As Big Tech increases its influence on Europe's attention economy, Print Power Europe director Ulbe Jelluma argues that advertisers and agencies need to rethink what they fund – and recognize that trust, not technology, is the true driver of sustainable communications.
Dutch media entrepreneur Joop van den Ende recently took out full-page advertisements in Dutch national newspapers with a clear warning: Europe's independent media is in danger. His message – aimed at governments, publishers and advertisers alike – was simple but powerful: “A strong public broadcaster, freedom of expression and the protection of our journalistic values are too important to remain silent.”
Supporting public and print media is not protectionism but self-preservation, he argued. Without it, Europe risks slipping into a new form of data colonialism, in which truth and attention are dismantled elsewhere – and in which European journalism, culture and even advertising are dependent on infrastructures they no longer control.
When innovation becomes an ideology
Few ideas are as deeply rooted as the belief that new technologies equal progress. But as Nobel Prize winners Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson show in Power and Progress, technological advances rarely benefit everyone. Those who master the tools first grasp the value – sometimes exclusively. Big Tech has turned this imbalance into a business model. Peter Thiel’s provocation to “strive for a monopoly” has become a strategy. The more dominance digital platforms gain, the more dependent democratic institutions – and independent media – become on their algorithms. This dominance has consequences for advertisers. Our industry is based on conviction and trust. But the more our budgets rely on systems designed for engagement rather than truth, the more fragile both belief and trust become.
The machinery of misinformation
We now operate in an ecosystem optimized for amplification, not accuracy. Algorithms elevate self-proclaimed experts and influencers who disseminate financial advice and beauty tips with equal confidence – and with the same disregard for evidence. A WPP and IPA study found that influencers and creators are now among the most important channels for digital brand building and their short-term ROI is comparable to television. This is both impressive and troubling: the same ecosystem that undermines factual integrity also sustains much of modern marketing. Influence has never been more valuable – or more vulnerable to abuse. Oxford's Word of the Year 2024, Brainrot, captured this perfectly. And as Cory Doctorow argues in Enshittification, large digital platforms tend to deteriorate over time – prioritizing profit over user benefit and weakening the quality of the information environment on which they rely. The result is a marketplace of distraction rather than differentiation.
The erosion of journalism – and what it means for brands
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In this world of never-ending feeds, the ethics that once defined journalism – verification, independence, accountability – are under attack. The race to be first often goes beyond the duty of accuracy. Campaigns like Newsworks' emotional tribute film to British journalists – from war zones to local councils – remind audiences and advertisers alike that truth has both a face and a price. It is also a quiet rejection of the algorithmic noise and shows that quality journalism remains both a public service and a brand-safe environment. This is of great importance for marketers. David Ogilvy, who built his campaigns on research and truth, famously reminded us: “The consumer is not an idiot, she is your wife.” In the age of AI-generated voices and synthetic trust, this statement reads like a manifesto. Advertising based on illusions undermines not only ethics but also effectiveness.
Trust as a competitive advantage
The erosion of truth has measurable effects. According to Gallup (2025), trust in the mass media in the US has fallen to historic lows, with a stark political divide. In Europe, a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) study conducted by the BBC found that almost half of all responses from leading AI assistants misrepresented news content. EBU deputy director general Jean Philip De Tender described the problem as “systemic and multilingual” and warned: “When people don’t know what to trust, they end up trusting nothing at all.” For advertisers, this loss of trust is not abstract, but commercial. A brand that appears in unreliable environments becomes collateral damage in the credibility crisis of the attention economy.
Restoring credibility through responsible media choice
Trust, pluralism and responsibility are not nostalgic ideals. They are the infrastructure that keeps both democracy and the market economy functioning.
- Trust: National media remain one of the few institutions that the public still believes.
- Pluralism: Algorithmic feeds do not equal diversity. – Justice: Every euro spent locally supports local journalism and does not disappear into programmatic black boxes.
- Consumer Respect: Traditional media sells ideas, not identities. They inform the audience instead of collecting their data. For agencies and brand owners, this requires a mindset shift. Support for verified national media – in print and broadcast – is not sentimental; It's strategic. Trusted environments provide not only reach, but also context, understanding, and credibility—the conditions under which persuasion works best. And trust – once an afterthought – was and increasingly is the new currency of effective communication.
The slow power of trust
Communication has always been society's nervous system – the channel through which truth, empathy and conviction flow. When this system is flooded with noise, any signal becomes weaker. That's why defending Europe's national and public media is so important. Every campaign, every placement shapes the environment that finances it. Supporting independent, fact-based journalism means defending the very context that makes advertising possible. It's not nostalgia for the print; It is a strategy for credibility. Technology will evolve, but progress is not inevitable. The future of communication depends on where we invest – in the quick solution of algorithms or in the slow power of trust.