Keith Weed / ASA / AA

Our industry makes an enormous contribution to society and we now have an opportunity to rebuild public trust in what we do.

AA president Keith Weed outlined a series of steps in his keynote speech at the ISBA conference this morning (5 March).

Despite initiatives aimed at tackling bad advertising, stereotyping and building a sustainable future for digital, trust in the marketing industry is plummeting. But Unilever's outgoing marketing boss Keith Weed believes the situation is retrievable.

Keith Weed might have left Unilever after 35 years in 2019, but since then the FMCG giant’s former top marketer has been more in demand than ever. As well as presiding over the Advertising Association (AA), Weed has become an angel investor in several startups including influencer platform Tribe. He’s even taken on the role of The Drum’s official agony uncle.

Life has not slowed down much for Keith Weed since his retirement from his role as Unilever’s chief marketing and communications officer in May. We speak

Keith Weed, Unilever’s former CMO and now president of the UK’s Advertising Association, used a speech at Advertising Week in New York last week to call on the US ad industry to work with their British counterparts to restore trust in advertising and the media.

Brands should be in preparation for recovery. If not, they will suffer all the downsides of the financial crisis and miss out on the rebound as the economy recovers.

“The whole idea was to go from the 24/7 of one job to a portfolio of fun stuff,” explains former marketing chief at Unilever, Keith Weed when asked what he is doing now.

Our Trust Action Plan calls for industry-wide action to address the decline of public trust in advertising. It includes the need to build widespread support for the IAB’s Gold Standard. The IAB has recently launched an update – Gold Standard 2.0 – and so we spent some time with the IAB UK Chief Executive, Jon … Continue reading "Rebuilding Public Trust in Advertising – An Interview With Jon Mew"

The Advertising Standards Authority celebrates its 35th anniversary this week. As it enters middle age, the watchdog is under attack as never before - accused by some of being an aggressive beast that savages business freedoms while others, the Consumer’s Association in particular, view it as the toothless pet of commercial interests.

Why marketing and sustainability must be under one leader.