• January 13, 2011

Madison Avenue's The Better Advertising Project, known colloquially as Better Advertising, this morning unveiled a new identity, rebranding itself as something that might well have grown out of a Madison Avenue-like committee: Evidon.

In its announcement, the industry self-regulatory group said the new name is intended to evoke the term "evident," and was developed to help bring "clarity to the online community amid the confusion of industry self-regulation."

Evidon is the first company designated by the Digital Advertising Alliance as an "approved provider" of compliance services for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising developed by the industry. It is best-known for its "Advertising Option" (or "Forward I") icon, which serves as a kind of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval for online advertising and behavioral tracking, signifying that any publishers or advertisers using it have agreed to comply with industry standards for collecting, sharing, and disclosing consumer identities online, and for enabling consumers to easily opt-out.

In a separate announcement, Evidon announced that Publicis' VivaKi unit has chosen Evidon as its preferred provider of online advertising compliance services.