digital has largely left firms that sell ad space to be accountable for their services. But recent examples show that those companies don't always have the capacity to manage their own technology, and it's hard for marketers to prove that an apparent mistake on the part of a platform is actually a violation of the law.