A substantial proportion of the advertising that people see and hear now does not come from the ad industry but from other sources — sources that don't care much whether the content is legal, decent, truthful or honest.

The markets, and the platforms that host a lot of the scam ads, won't fix this problem by themselves, argues media agency veteran Nick Manning. Only legislative intervention can do that.

It might be time for the ad industry to embrace the idea of being more heavily regulated.