Marketing Accountability Council
What brands promise.
What you actually get.
We examine marketing claims, read the fine print, and show you the gap. Research, practical tools, and standards for holding companies accountable.
Welcome wagon
Howdy! So cool of you to visit.
Let's get you where you wanna go. A few quick questions — answer honestly, we're not grading you. (We grade companies. You're safe.)
Four questions. Roughly ninety seconds. Zero stock photography.
Why MAC exists
We used to write the fine print.
Now we read it.
The Marketing Accountability Council brings a marketer’s perspective to the promises companies make. We look at the claims, the incentives behind them, and the experience people actually receive.
The point is to name the problem clearly enough to fix it. That means showing the evidence, hearing a response, and correcting our own work when the facts change.
Hold us to our standardsStart with the evidence.
All investigations →Scan to Win, Sign Away Your Data
Six sweepstakes booths at live events. One identical data-harvest sign-up form used by Fanatics, NFL, American Express, and others. What they collected vs. what they disclosed.
Technology & business accountability
Who sets the rent?
Our RealPage analysis examines rental pricing software and the questions it raises about competition and control.
Read the analysisBrand & customer accountability
Still booking on an old reputation?
The Memory Trap looks at travel platforms and the distance between their familiar promise and today’s customer experience.
Read the analysisThe tool
Check a company with TrustGap.
Compare a company’s claims with its terms, policies, and public record. The original TrustGap app opens separately.
Open TrustGapThe method
See how we assess the evidence.
Read our editorial standards, review process, and approach to sourcing before you judge the findings.
Read the standardsOur framework
Seven ways to ask a better question.
A broken promise can start in the product, the data, the business model, or the industry around it. These seven areas help us follow the evidence.
Customer Accountability
Does the experience match the promise?
Data Accountability
What they collect vs. what they say they collect.
Brand Accountability
Trading on a reputation you no longer earn.
Technology Accountability
When the algorithm is the product — and isn't disclosed.
Industry Accountability
The trade press won't say it. We will.
Business Accountability
Internal incentives that contradict public values.
Societal Accountability
Institutions that market public good while doing private extraction.
The same scrutiny applies to us.
Read our standardsKeep asking better questions.
Read the field reports or join the conversation on Substack.
Get in touch
Have a question or an idea?
Send Jay a note about MAC, a collaboration, or something we should examine.
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jay@jaymandel.com