Galloway, N.J. — What was the driving force behind requiring seatbelts in cars?

What consumer group recently revealed how an inclined baby sleeper contributed to the death of several infants?

Consumer Reports has written about these consumer dangers and has been a consistent source of independent product testing since 1936. Now, Marta L. Tellado, the group’s CEO and president, wants the nonprofit to take its advocacy and human-centered values to something that’s not as tangible — the digital world.

“We are living in a surveillance economy. Many of our moves are tracked. So many of the values that shaped my life and shaped my ambitions in a country that respects one’s privacy are really threatened by some of the ways consumers are exposed in the digital and commercial marketplace,” she said. “Our democracy can only thrive if you have a marketplace that is safe and fair for everyone.”

Tellado spoke before about 100 students, staff and faculty on Oct. 29 at Stockton University’s Campus Center Theatre as part of the School of Business Dean’s Distinguished Guest Speaker event. It was the culmination of a day on campus where Tellado met with university leadership, including President Joe Bertolino, along with student representatives from Los Latinos Unidos, the Accounting & Finance Society, the Hospitality & Tourism Society and other students at a lunch event in the Multicultural Center.

Prior to joining Consumer Reports 10 years ago, Tellado worked at the Ford Foundation, the Aspen Institute, the Partnership for Public Service and in the office of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.

“We are so excited to have you here. I do a lot of research on consumer behavior, but what we do is usually behind closed doors,” said Naz Onel, associate professor of Business Studies, Marketing, who led the discussion with Tellado. “You are connected to the real world, so we have a lot to hear and learn from you.”

It’s a real world that’s more challenging every day for consumers trying to buy safe products and protect their privacy, Tellado said. And that’s always been Consumer Reports’ “bread and butter.”

“We believe you should be able to go out into the market and what you find out there should be safe,” she said. “That’s how we’re different from other reviewers. We investigate. We advocate. We work with companies. We share the data with them and say your car would be more reliable if you do this because we survey millions of consumers every year about the cars they drive.

“Data is power and data and science powers everything we do. Not opinion, not somebody in their home writing a review.”

Tellado began her talk by discussing her recent book “Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace,” which she wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said a lot of her beliefs about transparency came from her upbringing as she was born and spent her early years living in Cuba. She remembered her parents pushing their car out of their driveway as they drove to the airport because they didn’t want their neighbors to know they were leaving the authoritarian country.

“The book is a playbook. It’s trying to give you some thoughts and ideas about how to exert your consumer power in the marketplace,” she said addressing the business students in the audience. “You are learning that the market is about supply and demand, and we as consumers have to demand certain things of the marketplace. I think consumers are a sleeping giant.”

She said she believes that civil rights and consumers rights are “inextricably linked.”

“If your economic agency and power is undermined, then how can you fully participate in a political and social system and environment,” she said. “Right now, the burden is on us. It shouldn’t have to be that way. Your privacy, your security shouldn’t be a setting. It should be a right.”

And she’s not afraid to use technology to help meet Consumer Reports’ goals. She spoke extensively about artificial intelligence and how it’s a “remarkable innovation.”

“I don’t think it’s turn off the switch,” she said regarding how to approach AI. “We’ve got to be as innovative as the for-profit companies, large companies and try to start moving the needle to what we call ethical AI.”

That ethical AI must be informed by good, solid data, which is something Consumer Reports has a lot of on commercial products. Tellado told the audience the nonprofit plans to release a new AI model called “Ask CR” later this year that’s powered by the organization’s vast collection of consumer data.

“Imagine a world where you’re not just getting product service and information, you’re getting a trusted agent that will tell you whether your service agreement is real or whether it’s a scam, whether your warranty is worth anything,” she said.

Tellado finished the talk with some crucial advice for the students in the audience: Think about your life and career as you would a business plan.

“Your business plan of your life is driven by your values and how you want to grow as a human being,” she said. “How do you want to be a member of this community and this society at a time where we really need a generation to get us to a better place?”

— Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Lizzie Nealis

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