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The New York Times ,  November 29, 2017... "The five most valuable American companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft — control much of the online infrastructure, from app stores to operating systems to cloud storage to nearly all of the online ad business. A handful of broadband companies...provide virtually all the internet connections to American homes and smartphones....Together these giants have carved the internet into a historically profitable system of fiefs." Hey, but don't worry. You're in charge. It says so everywhere - " the consumer is in charge ." Of all the idiotic utopian nonsense about the web, there is probably nothing to rival this stupidity. They have all the power but we're in charge. Right. Here's how in charge we are: Staggering Variety of Clandestine Trackers Found in Popular Android Apps Researchers at Yale...have documented the proliferation of tracking software on smartphones, finding that weather, flashlig...

Today I am repeating my annual Thanksgiving post which I have run for many years. And, yes, that Trump line was there years before anyone could have known... Thanksgiving is my kind of holiday. It doesn't require gods or miracles or tragedies or victories or angels or kings or winners or losers or flags or gifts.  All you need is some pumpkin pie, a big-ass flat screen, and a comfortable sofa to drool on. Oh, and a little gratitude. 
Gratitude, by the way, is a commodity in very short supply. Regrettably, we seem to have mountains of expectation but not much in the way of appreciation. It's a socially transmitted disease. 
So this Thanksgiving let's put aside harsh judgments for a day or two. Thank a fireman. Give a bum a buck. Kiss an in-law. 
I don't like Puritans of any stripe. But I like the idea of them having the Indians over for dinner. I know the detente didn't last too long, but any day you're eating sweet potatoes instead of shooting off muskets ...

In this clip, from over 35 years ago, a young, dumb Steve Jobs debates an older, wiser David Burnham , writer for The New York Times (and breaker of the " Serpico " scandal) about the potential dangers of computer spying. This clip took place long before the idea of " surveillance marketing " even occurred to anyone. Hat tip to the great Douglas Burdett

Dear Online Advertising Industry, I have noticed recently that you have become very passionate about transparency. Mark Zuckerberg, you have said you want to bring Facebook to an " even higher standard of transparency." Google, you have issued a "Transparency Report" IAB - you've said "Transparency Is The Key To Programmatic Success" Marc Pritchard of P&G, you have given an "...impassioned speech on transparency." Keith Weed of Unilever, you have "...demand(ed) more transparency" from digital media. Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, you have said "it’s important to be transparent." 4As - you have issued the " 4A’s Transparency Guiding Principles of Conduct " ANA - you even created and celebrated Transparency Day! (Was there a parade? Did you have a Transparency Eve party?) It seems like transparency is all the rage in the online ad world. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that talking about transparency...

The current model of online advertising is only 20 years old but it is already far beyond its sell-by date. It has become a ridiculous anachronism, born in an era of naive digital utopianism, and now absurdly outmoded and unsuited to its job. In no particular order, here are 10 reasons why online advertising must change. 1. Fraud: Online advertising fraud is completely out of control. According to JPMorgan Chase it has grown by over 100% in the past year to over $16 billion. There are no serious impediments to its continued metastasizing. The fraudsters are miles ahead of the feckless cyber-security crowd who are filling their clients full of delusional happy talk. According to the World Federation of Advertisers , within 8 years ad fraud may become the second largest source of criminal income in the world, after drug trafficking.  2. Waste: The amount of money advertisers are wasting on online advertising is astounding. Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer of the world's largest...

A few weeks ago, in a blog post entitled " The Battle Of The Century , " I wrote about the lobbying battle that is brewing over the EU's proposed ePrivacy Regulation . If adopted the ePrivacy Regulation, along with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will make it much harder for online marketers and media in the European Union to collect personal private information about users without prior consent. In other words, it will make it hard for them to track us all over the web and collect, exploit, and sell the information they are harvesting without our explicit consent or knowledge.  Last week, another shot in this battle was fired. A consortium of advertising, marketing and media companies sent a misleading and disingenuous letter to the members of the European Parliament attacking one of the core points of the ePrivacy Regulation. I have posted the letter here if you'd like to read it. The lead sentence of the letter reads...     "ePrivacy Regulation ...

It has become an article of faith in the marketing business that the future of marketing is about data.   "Data are to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change," says The Economist. Scientific American says, "The digital revolution is in full swing...in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind..." The primacy of data in marketing has been beaten into us for the past 10 years. In fact, it has become such a platitude that we no longer even stop to think about what it means. Data sounds very scientific, impersonal and hygienic. But it is not. When marketers talk about data what they usually mean is personal private information about us that is collected, traded, sold and exploited without our knowledge or consent. To marketers, data is not all numbers and algorithms. It is your sexual preferences, your religious beliefs or lack thereof, your banking details, your medical and psychological diagnoses, your work...