Not a bad metaphor for how the online advertising ecosystem has been operating – and a big reason why it’s now facing a reckoning in the form of regulations and scrutiny of certain less-than-salubrious practices.

“The media ecosystem has become pretty unhealthy over the years, with way too many vendors collecting way too much data and making way too many bids and small tweaks to their technology that don’t add enough value,” said Dennis Buchheim, who’s spent quite a lot of time deep in the weeds of ad tech in executive roles at Microsoft, Yahoo, IAB Tech Lab and Meta.

After leaving Meta last year, Buchheim founded an advisory firm called ThinkMedium. Its goal is to help advertisers, publishers and ad tech companies embrace data privacy, safety and efficiency, including sustainability.

Tall order.

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