In advertising, brands, publishers, and consumers share a relationship based on balance and tension. But industry missteps have thrown that balance off-kilter, unsettling consumers and threatening advertisers’ and publishers’ livelihood. Empowered consumers avoid ads that fail to meet their heightened expectations, while advertisers struggle to appeal to consumers without alienating them. Although advertising won’t go away, the future looks vastly different. To prepare for the next era of advertising, where data deprecation is a reality, brands must radically reorient their advertising strategies around transparency, choice, and value delivered, with a focus on the depth of the relationship itself.