In this episode of The Unfolding Thought Podcast, Eric Pratum speaks with Bob Hoffman — author of Adscam and The Ad Contrarian — about the uncomfortable truths at the heart of digital advertising.

Bob explains how adtech evolved into one of the largest surveillance systems ever built, why marketers mistake data quantity for quality, and how political deregulation is quietly eroding online privacy.

They unpack the illusion of precision in behavioral targeting, the billions lost to fraud and waste, and why empathy and ethics—not algorithms—may be the only path to rebuilding trust between brands and the public.

Topics Explored

• How real-time bidding turns personal data into a global broadcast
• Why the online ad economy rewards fraud more than performance
• The quiet rollback of digital-privacy protections in the U.S.
• How measurement and “attribution” distort both marketing and democracy
• What Arielle Garcia’s revelations say about Google’s control of ad trade groups
• Why marketers keep believing in bad numbers
• What honest advertising might look like in a post-surveillance world

Links

• Bob’s website – https://www.bobhoffmanswebsite.com
• Irish Council for Civil Liberties report on real-time bidding – https://www.iccl.ie/news/iccl-report-on-the-scale-of-real-time-bidding-data-broadcasts-in-the-u-s-and-europe/
• Arielle Garcia article – https://www.mi-3.com.au/18-06-2024/ex-um-privacy-chief-lifts-lid-google-has-captured-trade-associations-and-holdcos
• Pentagon Pizza Twitter story – https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/16/pentagon-pizza-account-israel-iran-attack/84229144007/
• Don McMillan video, How Marketers Twist Statistics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOpD2b55s4

For more episodes, visit unfoldingthought.com

Questions or guest ideas: [email protected]