WPP Digital president David Moore has urged publishers to take a stronger line with ad blocker-using consumers, forcing them to accept the “quid pro quo” of advertiser-funded media.

Speaking today (9 May) at the The 614 Group Brand Safety Summit in London’s Soho, Moore – who is also chairman of WPP’s Xaxis – claimed that, if the industry agrees a tougher stance, it will see ad block usage “diminish rapidly”.

Moore encouraged attendees to use the IAB’s new ‘DEAL’ acronym (detect; explain; ask; lift) as a guide for working out persuading users to stop deploying ad blockers – a policy at odds with some privacy campaigns, who argue that ad blocker detection is contrary to European Union privacy rules.

“This is what every single publisher should be doing. Why would you let anyone on your site if you can’t monetise them? Your competition can’t monetise them either. Why would we let anyone in without explaining the quid pro quo? There is no such thing as a free lunch,” he said.

Moore also rubbished the suggestion that consumers would abandon ad blocking software if the quality of digital advertising improved: “If you ask people about TV ads, what are they going to say? Do you think someone is going to [disable] their ad blocker, and say, ‘Have you seen the ads on the internet?’”

Earlier in the day, a panel has warned that the drive to create more viewable advertising may be fuelling user dissatisfaction with digital ads and, in turn, leading to the increased adoption of ad blocking software,