IAB and its members have more than Apple on their minds, though, as the industry fends off attacks from all angles. In the past year, regulators have gone after what the Federal Trade Commission called “surveillance advertising.” States like California, in lieu of a blanket federal law guiding the industry, are crafting their own policies that govern how companies collect, store and share data. Meanwhile, Congress is working on new data laws, too, but Cohen was concerned that “extremists” are hijacking the conversation.
“These extremists are political opportunists who’ve made it their mission to cripple the advertising industry and eliminate it from the American economy and culture,” Cohen said in is his leadership remarks. Cohen was referring to some high-level officials in the White House and Congress, leaders who are painting the ad industry as beyond harmful. “There are a lot of folks who are blinded by some of the things that they believe around the quote-unquote Big Tech industry, and the ills that advertising brings to society,” Cohen said.
“Advertising is not the enemy,” Cohen said.
IAB is trying to help craft the nationwide legislation that could eventually regulate online data and privacy. At its summit, ad leaders will also discuss the death of the cookie, the tracking technology that facilitated internet ad auctions on web browsers. Instead of cookies, Google is experimenting with Privacy Sandbox. IAB members will also talk about advances in technologies such as data clean rooms, retail media networks and new connected TV ad services. In fact, Netflix is set to send Jeremi Gorman, its new president of worldwide advertising, to the summit.
