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> make all ad spending public

I like this idea tbqh

Facebook does - at least in the UK. Try to run a "political" ad and there's a lot of hoops to jump through.

Right, but again, what is "political"? A research group trying to sell their new whitepaper which just happens to have a provocative title and abstract? Commercial, surely? Any such definition will be worked around.

The government isn't allowed to run political ads (by its own rules on impartiality) but they are running up a huge ad spend right now on supposedly non political ads. (See the latest Private Eye).

I guess one downside for those selling the ads is that other companies could easily attempt to poach based on this information... what upside would there be for a company who sells ads?

They can compete in offering a better product/service, instead of with a secret client list. Advertising itself is about connecting buyers and sellers - so making that information public would make the market all the more efficient! What's good for the goose and all that.

Besides, the world is drowning in ads. Any downside for advertisers is an undiluted upside for society at large.