The Ethics of Digital Marketing: What Are Agencies and Brands Supporting With Their Dollars?

October 5th, 1-2 p.m. MT

As a part of Good Business Colorado’s Level Up Academy, this virtual panel features nationally-renowned panelists discussing the ethics of digital marketing. We intend to say and question the things we agencies and the brands we manage don’t like to say out loud.

Featuring:

Dr. Anna Lembke

Dr. Anna Lembke is an author and professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She was featured in the documentary The Social Dilemma explaining how social media is a drug and is foremost expert on the nature of addiction and how marketing platforms leverage it to keep consumers “in the corral.”

Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman: Perhaps the country’s foremost expert on ad fraud, Bob is a six-time best-selling author. Bombastic and outspoken, his blog The Ad Contrarian was named one of the world’s most influential marketing and advertising blogs by Business Insider. His newsletter is among my few must-read newsletters as well.

We’ll announce more panelists soon!

We’ll tackle a bevy of issues that are our marketing dollars are funding, like:

Deep learning and algorithms powering LLMs that learn from copyrighted content, have systemic gender, race, able, and other biases built in that perpetuate stereotypes and misinformation, and carry enormous environmental impacts.
Lurid and divisive content to keep users “in the corral” of platforms, feeding our political radicalization.
Social platforms serving content to young people that they know is toxic to self-esteem.
CEOs and founders of platforms who open doors to racist groups to spread their hate and violence.
Rampant ad fraud that’s greater than credit card and insurance fraud.

Should brands with a desire to do “good business” support this activity? What role do agencies play in recommending these tactics? Where do consumers place the blame? And what alternatives are there for brands and agencies who wish to take a more responsible tact?

Join us, and register for the Good Business Colorado Level Up Academy today.