Building Trust in Advertising: Insights from the FTC

Institute for Advertising Ethics • March 6, 2025

As deceptive advertising tactics continue to evolve, Serena Viswanathan, Associate Director at the FTC, provides insights into emerging trends in false advertising, the effectiveness of self-regulation, and the critical role of ethical business practices.

For Serena Viswanathan, protecting consumers from fraud and scams, especially in the health industry, was the driving force of her career. She considers herself lucky to have found a place at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she can turn that passion into action.


With 25 years at the FTC, Viswanathan has seen firsthand how deceptive advertising evolves with new technology and media. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI), user-generated content (UGC) reviews, and social media ads present new challenges. As deceptive marketing tactics become more sophisticated and widespread, the FTC is working to tighten regulations and build stronger consumer protections.


The Fight Against Digital Deception

Tracking misleading ads in the era of personalized advertising and viral marketing is no small feat. Social media platforms amplify the reach of deceptive claims, making them harder to catch. To combat this, the FTC relies on a range of tools, including its consumer complaint database, to monitor and take action against false advertising.


But protecting consumers isn’t just about enforcement. It’s about education. The FTC actively engages with businesses and consumer advocates to spread awareness of advertising laws. One challenge? Many new market entrants simply don’t know the rules, making outreach even more critical.


The Role of Self-Regulation

Can industries effectively regulate themselves? That’s a question the FTC constantly revisits. Viswanathan emphasizes in order for self-regulation to be meaningful, it must result in real marketplace change. Independent programs and certifications, high standards, and effective enforcement are crucial to ensuring consumer protection isn’t just a checkbox, but a true safeguard.


Viswanathan leaves us with a powerful reminder:


“Ethics is the most important aspect of the job… you can never go wrong by taking the high road and taking the ethical position.”


As the landscape of advertising continues to evolve, one thing remains clear—protecting consumers requires vigilance, adaptability, and a steadfast commitment to integrity.



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Bulletin #9: Momentum Grows: Leaders Unite to Build Trust in Advertising

By Logan Chrisinske • November 20, 2025
Building Trust at Every Touchpoint The Institute for Advertising Ethics is gaining momentum, propelled by the success of our October Global Ethics Day in New York. Across participants and panelists alike, IAE’s Ethics Day affirmed a growing consensus that trust is now becoming operational, measurable, teachable, and scalable throughout the advertising and media ecosystem. Global Ethics Day 2025: Building Trust at Every Touchpoint The Liberty Room at Frankfurt Kurnit was filled on October 15 as leaders from industry, government, civil society and academia united for IAE Ethics Day 2025. Delegates from the U.S. Government, ANA Ethics Center, Microsoft, Kenvue, Uber, LinkedIn, Google LLC, Yahoo Inc., Accenture, Dentsu, Paul Weiss, Mastercard, and many others came together around a single, urgent theme: advancing the creation of scalable ethics standards to restore trust across the $1.5 trillion advertising and media industry, especially amid the rise of AI. The work is well underway, led by leaders shaping an open, validated, multi-stakeholder standard, one that delivers transparency, interoperability, verifiability, and broad adoption. Highlights included: “The future of advertising depends not only on innovation but on trust. Ethics shouldn't be understood as a constraint on innovation, rather as a catalyst for it." -Dr. Juan Mundel, Editor, Journal of Advertising Education. Dr. Juan Mundel speaks about rebuilding trust in Advertisin g “We need to create a culture where people can ask questions and where we prioritize ethics.” -Dr. Anna McAlister, Director of Curriculum and Assessment, IAE Experts highlight the role of ethics education and self-regulation in the Advertising Industry “Trust is the new currency in our industry. Without it, even the most creative campaigns can’t sustain real impact.” -Ty Heath, Director and co-founder of the B2B Institute, LinkedIn Fireside Trust Performance and Ethics in Action “People tend to believe computers are smarter than we are, which makes us less likely to question their output.” -Dr. Dana LaFon, U.S. Government Panel Explores Global Ethical Frameworks Guiding AI and Advertising “AI knows, but AI doesn’t think and AI doesn’t feel. That’s a line that’s helpful for me.” -Esther Uhalte Cisneros, Head of eCommerce & Retail Sales, Germany, Google Experts Debate “Where to Draw the Line” in Advertising Ethics, AI and Authenticity “Legal is [...] the floor and ethics is the ceiling. Even if something is legally correct, it may not be ethically right to do.” -Peri Fluger, General Counsel, Ruder Finn Building a Culture of Compliance: From Policy to Practice

Building a Culture of Compliance: From Policy to Practice

By Logan Chrisinske • November 3, 2025
At the Global Ethics Day session hosted by the Institute for Advertising Ethics, legal and communications leaders from Uber, LinkedIn and Ruder Finn joined attorney Jeffrey Greenbaum of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz to discuss how companies can translate ethical principles into practice. Greenbaum opened by noting that ethical advertising often goes beyond legal compliance. “Even if you communicate truthful information to consumers, but you communicate it in a way that’s misleading, that in and of itself can be false advertising,” he said. Jess Smith, associate general counsel at Uber, said ethics should be embedded in company culture, not just policy. “It’s not just who the brand is — it’s what actions they take out in the world,” she said.

Panel Explores Global Ethical Frameworks Guiding AI and Advertising

By Logan Chrisinske • October 31, 2025
At the Global Ethics Day session hosted by the Institute for Advertising Ethics, panelists explored how ethical frameworks—Western and non-Western alike—shape the future of artificial intelligence and advertising. John C. Havens, a leading AI ethics expert and author, opened the discussion by contrasting Western “dualism” with indigenous and collective ethical traditions. “In the West, binary code—1 and 0—is based on dualism,” he said. “But traditions like Ubuntu ethics remind us, ‘I am because we are.’ When you take the best of Western thinking and apply what it means to be in community, you get the best of both worlds.” Alayna Kennedy, a data scientist and AI governance leader at MasterCard, emphasized the importance of turning abstract ethics into practical systems. “The real challenge is how to make fairness real—how to take a word on a page and turn it into a change in your product that impacts a real person,” she said. She added that MasterCard takes a “risk-based” approach to AI governance, focusing on identifying and mitigating potential harms while enabling innovation.