2018 ANA Advertising Law & Public Policy Conference

Back by popular demand! There will be a special pre-conference meeting of the ANA Legal Affairs Committee, followed by a networking reception, at Reed Smith's Washington, D.C. offices. 

The committee meeting is always a highlight of the conference. This year's agenda includes:

• Tom Pahl of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection
• "Ask the Enforcers: Brand Safety Across the Digital Advertising Ecosystem," a panel discussion on digital and mobile advertising self-regulation with Genie Barton of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, Inc. and CBBB, Maneesha Mithal of the FTC, and Mike Signorelli of Venable and Counsel to the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)
• Jason Gordon of Reed Smith, covering the enforcement priorities of the FTC for 2018
• Kate O'Brien of Reed Smith discussing the FTC Endorsement Guidelines and best practices when partnering with influencers and endorsers in social media.

CLE credit will be offered. Registration for the committee meeting and reception is complimentary but separate from your conference registration. To register for the committee meeting, please visit the meeting page.

PLEASE NOTE: ANA Legal Affairs Committee meetings are open to ANA client-side marketer members only, but you need not be a current committee member to attend. If you would like to join the committee, please sign up here or email David Buzby at dbuzby@ana.net.

PRICE, SALE AND DISCOUNT CLAIMS: KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CLASS ACTIONS

A brief overview of developments in consumer class actions challenging sale and discount advertising.  Over breakfast, learn key insights into the growing body of case law in this area.

Amanda Beane

Partner Perkins Coie LLP

OPENING REMARKS

Bob Liodice

Chief Executive Officer ANA

OPENING SALVOS

Our conference kicks off with a lively session in which top industry lawyers will discuss current hot topics and key issues and challenges that today’s advertising landscape presents. Each of these highly respected legal minds will have just five minutes to provide tips, practical advice, options, and strategies.

Felix Hofer

Founding Partner Hofer Lösch Torricelli

THE ADVERTISING AGENDA IN D.C. (AND THE STATES)

With major tax reform heading toward resolution, what is next on the Congressional agenda? Will privacy and data security issues (both here and abroad) take center stage? Will the mandated disclosure cases from California make it to SCOTUS? Will the growing focus on prescription drug pricing place renewed pressure on DTC advertising? How will federal regulatory and legislative issues impact the use of big data and AI? Finally, how are the upcoming midterms likely to impact the political environment for advertising? ANA’s Dan Jaffe will address these questions and more in this session.

Dan Jaffe

Group Executive Vice President, Government Relations ANA

Please choose breakout session 1-A or 1-B

TRANSPARENCY 2.0 – LOOKING BEYOND REBATES AND PRODUCTION TRANSPARENCY TO DATA

Whether it’s your agency, a media publisher, or other supplier of digital services, third parties are collecting and retaining data about your business and your customers. Advertisers (and their agencies) should be on top of who has, or is, collecting advertiser data, what are they doing with it, how to access to it, and whether (or how) to use those data assets. A panel of experts will discuss legal issues related to data-driven transactions and provide practical advice on evaluating and talking through data issues, both internally and with counterparties.

Moderator: Keri Bruce

Partner Reed Smith LLP

DEPICTIONS OF WOMEN IN ADVERTISING AFTER #METOO

The massive #MeToo Twitter revelations of pervasive sexual harassment in a number of business sectors has focused a glaring spotlight on the appropriate treatment of women. With the average American exposed to between 500 to 1,000 commercial messages a day, far from simply being shaped by culture, advertising wields considerable power over what our society considers normal. This panel will examine international regimes that are making certain depictions of women in advertising illegal; explore the results of the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment’s #SeeHer campaign to create a more-balanced and accurate portrayal of women in ads and the media; and discuss what advertisers and their lawyers can do not just to reflect the culture but to elevate it proactively.

Amy Mudge

Chair, Advertising, Marketing and New Media Venable LLP

BRANDS IN CRISIS: EFFECTIVELY MANAGING LEGAL AND REPUTATION RISK WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG

Every year there seems to be a new series of missteps and scandals the industry must contend with — major talent accused of sexual misconduct; a well-intentioned ad campaign falls flat and causes an online backlash; a data security breach; or a tone-deaf email or social media post — all with the potential to cause major brand damage and sour agency relationships. Some of the biggest potential crises impacting brands and agency partners and ways to effectively manage them, from both a public relations and legal point of view, will be discussed.

Moderator: Joseph Lewczak

Partner Davis & Gilbert LLP

LUNCHEON KEYNOTE

Michael McCann, sports law columnist for Sports Illustrated, will discuss crisis management strategies for brands endorsed by professional athletes who become controversial. In a broad overview, Professor McCann will detail so-called "morals clauses" in athletes' endorsement contracts and the circumstances in which those clauses tend to be used. Examples will include Ryan Lochte losing a lucrative endorsement deal for embellishing the robbery story in Brazil and how a brand stood beside Maria Sharapova despite her being banned for doping. Professor McCann will also discuss NFL players’ loss of endorsement deals due to engaging in protest while the national anthem played and how former NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall sued an apparel company that dropped him for tweeting sympathetic remarks about Osama Bin Laden. This session will also offer tips on marketer and legal counsel strategies to avoid brand-damaging controversies surrounding athlete endorsements.

Michael McCann

Assoc. Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law University of New Hampshire School of Law

THE FORMER FTC CHAIRS

The FTC is playing a key role over broadening areas of regulation. What lies ahead for consumer protection and advertising regulation in light of these developments? Hear from two highly sophisticated experts, former Republican FTC Chair Deborah Majoras and former Democratic FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz, as they offer their insights and perspectives on today’s FTC, and the likely developments and direction of the Commission. 

Moderator: Sara Fischer

Media Reporter Axios

INSPIRATION VS. INFRINGEMENT: AVOIDING LIABILITY IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

In a world where creativity and content are available everywhere, how do you work with your marketing clients to help them tap into popular culture without stepping into a lawsuit? We will explore the boundary between legally protected and unprotected elements of creative expression. How can marketers partner with their marketing teams so that the works produced are evocative without infringing? How can marketing messaging be relevant without borrowing too much? How can ownership be respected without sacrificing creativity? All of these issues will be explored in the context of copyright, trademark, and the right of publicity.

Candice Kersh

Partner Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

Please choose breakout session 2-A or 2-B.

SHIFTING GROUND BENEATH YOUR FEET

FINDING FIRM FOOTING AMONG THE RUBBLE OF THE NEW FEDERAL & STATE REGULATORY LANDSCAPE

Nearly one year into the Trump administration the regulatory emphasis is just beginning to come into focus. While seats remain empty on the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC staff continues its work. Where is the FTC’s emphasis and what is its pace? Following the change in administrations, how have state regulators responded? In what way has the change in leadership altered the risk analysis, as companies consider claims made for existing products or new products to be brought to market? What can be expected once those empty FTC seats are filled? This panel will assess what has changed and what remains the same – crucial considerations for companies hoping to improve (or protect) their market positions.

John Villafranco

Partner Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

CREATING A BETTER CONSUMER ONLINE AD EXPERIENCE

Earlier this year, the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA) issued initial standards for desktop and mobile Web in North America and Europe.  The Better Ads Standards identify the ad experiences that consumers least prefer and are most likely to drive adoption of ad blocking technologies. This panel will include a discussion with participating companies and associations on how the Better Ads Standards are being used to improve the consumer online ad experience, along with opportunities and challenges to expanding their adoption across different regional marketplaces.

Moderator: Stuart P. Ingis

Chairman Venable LLP

GETTING TO “SHI,” “SI,” “OUI,” and “NA’AM” FOR GLOBAL CAMPAIGNS

Advertisers confront a myriad of rules and customs around the world that impact their ability to execute everything from huge global campaigns to smaller social media programs. Hear members of the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance discuss recent key international advertising law developments and how they help clients successfully navigate the challenges of global compliance.

Moderator: Jeffrey A. Greenbaum

Managing Partner Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC (United States)

OPENING REMARKS

Doug Wood

Partner Reed Smith LLP

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

As attorney general in the State of Wisconsin, our speaker is a key enforcer in a number of areas of importance to advertisers, including elder abuse and marketing to the elderly. These are areas that the National Association of Attorneys General has given priority. Also active in privacy matters relevant to marketers and advertisers, he will discuss practices that attorneys general will watch this year and beyond.

Brad Schimel

Attorney General State of Wisconsin

MONETIZING CONTENT: BRANDS AS PRODUCERS

Consumers have more power than ever to choose what they watch, when they watch it, and whether to block ads. Marketers face immense challenges to get their messages to consumers in entertaining and inviting ways. One marketer that leads the industry in reaching consumers in innovative ways is the global snacking company Mondelēz International, with iconic brands such as Oreo, Cadbury, and Sour Patch Kids. For its Stride brand gum, the company produced Heaven Sent, a television event broadcast live where skydiver Luke Aikins jumped out of a plane at 25,000 feet, without a parachute or protective gear, and landed safely in a net. The deal involved production, licensing, broadcasting, and unions. Learn how marketer and counsel partnered to maneuver through the maze of internal and external stakeholders and, by creating content consumers want to watch, helped deliver ROI.

Mary A. Carragher

Chief Counsel - Global Marketing and Media Mondelēz International, Inc.

Please choose breakout session 3-A or 3-B.

SUBSTANTIATING ADVERTISING CLAIMS FOR NEWLY DEVELOPED OR NEWLY ACQUIRED PRODUCTS

MAJOR RISKS AND TIPS FOR AVOIDING THEM

The development or acquisition of a new product or new product category can be a major engine that drives corporate growth. However, both comparative and monadic advertising claims about new products can pose significant challenges for corporate counsel and risks to their companies. The launch advertising for new products is crucial to the development of the new product’s market share and consumers’ perception of the product. Nothing can sabotage a new product’s launch more than a legal, regulatory, or self-regulatory challenge. This panel will discuss best practices for reducing the chance that a new product’s launch campaign is interrupted or altered by lawsuits, NAD challenges, or regulatory action. 

Lawrence I. Weinstein

Partner Proskauer Rose LLP

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

The Internet of Things, with its rapidly multiplying ecosystem of connected devices, home, vehicles, and wearables is enabling new forms of mobile, digital and online engagement and increasingly rich and powerful connections with consumers. This changing landscape impacts the ways marketers can reach consumers, and raises novel practical and legal issues amid a slate of laws, regulations, and industry self-regulatory principles and guidelines. We’ll explore the latest legal and industry developments in key areas like consumer privacy, data ownership and security, and how consumers are engaging – and being engaged – through IoT and its related channels like voice-enabled assistants.

Nathan J. Hole

Deputy Chair, Advanced Media and Technology Loeb & Loeb LLP

AN INTRODUCTION TO AI

“Artificial intelligence” is not just a buzzword, but a fast growing area. But what is AI and why does it matter to you and your business? What are the opportunities and challenges for our industry as AI becomes more ubiquitous? Google’s advertising legal director and a panel of other experts will deeply delve into this increasingly exciting and important area.

Kenneth Rubenstein

Director, Legal Google

WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD BRAND STORIES

Dan Brackett, CTO and Co-Founder of Extreme Reach, shares a simple change that gives brands full control of their creative across every screen, device and platform. Learn how to minimize risk and be prepared for any situation that calls for swift action or immediate course correction.

Dan Brackett

Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder Extreme Reach

THE EU'S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will mean significant changes to the way marketers all over the world collect and use data as of May 2018. What will these new rules entail and how will they impact U.S.-based marketers? What will be the wider impact of GDPR on digital advertising globally?

Catherine Armitage

Senior Manager Public Affairs, Digital Governance Exchange World Federation of Advertisers (WFA)

Please choose breakout session 4-A or 4-B.

BEST PRACTICES IN DEALING WITH INFLUENCERS

As influencer marketing campaigns become more and more common, brands are facing challenges in adapting their traditional talent contracting and management structures to this new world, while also encountering new legal issues. Learn how to navigate through this complex legal landscape and help your marketing clients create powerful influencer campaigns. We will discuss best practices in engaging and managing influencers, approaches to intellectual property, brand reputation and claim substantiation issues, strategies for addressing disclosure requirements, and more.

Robert Driscoll

Partner Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

MODERN CLASS ACTION LANDMINES

We all need to be aware of what consumer class action attorneys are focused on these days. In the marketing space, it includes text message advertising, biometric data collection, use, and storage, and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Brian Heidelberger, Partner and Chair of Winston & Strawn's Advertising Marketing and Brand Protection Practice will lead a panel of experts to discuss the recent cases and landmines.

Brian Heidelberger

Partner and Chair, Advertising, Marketing, and Brand Protection Practice Winston & Strawn LLP

THE ETHICS PANEL: BACK TO THE BEGINNING FOR THE END

Our final session reunites legal legends from the opening session of the conference. The panel will discuss key ethics issues that confront lawyers in the advertising and marketing business.

Moderator: Doug Wood

Partner Reed Smith LLP