How to Rescue Advertising From Itself

Treat consumers with respect—like partners—and the proliferation of AD blocking will come to an end. 

- Frank Addante

Unsubscribe is our favorite toggle in our inbox. Skip, our favorite prompt when viewing online videos. Block, our go-to option for internet browsing. Why? Because advertising’s relationship with the consumer is fundamentally broken.

Evidence of this is everywhere. We can see it in the frustration of consumers who feel barraged with meaningless content, their privacy under siege. We see it in the epidemic of ad blocking—the use of ad blocking software has more than doubled since 2014, and 92 percent of internet users said that they’d consider using an ad blocker. What’s worse is there’s been a breach of trust between advertisers and the public. In a poll recently commissioned by Consumer Watchdog, 80 percent of Americans wanted to opt out of online tracking altogether and even wanted a “do-not-track-me” list for online companies that would be administered by the FTC. So why aren’t we offering consumers privacy protection?

As an industry we’re struggling to keep up with consumers who are continually adopting new technologies, devices and communication expectations. We now live in a world where we have gone from communicating in 140 characters or less, to only communicating in pictures and in 10-second videos that disappear. TV is being ousted by streaming content. Computers are being replaced by the Internet of Things.