Due to recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), it’s now possible to digitally “revive” dead people and interact with them. These “resurrections” are sometimes voluntary and planned, but other times, they happen without the consent of families or loved ones. Humans have always fantasized about living forever. But what are we to make of this new way of “artificially” prolonging our existence? Is it desirable? What are the main ethical issues raised by the emergence of “griefbots” or “deadbots?” As an associate professor at the School of Public Health (ESPUM) at the Université de Montréal, I am an ethicist and researcher who specializes in governance, ethics, law, AI and responsible research conduct. I lead a research project called Artificial Immortality: Ethical, legal and artistic perspectives. As part of this project, I’ve published an article with two students on the ethical considerations of artificial immortality. Fragile boundaries Posthumous digital avatars are created from the digital traces left behind by dead people during their lifetime. Social media posts, photos, audio and video recordings are all traces that can be used to feed these avatars. Built through a combination of AI, machine learning and advanced data analysis, these avatars can recreate the physical and psychological likeness, personality and even memories of the deceased. The result is that users may be left in doubt about whether or not this is the “real” person. This technology is taking root in a world where virtual life has become well established. So interactions with a digital avatar, whether posthumous or not, are becoming almost commonplace. But the advent of posthumous avatars raises significant ethical issues. Près de 80 % des travailleurs canadiens utilisent l’IA sans cadre institutionnel Autonomy, data protection and privacy Amid these concerns, particular attention must be paid to respect for autonomy and data privacy, the reshaping of interpersonal and social relationships, and the disruption of human limits. These give rise to a new awareness of vulnerability and ways to transcend it. The creation of posthumous digital avatars has an impact on the autonomy of three categories of people: Those who leave digital traces in the public domain, particularly on social media. These are people who are anticipating their death or who have died, and whose digital traces are voluntarily or involuntarily made available to third parties like relatives, employers, etc. Those who receive the digital traces of others upon their death. These are family members, loved ones or businesses. One of the questions concerning their autonomy regards control over the avatar of a loved one. For example, can people who receive the digital traces of others then refuse to create a posthumous digital avatar or a virtual memorial site? Those who interact with “avatarization” services. These are the people who use or consume the services and products promoted within the virtual afterlife industry. They interact with posthumous digital avatars for a variety of reasons, ranging from curiosity to coping with particularly painful grief. There are concerns these people might develop unhealthy dependencies on these services and products, even as the industry remains unstable and poses the risk of abruptly altering or discontinuing service offerings. All these people are at risk of losing control over the perpetuated identity of the deceased person, given the multitude of virtual representations. Public and pathological grief Furthermore, when an avatar is accessible to a large number of people, grief becomes public. In other words, it can be experienced both intimately and collectively. This new phenomenon alters our relationship with death and grief and redefines the place of the deceased in our lives. The story of the young Jang Nayeon, who died in 2016 and became the subject of the documentary Meeting You, expresses the unease public mourning can cause. Devastated by her daughter’s untimely death, her mother agreed to the creation of a posthumous digital avatar so that she could see her again and interact with her in virtual reality. The reunion, streamed live on several web platforms, provoked discomfort among the audience. This is a particularly striking example of the hypervisibility of grief. On the positive side, posthumous digital avatars can be used under the supervision of a therapist as part of clinical support. It should be noted, however, that only a minority of current uses take place under the supervision of specialists. « Je suis sorti et j'ai pleuré » : ce que le personnel des établissements pour personnes âgées dit de son chagrin lorsque des résidents décèdent Consequently, many people use this technology on their own and are more vulnerable to addiction or seek to escape the reality of grief. They are at risk of falling into so-called pathological grief. This is complicated or prolonged grief, characterized by its duration and intensity (an inability, after more than a year, to cope with emotional distress, to resume daily activities or to find meaning in life). Overexposure and silent voyeurism Virtual spaces where traces of the deceased are preserved, such as Facebook, are sometimes accessed by passive individuals. These are observers who do not necessarily seek to interact, but who are participating in a phenomenon of silent voyeurism. This passivity is not necessarily malicious, but it becomes part of a dynamic of continuous surveillance and observation that can lead to overexposure and voyeurism. The ethical issue concerns the fact that people’s privacy can become the object of consumption for others, whether out of curiosity, fascination or even planning for the subsequent misuse of data. The exploitation of data can result in the perpetual visibility of data generated by the deceased on the web, particularly through posthumous digital avatars that interact with families and loved ones. These serve to maintain the illusion of a presence after death. This illusion reshapes how we relate to death, allowing a loved one to seem artificially present in our lives. More profoundly, it calls into question the limits of human mortality. Namely, beyond biological life, there is now the promise of an artificially eternal life. But is this desirable? Understanding the main risks and ethical issues raised by artificial immortality is a crucial step in considering how these avatars should be used. We need to keep reflecting on the merits of the rise of these avatars in order to preserve human dignity — whether posthumous or not — and to prevent abuses in a world undergoing profound transformation. I would like to thank Josianne Barrette-Moran, a PhD candidate in bioethics at the School of Public Health at the University of Montréal, for her technical assistance in producing this article. Emmanuelle Marceau leads a research project funded by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technology (Obvia), entitled "Artificial Immortality: Ethical, legal and artistic perspectives." (https://www.obvia.ca/en/research/projects/artificial-immortality-ethical-legal-and-artistic-perspectives)

Turning observability context into intelligent action

The government of Sri Lanka has lost more than $3 million in two recent, separate cybersecurity incidents as the country continues to recover from its 2022 debt crisis.

After visiting Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park for the first time, I found that it compared to Disney in some interesting ways. Megan duBois I've been to Disney World more than 100 times and only recently made my first trip to Dollywood. Dolly Parton's Tennessee theme park had impressive live entertainment and photo opportunities. I appreciated the specialty food and how the park highlighted the singer's history in multiple ways. I've lived close to Disney World for my entire life. I've been more than 100 times and still visit as often as I want as an annual pass holder. Recently, though, I was excited to try a different theme park that's been on my radar for years: Dollywood. The Dolly Parton park has been nestled among the Great Smoky Mountains in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, for decades. After spending two days exploring Dollywood, here's everything that surprised me. I appreciated how Parton's history was highlighted throughout the park. Inside the Dolly Parton Experience Megan duBois One of my favorite areas in the park was the Dolly Parton Experience, where I learned all about Parton and her life through a wide range of exhibits and displays. While at Dollywood, I also had the chance to step onto one of Parton's old tour buses and look at many of her glamorous outfits and jewelry pieces. The park's entertainment was top-notch and varied — one show I saw even featured Parton's niece. Heidi Partons Kin & Friends show at Dollywood Megan duBois Throughout the park, I found all kinds of impressive entertainment, including performances from a country string band and a Southern gospel singing group. During my visit, Dollywood was also putting on an educational show featuring birds of prey. One show I especially loved was "Heidi Parton's Kin and Friends," in which Parton's niece Heidi and a crew of talented performers sang songs across a range of genres. Dollywood's most famous food is surprisingly easy to find throughout the park and its resorts. Cinnamon bread from Spotlight Bakery Megan duBois As many theme-park foodies know, Dollywood is synonymous with "cinnamon bread." Since the treat is so popular, I worried I might have to wait in long lines to order it or get up early to track it down before it sells out. Fortunately, it was even easier to find than I expected. Plenty of it was available at Grist Mill and Spotlight Bakery inside the park. The bread could also be purchased at the Dollywood resorts, DreamMore and HeartSong, or even ordered using room service. There's an entire land dedicated to kid-friendly attractions, which seems great for families. Country Fair area of Dollywood Megan duBois The park's rides are quite varied, from attractions for preschoolers to high-speed roller coasters that thrill seekers would love. I was especially surprised by Country Fair, an area where kid-friendly attractions are all clustered together. This setup makes it easy for families with little kids to hang out in one spot and enjoy multiple attractions at once. Country Fair also features carnival games, a picnic pavilion modeled after a classic red barn, and a splash pad. Dollywood's rotating festivals throughout the year seemed good enough to compete with Disney's. Megan duBois The park hosts five or so different themed festivals throughout the year. Similar to Disney parks, Dollywood offers exclusive entertainment and special foods during each of its festivals. I was at the park during the first of the season, the I Will Always Love You music festival, which runs through mid-April. Other festivals at Dollywood include the Flower and Food Festival in spring, the Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration through the summer, the Harvest Festival in autumn, and Smoky Mountain Christmas during the holiday season. A simple but pricey parking upgrade added surprising value to my trip. Preferred parking entrance and exit area Megan duBois Parking at any theme park can be pricey. During my Dollywood trip, standard parking cost $25 a day, and preferred parking was $50. Much to my surprise, I'd recommend paying more for the latter as it was a surprisingly good value. With preferred parking, I got to keep my car in the closest lot to the park and access an exclusive security line and entrance. When I arrived, the park's main entrance had a big line out front and a wait time of about 45 minutes to get inside. At the preferred-parking entrance, I only waited about 10 minutes. I love that my upgrade let me spend more time in the park instead of waiting in line outside. There are a ton of good pop-up photo spots around the park. Megan duBois I love how many photo opportunities I found at Dollywood, especially in its Showstreet area. The main entry area of the park features a giant Dollywood sign that serves as a perfect backdrop for family photos. Plus, I found tons of cute art installations that are swapped out throughout the year. While I was at Dollywood, big shimmering sequins hung over part of Showstreet, and a fun "LOVE" sign was displayed at the end of the road — both nodding to the current festival theme. I made sure to take photos at each spot. This story was originally published on March 30, 2025, and most recently updated on April 29, 2026. Read the original article on Business Insider

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This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste Today, nuclear energy enjoys rare support across the political spectrum. Public approval has spiked, and Big Tech is throwing money around to…

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Amtrak has a new ad designed to convince Americans to shift their "car-first mindset". Amtrak Amtrak wants to convince more travelers to ditch their cars for the train. A new ad campaign spoofs luxury car ads to hammer home the point. Amtrak's marketing spotlights its NextGen Acela high-speed trains. Amtrak wants to shift America's "car-first mindset". Its newest marketing technique to convince Americans that taking the train is better than driving: mimicking advertising tropes from luxury-car TV commercials. Amtrak's upcoming ad campaign, "The Build," opens like a typical high-end automaker spot, with a swaggering musical soundtrack and a narrator reeling off superlatives like "state of the art engineering" and "electrifying speed." The ad's reveal is that the "smoothest ride on the road" is actually an Amtrak NextGen Acela high-speed train. Eliot Hamlisch, Amtrak's chief commercial officer, said the bulk of its current marketing output is about helping the traveling public see passenger rail as a preferred mode of transport. "You're not stuck in traffic on the I-95, you're not stuck in a middle seat while circling above Reagan Airport not able to go to the bathroom," Hamlisch said in an interview with Business Insider. He said Amtrak is taking "a really bold and very confident approach to the messaging, the creative, the music, to help highlight those amenities and benefits that differentiate this train relative to cars and planes." "The Build" ad, part of its broader long-running "Retrain Travel" campaign, debuts on linear TV during the Kentucky Derby weekend. Amtrak's advertising outlay: the numbers Around 80% of Amtrak's ad spending for "The Build" is directed toward "awareness driving media," such as TV, digital video, and podcasts, versus 20% of ads designed to prompt people to buy a ticket immediately, Hamlisch said. About a quarter (26%) of US adults in data-intelligence firm Morning Consult's latest nationwide survey said they would consider becoming Amtrak customers, up slightly from 23% when the "Retrain Travel" campaign first kicked off in 2024. Brand awareness has remained at 83% since 2024, Morning Consult said. Amtrak's ad spend is low compared to airlines and automakers. The quasi-public national rail service spent $36 million on advertising in 2025, down from $39 million a year earlier, even as ticket revenue rose 10% to $2.7 billion. Hamlisch said he anticipates the company's ad spend will stay at a similar level this year. Its marketing is focused less on winning market share and more on introducing its new Acela fleet and reshaping perceptions of train travel among people who may have only historically considered flying or driving between major city centers on its Northeast corridor routes, Hamlisch said. Internal numbers benchmarked against airline data show that Amtrak has an 80% market share of trips between New York City and Washington, DC, and a 65% share between New York City and Boston, Hamlisch said. It has lower penetration on its slower and long-distance routes elsewhere in the country. Amtrak has been steadily ramping up its social presence as it seeks to convert Gen Z to train travel. Last July, an Amtrak video spoofing retro monster truck rally TV ads went viral across platforms like Instagram and YouTube. "That's not something you would ever have anticipated seeing come through an Amtrak social channel, or any other for that matter, in the past," Hamlisch said. Rail's momentum Amtrak is riding strong momentum. Ridership hit a record 34.4 million trips in its 2025 fiscal year, which ended in September, up 5% year over year. The rail service aims to nearly double that to 66 million annually by 2040 as it upgrades tracks, stations, and trains. (That number is still small compared to the likes of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, which saw nearly 1.9 billion annual trips as of late 2025 across the subway, buses, and paratransit.) Amtrak was a major beneficiary of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which gave it about $22 billion over five years to upgrade and modernize its service. It received a further boost in April, when the Trump administration announced a $4.7 billion investment in rail projects along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Another tailwind: Air travel in the US has been a mess for the past several months, prompting some passengers to consider taking the train instead. "We certainly don't aim to take advantage of that," by dialing up marketing in response, Hamlisch said. Though it is steadily rolling upgraded Acela stock, supported by its aspirational ad campaign, a lot of the Amtrak fleet is aging, with the average railcar about 33 years old, per a 2024 Bureau of Transportation Statistics report. Plus, Amtrak must manage delays and disruptions that come with improvement works to old tracks, bridges, and tunnels. "Managing customer expectations is arguably the No. 1 thing that I wake up thinking about each day," Hamlisch said. Read the original article on Business Insider

A deep dive into how Apache Flink works, why it exists, and learning it while building a real-time recommendation engine The post System Design Series: Apache Flink from 10,000 Feet, and Building a Flink-powered Recommendation Engine appeared first on Towards Data Science.

I grew up in an anti-cruise family. After taking my first river cruise as an adult, I can't stop talking about it. Mary Kearl I grew up in a family that loved to go on big trips, but refused to travel by cruise ship. I went on my first river cruise at 40 with my family and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Though I'm still not sure if I would go on an open-ocean cruise, I've become a river cruise convert. My parents are so anti-cruise that when we visited Alaska for my 21st birthday, we took a series of planes, trains, automobiles, and ferries to experience what a cruise would have made possible with a lot less planning and logistics on our part. Now that I'm older, I decided to finally give cruising a real try. With my husband and I both turning 40 this year, I wanted us to take an epic trip to celebrate, and I set my sights on a four-day, three-night Nile River cruise. Having enjoyed short excursions on rivers around the globe, from the Douro River in Portugal to the Amazon River in Brazil, I suspected that I'd like the experience. It did not disappoint. Since coming back from the trip we took in mid-February, I can't stop talking about river cruises to friends, family, and strangers. I didn't experience many common issues ocean cruisers complain about I like the smaller size of river cruises. Mary Kearl We sailed on the Lilac Nile Cruises H-S Moondance, a ship with 58 double cabins and eight suites and a capacity for up to about 132 passengers. That's a mere fraction of the guests you'll find on major ocean cruises with lines like Royal Caribbean and Carnival, where massive ships accommodate anywhere from 1,900 to more than 5,000 travelers. With a few dozen passengers, only four floors, and a few amenities — a roof-deck with a pool, a lounge area, a gym, a gift shop, a spa, and one buffet-style dining room — this ship didn't feel like anything like the stereotypical "giant floating resort." This smaller size also made it easy to walk around the ship, and we didn't have to deal with some of the common issues I hear about from cruisers, like crowded buffets and fights to reserve deck chairs. We rarely had to wait in lines for the buffet, and when we went to the roof-deck, we easily found loungers and often had the pool to ourselves. When we weren't out and about, we were in our spacious cabin. Our triple room included a king bed for my husband and me, a single bed for our oldest daughter, and space for a pack-and-play for our 1-year-old. It even had a table and chair, a mini fridge, two closets that fit our three suitcases with room to spare, and a compact shower-bathtub combo in the bathroom. Traditional river cruises don't have interior cabins, so every room has a view, including ours. Our accommodations also felt surprisingly spacious, in part because there were so few cabins on the ship. Being on a river was quite calming and good for my peace of mind We took advantage of the pool on the roof-deck. Mary Kearl We experienced several benefits of sailing on a river, which is much calmer than the ocean. None of us — not even my 8-year-old and husband, who are prone to motion sickness and have gotten ill on much shorter boat rides — ever felt nauseous. When we came home, my daughter even said she missed the feeling of falling asleep on the water. I also felt better being on a river, especially with small kids. For one, since my youngest doesn't know how to swim, the thought of being in the open sea made me especially anxious. I also don't like the feeling of being stuck, surrounded on all sides by water, in the middle of the sea. On the river cruise, being able to see land at all times gave me peace of mind. Not only did I never feel trapped, but I also felt confident that if an emergency happened with either of our kids, we could get help fairly quickly and easily. Our itinerary kept us busy but gave us lots of time for relaxation Although we might not have seen Egypt like locals, we fit in a lot of sightseeing. Mary Kearl Another nice thing about river cruises is that some excursions are generally included in the cost, which isn't common on ocean sailings. Given that we were traveling with small children, we only opted for one excursion per day, which was included in the price of our trip. If we wanted, we could have gone on two outings per day for an added fee. As it was, we saw plenty of incredible historic sites and got to try a mix of international and local cuisine throughout our time on land and on the ship. We had plenty of options for food on the ship. Mary Kearl We sampled Egyptian desserts every day, I ate several different local salads at each lunch and dinner, and I even got my falafel fix one night. Planned activities aside, finding myself poolside on a roof-deck with good weather and idyllic views is my idea of paradise — and the river cruise I went on allowed me to pass plenty of blissful hours soaking in the Egyptian countryside from the comfort of a lounge chair. As a family, we enjoyed plenty of swimming, playing, and taking in the scenery together up on the roof-deck. Our family spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool. Mary Kearl When our toddler was napping or sleeping, my husband and I were able to take turns enjoying the pool or evening entertainment with our older daughter without having to do anything more than walk up a flight or two of stairs. While one of us was out, the other stayed in the nearby room and got to catch up on shows or sleep. Win, win — and another perk of a small ship. After this, I'd definitely take another river cruise I'm sold on river cruises. Mary Kearl Honestly, our river cruise was just so beautiful and relaxing. I've traveled to 30 countries with my oldest daughter and nine with my youngest, and I can say from plenty of experience that no trip with small kids is ever easy or restful, so being able to fit in moments of relaxation into this vacation was priceless. As I look ahead to future travels, I would love to incorporate cruising into my family's adventures, particularly as a way to get one-of-a-kind views of places we've never been before. Although I'm still not sold on ocean cruises, I'd happily do a river sailing again — even if just to experience a new place by water while avoiding crowds and seasickness. Read the original article on Business Insider

The Instagram account "Emy Adventure" first appeared in November and has gained over a million followers. Courtesy of Sachin Raoul Emy Adventure is Gen Z and Gen Alpha's new Instagram obsession. Emy, the plush toy, has been taken on wild adventures and gained over a million followers since November. The creator behind Emy said the idea is to inspire people to get outside. The internet can't get enough of this weird plush toy. An Instagram account called "emyadventure1" first appeared in November with a simple premise: every time it gained a follower, Emy, a custom-made green-and-yellow plush toy, would move 1 millimeter closer to being thrown from the world's tallest building in Dubai. The account quickly attracted thousands of followers, likes, and comments, and was thrown from 830,000mm, the equivalent height to the Burj Khalifa, in February. The stakes were raised again: in March, Emy was thrown from a high-altitude balloon, 116,419 feet above Kingston, New York. Emy's co-creator, Sachin Raoul — a 33-year-old tech founder and entrepreneur who was included in Forbes' 30 under 30 in 2022 — is insistent that this is not another example of online "brain rot." Raoul wants to encourage people to step away from their screens — with the caveat that you need a phone and an Instagram account to engage with Emy — and into the real world, inspired by Emy's adventures in the great outdoors. The page also invites followers to take part in in-person challenges — finding a mini version of the Emy toy out in the wild, for example, in the style of Pokémon Go. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emy (@emyadventure1) A weird experiment that broke through Raoul, who previously set up a digital relationship and sex therapy app called Blueheart, started to rethink the purpose of their work after having a child in 2024. "I realized I was building experiences designed to keep people on their phones," said Raoul. "That made me reflect on the work I was doing every day, and that's really what pushed me to do something completely different and create something that was inspiring for young people." "Chasing adventure and love are the two most important values to me," they added. "There isn't much adventure around building apps." Raoul said at this point, Emy doesn't generate any revenue, but the long-term plan is to bring in sponsorships and collaborations. Sachin Raoul is the brains behind Emy Adventure. Courtesy of Sachin Raoul Raoul and a friend had decided to experiment with weird and creative projects, trialing low-cost ideas to see what would gain traction. "The concept of dropping a plushie from a height tied to our follower count was the one that broke through," Raoul said. The custom plush toy we now know as Emy was originally an avatar. Raoul had previously created an AI pet companion app for young people and therefore owned the intellectual property rights to the Emy avatar. It was then redesigned into a custom plush toy so it could be used for social media content. They have since shut down the app to focus on Emy Adventure. Absurd and curious The younger generations are especially enthusiastic about Emy, Raoul said. Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, said it's likely because of the simplicity and absurdity of the account. "If millennial social media was about connection, Gen Z, Gen Alpha social media is about curiosity and immediacy," Navarra said. In a busy, chaotic social media feed, the simple format of posts has also struck a chord with younger audiences, he said. Plus, there's the participatory aspect of it that appeals. "Gen Z, Gen Alpha don't just consume content nowadays. They expect to be able to interact with it, or influence it, and remix it," he said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emy (@emyadventure1) At the end of each reel, a message pops up so quickly that you might miss it, directing followers to search for a mini version of Emy that's hidden in a real location. Challenges are set up so that followers who find the little toys are added to the Instagram story. They don't win any cash prizes for finding the toy, but they do get to keep it — and that's a big deal if you're in the Emy fan club. The creators also did an Emy meme competition. The winner, Joe Lander, a 23-year-old from the UK, said he received $600 for his meme that joked about how quickly the account was gaining followers. "I grew up making memes as a teenager, so it was something that really resonated with me," Lander told Business Insider. Lander initially followed the account because it seemed catchy and engaging. Raoul, pictured here (L), has filmed Emy content in the French Alps. Courtesy of Sachin Raoul Raoul said this level of engagement is exactly what they had hoped for with the project. While Emy's purpose is to inspire people to go out into the real world, Raoul believes people are resistant to being told to put their phones down. "What does work is meeting people where they are," they said. "You use the medium they're already on," i.e., phones, "to show them what they're missing," Raoul added. "You give them a glimpse of a helicopter drop over Alaska, or a plushie on the edge of the world's tallest building, and you let the content do the talking," they said. Read the original article on Business Insider

Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, is the world's top YouTuber. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Prime Video A version of this post appears in the CMO Insider newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's weekly marketing newsletter here. MrBeast is coming to Madison Avenue. The YouTuber's company, Beast Industries, is on the hunt for a VP of agency partnerships, CMO Insider can exclusively report. This person will be responsible for serving as the "primary bridge between the MrBeast ecosystem and major agency holding companies (WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, IPG, Havas, Dentsu)," according to a job posting. (Perhaps this person could also flag that IPG is no more after its merger with Omnicom.) MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the world's most-followed YouTuber, and Beast Industries encompasses a range of properties, including Amazon Prime Video's "Beast Games" and the snack company Feastables. Beast Industries has secured brand partnerships with Salesforce, Starbucks, Lowe's, and more. The company has been beefing up its exec team with hires from major media companies like TikTok and NBCUniversal. (It's also branching out into new areas, such as "AI native entertainment.") The listing for the VP of agency partnerships role says Beast Industries is looking for someone with experience in negotiating "high-value, multi-year master service agreements" — the contracts that define longer-term relationships between agencies and ad sellers. It's an important development in the evolution of MrBeast's ad business as his company looks to translate its reach into something agencies can buy predictably and repeatedly. Stefan Bardega, formerly an exec at the Dentsu agency iProspect and now at the communications agency IDX, said that hundreds of billions of dollars of ad spend is still deployed through the major ad holding companies. "Even if creators want to go direct to big brands, they find procurement, measurement frameworks, and risk controls usually route budgets back through these global agency structures," Bardega, who serves as IDX's head of performance marketing, told me. That means companies like Beast Industries, which are hoping to secure contracts with major holding companies, need to maintain predictable pricing and adhere to industry standards in areas like ad measurement. "It has to be easy to buy, not just strategically right," Bardega said. Read the original article on Business Insider