AdTech's Dirty Secret: Everyone Agrees, Nobody Signs Their Name

Ad tech doesn't have a transparency problem. It has a courage problem. That's the thesis Alessandro De Zanche brought to the show, and he defended it with his whole name attached, which is more than he can say for the five sell-side executives who anonymously trashed The Trade Desk in the same article that started this whole thing. This week Pesach Lattin sits down with the media monetization consultant and ad exchange economist who thinks the industry is a theater where everyone knows the script and nobody wants the credit. We get into why executives grandstand on stage and then hide behind "in exchange for candor" when it counts, why Jeff Green is an actor and not a villain, and why Andrew Casale saying the quiet part out loud was the whole point. Then it gets good. Commoditization 1.0 versus 2.0, or how quality publishers walked into the casino and handed the house its credibility. The diamond dealers who need the sewage to stay in business. The trust loop. Why a hammer beats AI when you haven't fixed the basic stuff yet. And a desert island draft featuring Phil Jackson, Rosalía, the Fonz, and pointedly nobody from the industry. Alessandro on why AI is the most overrated thing in #adtech and strategy the most underrated. On self-sustaining media owners as a democracy problem, not a charity case. And on the difference between being sharp and being cruel, which he somehow lands on the right side of while calling things sewage. Thanks to our sponsors Troutman Amin LLP and Incremental.com.