‘A conspiracy, not fraud’: The media system is a mess and everyone’s in on it

While much of the focus around the Association of National Advertisers’ report on transparency has centered on agencies, it takes two to tango. Clients might act scandalized by the findings of the report, but the truth comes on page 50, when an ANA investigator highlights “client pricing pressure” as a major tributary to the media cesspool. Indeed, years ago, during a confidential meeting in which agency double-dealing came up, a source summed it up for me: “This is a conspiracy, not fraud.” Everybody was in on it. Clients need to re-establish a collaborative relationship with agencies in order to make sure these agencies truly act as agents.

Meet the candy whisperer: Mondelēz’s Farrah Bezner

Farrah Bezner, head of new business ventures at Mondelez, has a soft spot for lower-profile, well-loved brands and has made her mark with campaigns for companies including Sour Patch Kids and Trident gum. She makes it her mission to take on small-time brands that have what marketers call “brand equity” but are otherwise neglected and grow them without taking on too many resources of the $23 billion company.

Sam Reich: College Humor’s head of video shares his big break

College Humor's head of video, Sam Reich, dropped out of high school, and was fired as a waiter at the age of 16. Now, he spends his days creating original video for College Humor, and crafting content for different platforms, which he says is key to making successful video.

Vox Pop: Vox Media chairman and CEO Jim Bankoff on platforms and ad blocking

Jim Bankoff doesn't care where you read Vox Media's stories, as long as you read them.

Day in the Life: Walk a mile in Shingy’s shoes

David Shing flies around the world on behalf of AOL to translate internet trends for brands and agencies. He walks us through a recent typical day.

The Snapchat effect: Fashion designers are making ephemeral fab

The ephemeral photo-sharing app has become the next frontier for fashion designers as they seek to reach consumers with behind-the-scenes looks at products — and their own personal lives.

Shine’s Roi Carthy: The most hated man in publishing

Ad blocking is a royal pain for publishers, but no company rankles them more than Shine, with its military metaphor-loving frontman.

The programmatic manifesto

Programmatic is firmly in the trough of disappointment, beset by problems of fraud, bots, viewability and ad blocking. But it's also the future. Fixing programmatic will entail transparency, quality over quantity, client control -- and treating people like humans, not "users."