Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their ad spend
The Uber incident has been known for almost a year.  There are other instances, mostly undisclosed audits which have shown similar results.  One audit revealed $220m in ad spend for a global brand with a +$500m budget had no impact on their results, it was vapor.  On the finding of these results, they didn't want public embarrassment or the hit to their share price.<p>Not everyone in the industry is fraud, not everyone in the industry is a huckster.  But most of the industry is people talking up their game and creating a facade, from Brand CMOs to Pubs gaming their performance numbers.  Fraud can be reduced, but few want to engage in the rigor and even less want to recognize actual/validated performance when the current fiction suits their purposes more easily.