John Dick: Big Advertisers Could Solve Societal Problems If They Had the Courage

Three possible solutions get all the airtime: 1) Government regulation (D.C. is out of its league); 2) Platform self-regulation (yeah, right); 3) Educating consumers to protect themselves (the most ludicrous of the three).

We forget where all the money -- the market cap -- for these platforms comes from.

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At some point, advertisers came to believe they’re more beholden to the platforms than the other way around; that digital advertising simply must work the way it does, or it won’t be effective, and that we have to spy on people and hijack their personal information, all while looking the other way as truth and ethics are compromised to keep eyeballs on the content.

"Yeah, I know all this stuff is terrible for humanity, but I need my ads to perform!"

As third-party cookies slowly fade, I cry a little inside every time a blue-chip advertiser endorses some new-fangled cross-platform identifier. If cookies are cigarettes, these new IDs are vape cartridges.

Let’s be 100% clear. There’s no scenario whatsoever where my personal information traveling across websites, streaming platforms, or retailers will ever be anything but net harmful. Full stop.

What's ironic about big brands' resistance to change (or lack of resolve to force change) is that they would be infinitely better off if surveillance advertising disappeared altogether. If marketing was less about gaming ad tech (which one dude in a basement can do), the most trusted brands with the best customer relationships, value and creativity would win.

Instead, they're bankrolling a system that inherently negates their competitive advantage.

So, why won't things change?

The median tenure of CMOs is currently around 24 months (!), less than half that of other C-level titles. That's fucking stupid. If there's any role where long-term vision, risk tolerance, and higher purpose should be rewarded, it's in the CMO seat. And yet, ever threatened by the guillotine of quarterly earnings and the dispensability of marketing during economic headwinds, CMOs are forced to think short-term, to go along with the crowd.

It would take about 10 big brand CEOs in America to give the freedom and runway to 10 CMOs to -- literally -- change the world.

Some of you are reading this right now. Who wants to go first?

This article is reprinted from the weekly John Dick CivicScience e-mail newsletter. John is the Founder and CEO ofCivicScience, Inc., a next-generation survey and data company based in Pittsburgh. He has spent most of his career as an entrepreneur with a particular focus on new business formation, business development, marketing and communications. He’s a frequent speaker at the Carnegie Mellon University Don Jones Center of Entrepreneurship, regular contributor to AdAge, the HuffingtonPost, and Forbes and has appeared on Good Morning America, the AXS TV Network, Cheddar, Yahoo Business, and as a speaker at numerous conferences and thought-leadership events. He’s also the lead singer of Moscow Mule, a hard rock cover band, and winner of the esteemed Jefferson Award for philanthropic activities.

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