Building a Culture of Compliance: From Policy to Practice

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.

LinkedIn’s senior counsel Moustafa Badreldin described a practical approach grounded in the platform’s mission. “One of our core values is that we’re always going to be member first,” he said. “As a lawyer, I think, what would the members want to see? How would they want LinkedIn to behave?”


Peri Fluger, general counsel at Ruder Finn, emphasized that ethics in advertising vary globally but rest on universal principles. “The key principle we look for is truthfulness and transparency,” she said. Fluger added that while laws provide the baseline, ethics serve as “the ceiling.”


The discussion closed with agreement that ethical standards must evolve with culture and technology. “Getting the right people in the room is critical,” Smith said. “If you’re not hearing different perspectives, you’re not doing it right.”


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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.

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.

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.