Just when it seems like the ad industry has been getting a grip on some forms of ad fraud, an analysis of 2025 performance ad spending finds that AI is optimizing -- er, I mean exacerbating -- it.

"We made a pretty big shift a few years ago when we moved almost all of our media planning analysis - and in some cases buying - in-house, because we needed to be more agile."

You're probably familiar with Paul Parton's name from the byline that appears on some of the best columns published here. This column is about where it appears next: his just-published, "Share Of Culture."

Nielsen, which delayed a recalibrated version of its monthly Gauge from this week to next, is now delaying it until September.

Following up on its 2024 benchmark study on principal media buying, the Association of National Advertisers has released a new one showing the practice has become far more prevalent among big advertisers.

Insurgent brands accounted for 36% of aggregate growth across all categories, which seems pretty impressive, given that they only comprise an aggregate share of less than 2%.

Trade reporters typically cover Nielsen ratings like a horse race, but that's also what Nielsen has been doing according to my analysis of nearly five years of monthly press releases.

I originally planned this column for Monday, the day before Nielsen normally publishes its monthly Gauge data, but turns out it's delaying it another week due to a recalibration.

It's tone deaf because it features problematic legacy data its clients - and the MRC - have been pushing it to restate for actual upfront planning purposes.

Synthetic data is artificially generated data that reproduces the statistical characteristics and structure of real datasets. It's not random dummy data and it can help fill gaps where information is incomplete or unavailable.