From headline to punchline, AdExchanger’s weekly comics distill ad tech industry news into something our readers can laugh about.
Because, yes, the lack of programmatic transparency, the impact that chatbots are having on publisher traffic and the Google ad tech antitrust trial are serious business – but that’s no reason we can’t also have a little fun.
Every week, our very talented comic artist, Kevvo, brings our goofy ideas to life and also learns a little bit more about our wacky industry against his will. 😅
This year, many of our sharpest comics were inspired by high drama (no one likes being called a “reseller”) and a little trauma (generative AI search is an existential threat to publisher monetization).
But, hey, if you can’t kid around, you might end up crying – so we did the next best thing. We had Kevvo help us out with a little art therapy.
Read on for the puns, personalities and peculiar inspirations behind AdExchanger’s top 10 comics of 2025.
Consolidation, Consolidation, Consolidation
Holdco consolidation hit sitcom levels of togetherness this year, as rival siblings were stuffed together under one roof and told to “play nice.”
Naturally, we couldn’t resist turning that family drama into a Brady Bunch-themed comic.
We published this in January, not long after the merger agreement between Omnicom and IPG was first announced.
In the months that followed, the Federal Trade Commission held up its approval of the deal ostensibly to examine anticompetitive risks and to negotiate safeguards.
But the agency’s unusually narrow focus on brand safety “boycotts” suggests the delay may have been driven as much by political pressure as by traditional competition concerns.
Eventually, Omincom and IPG agreed not to coordinate on brand safety practices, and the FTC gave its blessing over the summer. The EU approved the deal in November, clearing the way for Madison Avenue’s biggest blended family to finally move in together.
The Crawling AI
The nightmare terror of the infringing AI that unleashed agonizing traffic declines on a streaming world!
What better visual could there be as an allusion to AI-related web traffic declines than a crawling, all-consuming AI monster rendered in the style of a terrifying 1950s horror classic?
Full credit for this idea goes to AdExchanger Senior Editor Anthony Vargas, who remembers seeing the original movie as a kid.
Watch the trailer if you dare.
The Remedy Phase
There isn’t enough popcorn (or Advil) in the world.
The Google ad tech antitrust trial entered its remedy phase this year after Judge Brinkema found Google guilty in April of illegally maintaining monopoly power over the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets.
AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher travelled down to Alexandria, Virginia, twice in three months to cover the trial.
In September, he took notes in the courtroom as the DOJ argued for a big structural breakup and Google countered with promises to change its behavior and tweak its products. Then, in November, James hopped back on Amtrak to be there for the closing arguments.
Now we’ll just have to wait and see what the judge prescribes to cure Google’s dominance.
Well, This Is Embarrassing …
Google’s Privacy Sandbox officially bit the dust in October, returning the majority of its privacy-preserving APIs after years of testing, delays and tepid industry uptake.
Third-party cookies will remain in Chrome indefinitely, with only a small handful of Sandbox APIs hanging on for niche uses.
Cue the sad trombone. What else is there to do?
No need to spill any more ink on this topic.
“If You Want It Done Well, Do It Yourself”
The Trade Desk ruffled a few feathers this year by launching OpenAds, a Prebid fork restoring universal transaction IDs, after Prebid.org ditched them to curb buyer power. Then came PubDesk, a dashboard for publishers with intel on buyer demand.
TTD insists that it’s fighting for transparency and quality in the supply chain and against obfuscation by so-called “resellers” – and not trying to make a sell-side land grab, as critics suggest.
Or maybe TTD CEO Jeff Green is just channeling his inner Kevin Costner as John Dutton from “Yellowstone.” If you want to save the ranch, maybe you’ve gotta do it yourself.
Runners Up
Speaking of TTD, in August, it sparked controversy when it reclassified all SSPs as “resellers” on its Kokai platform and began prioritizing direct publisher paths, like its own OpenPath.
SSP leaders, including Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale, called the move “ignorant” and anticompetitive, arguing that it ignores direct publisher relationships and shifts power to TTD at the expense of publisher CPMs.
Zing.
Is curation just a shiny ad network in disguise, bundling inventory with a little less opacity but the same old middleman vibes? Is a hot dog just a sandwich?
You can’t say the ad tech industry doesn’t love navel gazing and debating semantics.
AI agents don’t need coffee breaks. 🤷♀️
(This human in the loop, however, does. ☕)
“Yeah, But What’s Your Conversion Rate?”
We just wanted an opportunity to do a comic with Pope Leo wearing a White Sox hat. 😂
And sometimes the wordplay just writes itself.
🫡 Thanks again to Kevvo for putting up with us! ✏️
