There was no avoiding Obama at Ad:tech. The Interactive Advertising Bureau is bracing for the coming regulations.

‘Unquestionably the biggest idea that America has had in decades is Barack Obama,’ proclaimed Paul Woolmington.

The British/South African cofounder of Naked Communications moderated a panel on The Big Idea 3.0, Redefining Creative in the Digital Age.

‘You can now be subversive and be mainstream,’ said Jessica Greenwood, Deputy Editor of Contagious Magazine. She was talking about graffiti artist Banksy who’s known for anti-Wall Street and anti-McDonald’s guerilla work, but also produces advertising for Nike and Diesel.

‘He does that on the side,’ Greenwood said. ‘Nobody really knows about it. You can be many different things to many different people.’

[Jessica Greenwood emailed me the following: 'The information about Banksy came from a friend of mine who was close to the artist, and he's since informed me that the work didn't come off even though they were in negotiations. As a result I'd really love it if you could take that comment out of your blog post as I'd hate for the misinformation to be repeated.' - PV]

On election day IAB-chief Randall Rothenberg kept returning his panel on the The State of the Industry to the coming regulations under an unnamed new administration. ‘I knew this question was coming,’ said David Morris, CBS Interactive’s Chief Client Officer.

Morris gave the official company line. ‘We have to explain to our customers in a very clear and concise way how we’re collecting information, what kind of information we collect and exactly the four or five things we do with that information. I don’t think the FCC is concerned about someone going to Cnet that looks at a camera review and then goes to CBS Sports.com and we serve him a Nikon add there.’

Rothenberg pointed out that’s exactly the kind of advertising that could be banned under proposed legislation in New York State, Connecticut and Massachusetts. ‘The tendency is to define all interactive advertising as behavioral and to put a regulatory umbrella around that,’ said Rothenberg.

‘Both the Online Publishers Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau as industry groups have the responsibilty to keep government out of our business,’ said Tina Sharkey of BabyCenter. ‘We can self-regulate and we have a proven track record of doing no harm.’

The IAB has been working with the 4A’s, ANA, OPA and other organization on the development of ‘a self-regulatory mechanism and enforcement capability’ for a year and a half. ‘We’re pretty confident we’re able to come out with a public path towards a solution by January,’ Rothenberg said.