News

June 6, 2023

Deeplocal and Red House strike gold at American Advertising Awards

April 29, 2023

Pittsburgh’s ad industry celebrates creative work and seeing each other again _ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 28, 2023

Wall-to-Wall Studios wins Best of Show at AAF Pittsburgh Awards – Pittsburgh Business Times

April 17, 2023

We Participated in AAF Day On the Hill

A report by George Potts, AAF Pittsburgh Government Affairs Chair

For the first time since Covid, the AAF (American Advertising Federation) held its bi-annual Day on the Hill, and our Pittsburgh chapter took part. Advertising Day on the Hill is an important event organized to demonstrate to lawmakers the economic importance of the advertising industry. Local clubs from across the country participate.

The morning consisted of briefings from the FTC, BBB National Programs, Digital Advertising Alliance, and Venable. The seminars covered regulatory issues and trends including privacy, the importance of the industry’s self-regulation, and the consequences if business advertising spending would no longer remain a deductible expense. Advertising expenditures account for $7.1 trillion of economic output in the United States – that represents almost 20% of our country’s total financial activity and 28.5 million jobs.

In the afternoon, our chapter met with:

• Legislative Assistant Alex Rajakovich, from the Office of Representative Chris Deluzio,
• Legislative Aide Rory Daly from the Office of Senator Robert Casey, and 
• Jason Smith, Chief Counsel for the Office of Senator John Fetterman.

For the meeting with Representative Deluzio’s office, we shared how the advertising industry represents 63,000 jobs and $11 Billion in economic activity just within Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District.

The focus of our conversation with Senator Robert Casey’s office involved reviewing the economic impact of advertising in the state overall, 1.2 million jobs and $280 Billion in economic activity, as well as the critical importance of keeping advertising as a deductible business expenditure.

Our meeting with Senator John Fetterman’s office was the longest of our three meetings on Capitol Hill. Given TikTok’s testimony earlier in the day and frustrating meetings earlier with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Smith was intimately interested in our perspective on privacy and digital advertising. We shared our point of view that we do desire a national policy on privacy for digital advertising but that audience targeting options should remain given their efficiency and ultimate interest in serving the consumer an ad that is relevant. We also stressed that the social media platforms are not part of the AAF and do not speak for our interests.

We look forward to deepening our relationships with each office, continuing to communicate our economic influence in Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth as well as our perspective on any future legislation.

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April 14, 2023