MY POSITION / JAY MANDEL
Judge the ANA
against its own mission.
I believe the ANA has failed marketers and advertisers. Being willing to help fix it does not require me to pretend otherwise.
The ANA describes its purpose as Driving growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, and the industry.
Read ANA’s stated mission ↗ That is the standard against which its leadership should be judged.
I’ve attended ANA committee meetings while at Mastercard and CIT, used its research, and taught its classes. From that experience, I have watched a profession I care about struggle with opaque spending, unreliable evidence, weak accountability, and questions about consumer trust. In my judgment, the ANA’s leadership has not delivered a response equal to those problems.
These problems developed and persisted on its watch. If I had to name one association that should answer for the gap between advertisers’ interests and the industry’s practices, it would be the ANA. Its mandate makes it a central place to demand accountability. That is a judgment about leadership responsibility, not evidence that it caused every failure in marketing.
The conflict I cannot ignore
The ANA represents client-side marketers while also admitting marketing solutions providers, including agencies, publishers, media companies, and vendors. It also solicits sponsorship. Those relationships are documented in ANA’s own membership description and its programmatic transparency program.
I see a structural conflict when an association speaks for buyers while maintaining commercial relationships with sellers whose practices buyers may need to challenge. In my view, that tension weakens its ability to put advertisers first. Those relationships alone do not prove that a sponsor dictated a decision. They do demand visible safeguards, independent judgment, and disclosure when interests collide.
Research is a starting point. Results are the test.
ANA has commissioned useful research, and the evidence below includes reported improvements. I give it credit for that work. But identifying a problem is not the same as getting it fixed. Members should be able to see which safeguards were adopted, which costs fell, which skills improved, and who is responsible when progress stalls.
If an association cannot show how it improves marketing for the people it represents, what is its purpose?
I want the ANA to succeed at its stated job. Its next leader should acknowledge what has fallen short, address conflicts openly, and make measurable member outcomes the basis of the agenda. I’m prepared to contribute through strategy, training, and implementation. Collaboration starts with an honest account of the problem.
