‘More regulatory minded’: ANA’s lobbyist on what advertisers can expect from Biden’s presidency

By Seb Joseph

Only during these unprecedented times, would the ad community welcome a president who has said he will look to intensify regulating the digital sector, upend data collection practices and raise taxes. But these aren’t ordinary times.

Aside from a global pandemic that’s crippling economies, the global tech platforms have tremendous influence over public discourse and privacy, while people urge corporate CEOs to have higher ethical standards in their attempts to wriggle their way out of the mess caused by the pandemic. President Joe Biden doesn’t come bearing gifts to the ad industry in the same way his predecessor did, but his vision for privacy, consumer protections and antitrust issues could be a net gain for most of its stakeholders.

At least that’s the hope based on Biden’s outline of the future. Regardless, the industry will try to convince legislators that advertising and digital communication are central to economic recovery, said Dan Jaffe, evp of government relations at the trade body the Association of National Advertisers.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What parts of President Biden’s plan should advertisers watch closely?

Whatever anyone says at the moment is going to be an approximation, but it’s clear from the outset that the Biden administration will focus on issues that are relevant to advertisers. Privacy will be top of that list for a few reasons, ranging from the fact that Biden has said he will tackle the recent cyber-security breaches of federal government data to the privacy issues that could arise from attempts to use more data to track the spread of the virus. All these issues and more could have a broader impact on privacy concerns across the ad industry. There’s also the fallout from the insurrection in the capital earlier this month and what that means for the social platforms. Finally, there’s also the President’s stance on digital tax that advertisers will need to keep a close eye on.

I think anyone trying to put any kind of burden of advertising at a time when the nation is as close to the Great Depression as its ever been, makes it harder for the country to dig itself out of the hole it finds itself in. Companies that have been around for more than a century are going belly up. We need to find ways to create a stimulus, and advertising is clearly one of the major engines of the economy.

It seems like privacy will be the main pinch point for now?

There are people who have the ear of the president now that have strong feelings on privacy. When Vice President Kamala Harris was the attorney general of California she made privacy a big part of her remit. Now that the Democrats have a majority in the Senate this puts Senator [Maria] Cantwell as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and she has had an extensive piece of privacy legislation that she put forward in 2019. Then there’s Senator [Ron] Wyden… who has also put legislation out in regard to privacy. …read more

Source:: Digiday