Conscious Thinking

How can the advertising industry leverage AI’s potential while ensuring trust and authenticity in a climate of declining trust? This was the substantive question posed in a special edition of the CAN podcast recorded live at the #ConsciousThinking event in London. With CAN’s Ad Fraud manifesto at the top of the industry agenda, the wide-ranging conversation highlighted the importance of taking acc...

To round off a great second season of the Conscious Advertising Network's Conscious Thinking podcast, host Ete Davies is joined by Harriet Kingaby, Co-Founder of CAN to reflect on the some of the key themes covered in previous episodes including misinformation, human rights issues and climate & sustainability. Ete and Harriet also take a deep dive into the findings of the recent Conscious Adve...

This month's  policy briefing  from António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, set out a common agenda and code of conduct on  Information Integrity on Digital Platforms  ahead of next year's Summit of the Future.   In this episode of Conscious Thinking, our panel discusses the responsibility of the advertising industry to improve the&nb...

With an increasingly fragmented media landscape, what does the future hold for data privacy, transparency, and regulation? The phrases "Creator Economy" and "Experience Economy" have often been used to describe modern consumer behaviour and how brands drive growth in the 21st Century. However, the infrastructure powering each of these 'economies' and most influencing human behaviour (without us kn...

This episode is a follow up to a previous episode where we covered Brand Activism and Political Advertising in the wake of the US midterm elections.   Joining Ete is Alex Tait, the Founder of Reform Political Advertising, an organisation based here in the UK that is focused on regulation and awareness of political advertising for all. We spoke to him about the work he’s been doing with his or...

In the wake of the US mid-terms, the recent shock decisions on Roe vs. Wade from the Supreme Court and the ever-present spectre of politically motivated violence after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th 2021, this episode we discussed what role Brands (and advertising more broadly) have to play in public discourse on social and political issues. We explored what's next for brand activism, an...

The Qatar World Cup is upon us. It's the first to be hosted in a Middle Eastern country, the first to take place in winter and the first global sporting event in world football since the pandemic. But regardless of the many firsts that there are to be acknowledged, it's fair to say this World Cup has been amongst the most controversial in recent times. There are many questions around how Qatar was...

In the recent inquest into the tragic death of Molly Russell, the coroner’s verdict was a world first in citing social media as a causal factor in a death, whereby he found that “Molly Rose Russell died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.” Arguably one of the most emotive topics we’ll be covering in this series of Conscious Thinking...

Welcome to the first episode of the second season of Conscious Thinking. With COP 27 just around the corner and with the recent launch of CAN’s new climate and sustainability manifesto, we discuss what, if any, meaningful progress our industry has made on climate and sustainability accountability over the past year. Ete is joined by a distinguished panel of guests to discuss this substantial and s...

Season 2 of Conscious Thinking is about to launch with a brand-new host: Ete Davies. Ete is the Chief Operating Officer across EMEA for Dentsu Creative. With 20 years in the advertising and marketing industry working with global and local brands, he has witnessed and been a part of brand marketing that has affected culture, impacted society and driven behaviour change. His belief in the importance...

CLIMATE DENIAL Hosted by Sonoo Singh, Founder, Creative Salon, with John Grant, Author The Greener Market, Richard Black, Director, Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and Harriet Kingaby, Co-Founder The Conscious Advertising Network. A Jan 2020 study found that more than 100 brands had adverts running on YouTube videos that were actively promoting climate misinformation. The brands, including...

A YEAR OF MISINFORMATION Hosted by Sonoo Singh - Founder, Creative Salon, with Debarshi Pandit, SVP International Business / Head of Multicultural Business, Sky Media, Dino Myers-Lamptey, Founder / CEO, The Barber Shop and Cindy Gallop, Founder / CEO, Make Love Not Porn. Produced with the kind assistance of Will Hulacki, Marshall Street Editors  and   The Nerve . Hosted on Acast. See aca...

ADVERTISING SUSTAINABILITY Brands and their agencies must take responsibility for the impact of their own creative strategies (and production behaviours) on the environment. They have a real obligation to engage with their customers to inspire more thoughtful, sustainable behaviour.  We ask some key industry figures how effectively they feel brands are using their marketing influence to accel...

ADVERTISING & HUMAN RIGHTS Digital platforms help us keep in touch with loved ones, engage in activism and enjoy an endless supply of TikTok videos or fuel our shopping habits.  But what is the social cost?  We’re all waking up to how corporate surveillance that is used for targeted advertising threatens democracy and human rights by enabling media manipulation and potential mis...

BEYOND BLOCKLISTS How can we fund a diverse internet for all? It’s only a few years since YouTube and Facebook were making headlines for displaying ads next to inappropriate content. Premium publishers offered an alternative: ads could appear next to quality content in trusted environments, with keyword blocking giving advertisers greater control over where their ad dollars appeared. On paper this...

BRAND NEUTRALITY As a communications industry, our brand messages do not exist within a vacuum - in fact they have very immediate, real world impact across today’s hyper connected digital media landscape. This technology includes the rise of social media, which has enabled consumers to have a direct dialogue with brands, and in turn demand more from brands to use their platform and influence to ha...

INADVERTENT FUNDING As advertising budgets come under new scrutiny, we ask “where is your media going”? Digital amounts to half of all advertising spend globally, but with greater choice, new markets and analytics there is a lot that we don’t know about what this is funding. Increasingly brands are finding themselves funding extreme and criminal content, with a negative impact on society and brand...

SERIES INTRODUCTION Hosted by Sonoo Singh , Founder Creative Salon, welcome to our first ever podcast series of thought provoking sessions from The Conscious Advertising Network, designed to encourage brands and their agencies to more consciously examine and improve their advertising communications. This first round covers compelling topics with guests from some of the biggest brands around the in...