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.

"The buying season coming up is probably as nervous a market as we have ever seen,'' a top media buyer told "The New York Times," citing a big shift in Nielsen's ratings methodology. The exec, DMB&B media chief Michael Moore, said that 39 years ago heading into the 1987-88 upfront media-buying season, but the sentiment is the same today.

CIMM's and the 4A's "Paradox of Plenty" report isn't one of them, though it does contain interesting findings about what advertisers value most from media measurement suppliers.

Information asymmetry has been the cornerstone of brand value, enabling marketers to both sell more and sell for more. AI changes that.

Thanks to AI, every player in the industry has reached technical parity. The differentiator going forward is going to be how people on the team use it. The difference is going to be imagination.

What if political campaigns could target ads only to households that haven't already voted early or by mail? Now they can.

AI is dumbing down marketing like never before. Not dumb in a pejorative sense. Rather, in a practical sense, as in skewed evidence. Marketers may not care about it, but marketers certainly know about it. It's central to the way AI works and it's no secret.

Full disclosure: I was briefed in advance on Acadia's "itsyourrebate.com" launch today, but took a pass on covering it so I could write this column instead.

The just ratified ethical standards serve both influencers and marketers alike. Watch my interview with the IAE's Anne McAlister and Andrew Susman to find out.