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

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 Advertising

 

“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


Leading the Next Era of Ethical Leadership

The IAE’s leadership network continues to grow, welcoming three distinguished voices whose influence will further shape the future of ethical advertising.

  • Ken Zinn, Executive Vice President, National Business Institute, moves from the IAE Advisory Council to the IAE Board of Directors. An experienced nonprofit and private sector leader with experience spanning from the American Bar Association to Procter and Gamble, joining the IAE Board with a focus on governance, partnerships, and growth.
  • John Havens, Founding Executive Director, IEEE AI Ethics Initiative. John brings world-class expertise in AI accountability and human-centric design.

 

  • Esther Uhalte Cisneros, Head of eCommerce/Retail Sales, Germany, Google Formerly at Estee Lauder, GroupM & CNN 

 

Stay Involved

Wondering how you can stay involved with the IAE and the work we're doing?


1. Get Certified: We encourage you to advance your professional development by completing the Certified Ethical Advertising Executive (CEAE) course, AI Integrity Shield course, and our free Green Shield course for greenwash prevention.

2. Stay Connected: Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to stay up-to-date with the IAE as we continue to push the boundaries of ethical advertising.

3. Share Your Story: Fill out our Ethics Certified Spotlight Form, share your ethics story, and help inspire others to lead with integrity. Read about other ethical champions on our IAE Spotlight.

4.​ Donate: Your generosity powers our mission. Every contribution helps us to raise ethical standards across all aspects of advertising communications. Donate today!


Thank you for championing ethics in advertising. With your partnership, we’re building a future rooted in trust, transparency, and integrity. We’re grateful to have you on this journey!


Best,

The Institute for Advertising Ethics

Share

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.

Experts Debate “Where to Draw the Line” in Advertising Ethics, AI and Authenticity

By Logan Chrisinske • October 31, 2025
At the Global Ethics Day conference, industry leaders and academics explored how artificial intelligence, advertising ethics and authenticity intersect — and where companies should draw the line between innovation and manipulation. Esther Uhalte Cisneros of Google moderated the discussion, joined by Jackie Hernández, CEO of New Majority Ready, and Juan Mundel, associate professor at Michigan State University. Mundel shared new research showing that brands pulling back from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts risk losing consumer trust. “We found that consumers actually feel a breach of ethicality, and that breach hurts purchase intentions — we’re seeing a 20% decline,” he said. “It’s a reminder that academia and industry need to talk more about the data behind these decisions.” Hernández emphasized that ethics in advertising must evolve alongside technology. “Where you’re materially misleading a consumer is where I would see the thinking and the feeling that need to guide brand decisions,” she said.