The Confessions of Saint Ad-gustine
October 7, 2022
I read an interesting and at times amusing “confession.” A crime? No, more like soft fraud.
The write up is called “A Lot of Waiting, Watching and Partying while Rome burns’: Confessions of an Ad Tech Exec on the Third-Party Cookie Delay.”
I learned:
Ad tech is probably the least customer empathetic industry… it seems like there are a lot of agencies not asking pointed questions because they don’t want pointed answers. It’s kind of like, “I didn’t hear that,” like they want to take things at face value out of either ignorance or self preservation.
Perhaps the fraud is not that soft: Less Charmin and more casino. The players are the house (co-owned by some well known Big Tech outfits), the middle facilitators (the anonymous ad tech expert perhaps), and the people with money to buy ads stuffed in front of the users who presumably will buy something).
The write up presents:
But it feels like you’re in the middle of a river with a very strong current heading in a very specific direction. At best, you’ll be able to hold on to this rock for a while. It’s not like where it was before. You’re never going to be able to get to where you were before. Anyone that tells you they can get you there is probably lying or doing something illegal. It’s only a matter of time before you fall asleep and let go of the rock.
I think this means people or something will die or just smash a leg or jaw. Death of injury. Nice.
Is there a bright spot in online advertising? Sure, it wouldn’t be an anonymous revelation without some hope. Saint Augustine counted on a higher power, maybe a bit like a Google-type outfit?
Here’s the cloud with the silver lining:
It’s not all doom and gloom. There are people doing interesting things, working to incrementally fix stuff. But it’s only a matter of time. People aren’t going to be like, “You know what? Less privacy is a great idea!” Consumers are never going to do that. No one is ever going to be happy about that. I would like the industry to get over its own delusions and meaningfully embrace something that works for publishers, works for ad tech companies, works for advertisers and level-set expectations as a new norm.
Moving. Will the confessions of Saint Ad-gustine be studied for centuries? Sure, ad tech wizards are into centuries as long as the inventory is sold and replenished in seconds.
Stephen E Arnold, October 7, 2022
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