David Cohen

If any single event can be considered the jumping-off point for TV upfronts, it’s the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), which kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Instead of simply watching ads on the big screen, consumers are now being encouraged to interact with those ads – a shift in marketing that was particularly apparent at the 2025 NewFronts presentations in New York City this week.

The IAB predicts what privacy laws might be passed by the new congress; AI-generated newsletters are competing with local news; and the IAB Tech Lab ramps up production of new OpenRTB specs.

AI-generated slop content is growing exponentially online. Plus, publishers and new organizations are strategizing for a post-TikTok future. 
 

The Consumer Electronics Show may be “the event that folks love to hate,” as IAB CEO David Cohen put it to AdExchanger – but it’s still the place to be at the start of every new year.

The FTC’s got a new report on the data collection practices of large social media and video platforms. Plus, Amazon has its own “Shark Tank.”

Appealing to advertisers’ better angels is never going to bring ads back to the news. But appealing to their bottom lines might.

After going through denial and anger over the death of third-party cookies, the ad tech industry enters the bargaining stage. Plus, top takeaways from the FTC’s first-ever AI tech summit.

In today’s newsletter: The CMA comes out with an updated evaluation of Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox proposals; the IAB talks Privacy Sandbox with Google; and Temu may be a shell company, but its ad spend keeps skyrocketing.

The CEOs of the three largest advertising trade orgs – IAB, ANA and 4A’s – agree that we need a federal privacy law. They just don’t agree on exactly how to get there.