From The Sofa

16 March 2026

There’s a group of individuals that’s grown both in numbers and influence across the industry over the last ten years or so. They have no trade body, no corporate structure, no common goal. They deal in ideas and opinions. We need them and their ideas more than ever, and yet they’re subject to rudeness, criticism, sneery little digs from those they dare to criticise.

I’m talking about expert commentators, consultants, or as some would have it; sofa warriors.

Those brave souls in their corporate bunkers are not always so complimentary. If anyone, ANYONE dares to say anything even a little critical of the organisation that pays their wages, they leap into action. It’s like waving a red rag in front of a particularly angry and rather shortsighted bull.

‘What do you know; you last worked in an agency twenty years ago; you’re not on the inside; you just believe any old rubbish; your post layout sucks; ‘your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries’.’

One of those is I admit courtesy of Monty Python; but if I possessed a little more imagination (or access to a copywriter) they all could be.

Why does all of this matter? Isn’t what gets said on the socials the modern-day equivalent of today’s fish wrapping?

Most thinking people within this industry know we’re not in a great place. We face a number of problems, from ad fraud to a lack of trust, from a business model that is no longer fit for purpose to a set of the most powerful media operators the world has ever seen who see us as at best rather irrelevant.

Our systems of measurement, the building bricks that form the bedrock of any indicator of success have largely moved out of our collective control and towards those whose channels they’re designed to measure.

We’ve also lost perspective. Take the Molly Russell case covered here last week.  It seems that we are less concerned about advertising on channels that play a role in young suicides every week than we are about our ads appearing opposite a negative news headline.

The ad business of today is run by those who receive ad revenue, as opposed to those who spend it.

Nobody really doubts these problems exist. In previous eras the largest and most respected organisations, the agencies in their various forms along with our trade bodies would be leading the charge.

Past misdemeanours have a nasty habit of resurfacing. It’s hard to argue for transparency and beating fraud when you’re accused in court of misusing client money. It’s tricky to make the case for creativity and craft at the same time as closing agencies and making thousands redundant.

The agency trade bodies, the IPA here, and the AAAA in the USA have been disappointingly silent over many of these topics over many years. They should learn from the advertisers’ trade organisations, those representing the views of the guys who pay the bills; ISBA, the ANA and the WFA have all been far more proactive.

The IAB in Sweden showed what can be done when they expelled META from membership last week. For not doing the right thing regarding scam ads. Sadly, the IAB elsewhere has to date done nothing.

The point is not who sits where in the bad boys’ league table but that there are many issues the industry needs to address that its biggest players are ignoring.

That’s why sofa warriors should be praised for raising the issues, speaking out, taking the problems seriously, suggesting solutions.

Our leaders, the largest organisations with the greatest resources really should look beyond the next quarter, and wonder if there’ll be an industry worthy of the name in a few years’ time. Or will the platforms own it all?

If that comes to pass it will be someone else’s fault. Probably someone on a sofa.

A quick postscript. I’m writing this on the morning after the Oscars. The Best Documentary award went to ‘Mr Nobody Against Putin’. In his acceptance remarks, the film’s co-director David Borenstein said: “…when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it, we all face a moral choice, but luckily even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”