The DC issues keeping advertisers up at night

Here are some of the top issues on the Association of National Advertisers’ agenda for its annual advertising law and public policy conference:

• Ad tax deduction: It’s been a target before and it could be a target again. Broad tax reform is back in Congress and while any reform may be a heavy lift, advertisers need to stay close to this issue.
• Data breach, data security: Nothing can besmirch a brand quicker than a data breach.
• Privacy: Never goes away. While the President Barack Obama privacy bill of rights fizzled, there are still bills kicking around that could limit data collection and data sharing.
• Net neutrality: The Federal Communications Commission’s order has hidden repercussions for advertisers and marketers. It all depends on how the FCC extends its privacy authority to broadband and mobile Internet providers, and how much that would affect the FTC’s authority.
• Patent trolls: If you think you’re having déjà vu, you are. Patent reform got very close in 2014. What’s different now: Sen Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who killed it in 2014, has lame-ducked himself. There’s new momentum, but there is heightened opposition from groups worried that patent reform would hurt innovators.
• Ad fraud: Piracy, bots, and malware will steal more than $6 billion from digital advertisers this year, according to White Ops.
• New top level domain names: More than 617 new top level domains, from dot-plumbing to dot-sucks, are being introduced through the end of 2015.
• Marketing to children: So far it’s been rather quiet. The Federal Trade Commission has brought only one Coppa case and bills in Congress have yet to break out. That doesn’t mean activity won’t pick up, especially for certain categories like e-cigarettes.