Should Marketing be Regulated?

This one’s been on my mind lately, especially after hearing horror stories from local small business owners.

Tens of thousands of dollars paid to big-shot agencies and nothing to show for it. No real reporting. No clarity on performance. Just the occasional screenshot of a Google Ads dashboard and a lingering question: “Are my ads even working?”

Others went with “budget” website providers, only to be locked into aggressive hosting contracts, or worse, out the money and waiting for a finished site that will never come.

Somewhere along the line, marketing has developed a stigma. I’ve seen the phrase: "Marketers are the snake oil salesmen of late-stage capitalism.” Harsh? Maybe. That was pulled from Reddit after all. But if we’re being honest, there’s some truth here.

Can marketing be regulated. Should there be some kind of certification, licensing, or governing body? Something that holds marketers to a higher standard of ethics and transparency? Maybe regulation isn’t the enemy. Maybe it’s a way to protect the trust we work so hard to build.

Would this raise the bar of our craft or just add more red tape?