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

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.

Cisneros reflected on the human role in emerging technologies. “AI knows, but AI doesn’t think and AI doesn’t feel,” she said. “That’s a line that’s helpful for me.”


Panelists agreed that while laws set the floor, ethics and transparency should set the ceiling. As Hernández put it, “Gen Z wants transparency. The more you let them know, the more they’ll trust you.”


Mundel concluded that true authenticity in advertising requires balance. “We’ve been living in a world that celebrates inauthenticity,” he said. “It’s time to understand what authenticity really means to consumers — and deliver it honestly.”

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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.

Fireside Trust Performance and Ethics in Action

By Logan Chrisinske • October 30, 2025
At the Global Ethics Day session hosted by the Institute for Advertising Ethics, Ty Heath, director and co-founder of the B2B Institute at LinkedIn, and Sydney Boone, senior vice president at the Association of National Advertisers, explored how ethics serve as a foundation for trust and long-term business success in both consumer and B2B marketing. The discussion, was moderated by ID Comms CEO Tom Denford, underscored that ethical practices aren’t just moral ideals—they’re strategic investments in trust that define the future of marketing. Heath compared ethics to architectural integrity, calling them “the foundational investment in the integrity of yourself and the institution you’re building.” She emphasized that companies with strong ethical principles build faster, smoother, and more sustainable relationships with clients. “The brand that’s remembered is the brand that’s bought,” she said, underscoring that reputation and trust directly influence business decisions.

Experts Highlight Role of Ethics Education and Self-Regulation in Advertising Industry

By Logan Chrisinske • October 29, 2025
At the Institute for Advertising Ethics’ (IAE) Global Ethics Day, Michigan State University professors Dr. Anna McAlister and Dr. Jef Richards shared award-winning research demonstrating the positive impact of the IAE’s Certified Ethical Advertising Executive (CEAE) training on students’ ethical attitudes. Dr. Richards explained that while advertising students nationwide often receive little to no formal ethics instruction, the CEAE program helps fill that gap. “Chances are there’s very little training in terms of ethics for the people entering the workplace in advertising,” he said. Richards and his coauthors conducted a before-and-after study comparing students who completed the CEAE certification with those who had not, examining whether the training measurably changed ethical perspectives. Dr. McAlister presented the study’s results, published in the Journal of Advertising Education and named the journal’s Best Paper of 2024. “Out of the 12 survey items, we found significant differences on nine,” she said. “The changes were in the direction we would expect — after taking this ethical training, attitudes were more positive toward ethics.”