Four Largest Agency Holding Companies to Require Partners to Take Aggressive Anti-Piracy Steps; 11 Providers of Anti-Piracy Services Now Approved by TAG

Washington, DC – June 9, 2016 – The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative to fight criminal activity in the digital advertising supply chain, today announced that leading Interpublic and Omnicom agencies, as well as Google, GoDaddy, and Bayer Consumer Health have joined the dozens of other agencies and major advertisers taking TAG’s Anti-Piracy Pledge to require their ad partners to take aggressive steps to help fight the $2.4 billion lost to pirate sites each year¹.

Following last year’s endorsement by Publicis and WPP companies, including WPP’s GroupM, all four of the largest ad agency holding companies have now committed to TAG’s Anti-Piracy Pledge. New Interpublic and Omnicom companies announcing their support for the TAG anti-piracy pledge include Accuen, Annalect, Hearts & Science, IPG Mediabrands, MAGNA GLOBAL, OMD Worldwide, PHD, and Resolution Media, as well as independent agency True North.

“Only by working together as an industry can we tackle endemic problems like piracy, and today the world’s largest advertising agencies showed their leadership by standing shoulder-to-shoulder and saying ‘no more’ to the pirates,” said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG. “I am proud of the work being done across our industry by major brands, agencies, ad tech companies, and publishers to turn off the money flowing to pirate sites, and we look forward to continuing to grow TAG’s Certified Against Piracy Program.”

By signing the TAG Anti-Piracy Pledge, companies commit to take “commercially reasonable steps to minimize the inadvertent placement of digital advertising on websites or other media properties.” Companies agree to fulfill that pledge in a manner consistent with TAG’s Certified Against Piracy Program which may include, among other things, directly hiring a TAG-Validated company that provides anti-piracy services, using ad placement services that have been certified by TAG, or by doing business exclusively with ad agencies that carry the TAG “Certified Against Piracy” Seal.

The co-chairs of the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, and Congressman Adam Schiff, jointly released the following statement on TAG’s announcement:

“The pledge today by some of America’s leading brands and advertising agencies to take aggressive steps to keep advertising from appearing on illegal sites, including those dedicated to the theft of creative works, is a major milestone. For years, the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus has worked with advertisers, ad agencies, and ad networks to take concrete steps to keep legitimate online advertising from appearing on sites dedicated to piracy and other illegal activities. It’s clear that the TAG pledge is gaining steam and that more and more advertisers and agencies are taking steps to ensure they are not unwittingly subsidizing online theft.”

TAG also announced that 11 companies have earned the TAG “Certiifed Against Piracy” Seal, which signals to the industry that their anti-piracy services meet stringent requirements of keeping ads off of sites that contain illicit content. These participants include seven companies approved by independent auditors and four companies that underwent a self-attestation process. The TAG-Validated providers of anti-piracy services include comScore, DoubleVerify, Incopro, Integral Ad Science, sovrn, Veri-Site, and whiteBULLET, while the self-attested providers included PubMatic, Rocket Fuel, Rubicon Project, and SpotX.

A full list of participating companies can be found at www.tagtoday.net/participating-companies. More information about TAG’s Certified Against Piracy Program and how companies from across the advertising ecosystem can received the TAG “Certified Against Piracy” Seal can be found at www.tagtoday.net/piracy.

About the Trustworthy Accountability Group

The Trustworthy Accountability Group was created to spur transformational improvement at scale across the digital advertising ecosystem, focusing on four core areas: eliminating fraudulent traffic, combating malware, fighting ad-supported Internet piracy to promote brand integrity, and promoting brand safety through greater transparency. For more information on TAG, please visit tagtoday.net.

Contact:
Andrew Weinstein
202-667-4967
andrewwstn[at]gmail.com