When the world’s biggest advertiser, Procter & Gamble, launched its polarising advertising campaign for Gillette in January challenging “toxic masculinity”, arch-rival Unilever's $1 billion direct-to-consumer Dollar Shave Club (DSC) launched a series of ads on Pornhub telling men “you won’t have to visit this site as much” if they used its products.

It was a striking cultural contrast from two large international consumer brand portfolios who have both been waging a battle for three years to clean up the “murky” digital media supply chain for advertising.