ARF slams Cambridge Analytica, drives toward new codes and standards for research

Geoffrey Precourt

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the trade body, is pushing for ethics, transparency and best practices to drive the research industry forwards at a time of growing complexity.

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) officially has rescinded the David Ogilvy Award handed to Cambridge Analytica – the now defunct research firm that illicitly harvested data from millions of Facebook profiles – in the competition’s “big data” category in 2017.

Scott McDonald, president/CEO, Advertising Research Foundation (ARF)

“This decision was not taken lightly,” reported Scott McDonald, president/CEO of the ARF, which holds the Ogilvy Awards each year to recognize excellence in research. “It was the product of deep and careful consideration of the evidence revealed in multiple official investigations in the US and the UK.

“In...

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