It’s been 15 years since this comic first ran in January 2011, and there’s something both quaint and timeless about it. The core power and trust issues between middlemen and buyers still haven’t gone away – if anything they’ve become more acute. But there’s been a heartening push for transparency across the supply chain and we’re seeing progress.
Here’s to more (and more) transparency in 2026, and happy New Year!
If you thought programmatic didn’t have room for yet another advertising ID graph, then you’d be wrong. On Monday, PayPal launched the PayPal Ads ID, a new identity product tied to PayPal and Venmo’s customer base.
Congress is taking another swing at a federal privacy framework. Wonder what the odds are on Kalshi.
Good news for advertisers, many of whom have found it difficult to meet minimum spend budgets on ChatGPT: Logged-out users can now see ads.
The Amazon advertising boycott last week wasn’t really about Amazon’s ad platform as much as it was a dispute over evolving seller economics, which raises a fundamental question: Can you even build a brand on Amazon anymore?
For the first time, Unity’s gaming audiences will be available for ad targeting outside the Unity platform, with Index Exchange using Unity’s data to curate web and CTV inventory.
Agentic commerce company Envive builds on-site agents for brands like footwear company Clove, painting a clearer picture of what their customers are looking for.
If you thought programmatic didn’t have room for yet another advertising ID graph, then you’d be wrong. On Monday, PayPal launched the PayPal Ads ID, a new identity product tied to PayPal and Venmo’s customer base.
Congress is taking another swing at a federal privacy framework. Wonder what the odds are on Kalshi.
Good news for advertisers, many of whom have found it difficult to meet minimum spend budgets on ChatGPT: Logged-out users can now see ads.
It seems like all the streaming services are getting into vertical video these days. But ads aren’t on the menu yet.
Brands have gotten adept at finding and following their audiences across the media landscape. Today, that means everywhere: linear TV, CTV, YouTube and the open web, often in the same evening.
