Holding Companies Seek Even Greater Profits In New M&A Deal

Mergers and acquisitions—it’s one way to grow a company beholden to its shareholders. Ad industry holding companies know all about it, given that they regularly acquire and then “hold” what were once independent and innovate agencies. Earlier this month in what could become the merger of all mergers, Omnicom announced its intentions to acquire Interpublic […]

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Federal Judge in Florida “Keeps It Simple for the State of Florida”

In Texas, the Attorney General’s office has a nasty habit of using the courts to interfere with citizens groups, churches, and others working for the common good. Now, Florida is taking the litigious path. The state’s Surgeon General’s office wants to bring criminal charges against any broadcasters airing an advertisement it doesn’t like. Right now, […]

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Federal Judge in Florida “Keeps It Simple for the State of Florida”

In Texas, the Attorney General’s office has a nasty habit of using the courts to interfere with citizens groups, churches, and others working for the common good. Now, Florida is taking the litigious path. The state’s Surgeon General’s office wants to bring criminal charges against any broadcasters airing an advertisement it doesn’t like. Right now, […]

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When Content Degrades and Distracts, Advertising Suffers Too

Advertising is a parasite that depends on the blood of its host—news and entertainment content—for its survival. When the body or in this case the media industry is sick, the parasite too will suffer. This is the conclusion, although not the language, of Mike Follett, managing director of eye-tracking company Lumen Research (and a former […]

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Is LLMO the New SEO?

Two Harvard professors looked into the future of AI’s impact on the world wide web and what they saw wasn’t pretty. Judith Donath, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and Bruce Schneier, a fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School published their projections in The Atlantic. Here’s a short […]

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The Loss of Freedom Is Never Obvious at First

“Trust the Free Press. Not Pretty Words.” That’s the message from Reporters Without Borders Germany. To commemorate the group’s 30th anniversary, Innocean Berlin in collaboration with Stink Films Berlin produced a series of moving films, plus posters, digital out-of-home, and social media. The three films in the campaign are powerful cinematic expressions of what’s at […]

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Medium Separates from the AI Pack

Medium is taking a stand on AI-generated writing. An email from Medium arrived in my inbox a few days ago describing changes that are coming to the publishing platform. Beginning May 1, 2024, stories with AI-generated writing (disclosed as such or not) are not allowed to be paywalled as part of Medium’s Partner Program. Accounts […]

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You Don’t Watch The Oscars for the Commercials, But You Could

Traditional advertising showcases are few and far between today, along with opportunities to appeal to a mass audience. Last night’s Academy Awards is one. According to Variety, the 2023 Oscars earned an audience of 18.75 million—more than double the most popular shows on TV (NCIS and FBI). The best “commercial” of the evening was “I’m […]

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GoDaddy Airo Takes You from Idea to ‘Up and Running’ in Minutes

Coming up with a unique brand name that you can legitimately own and a domain name to go with it, is tough to do. All the good names and dot coms seem to be taken. Starting now, you can ask GoDaddy’s AI assistant for help. In the days of yore, you input a domain name […]

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64-Year-Old ‘Kennedy for President’ Ad Remade By Super PAC

A Super PAC spent $7M on a media placement during the Super Bowl, but only 36 hours to produce the spot. And they were able to run it with no input or approvals from the client. Who does that? Answer: American Values Super PAC. The spot contains no original thinking. It’s merely a clumsy recreation […]

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TikTok Tells The Story of Its Satisfied Customers on TV

TikTok’s rising popularity is a dangerous threat to national security. TikTok must be banned. That’s the conclusion of lawmakers and university presidents who want to restrict access to the site. These lawmakers and academic leaders fear the Chinese firm that owns TikTok will collude with the Chinese government and use the data it collects from […]

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Super Sweet Sounds of the ’70s Used to Sell More Stuff

Supertramp, Grand Funk Railroad, Heart, and Chicago. These legendary bands from the 1970s are now providing consumer brands with one anthemic soundtrack followed by the next. I have some questions. Like, why use the music of the 70s, versus music from the 80s or 90s? Are the desired buyers all Boomers or are these simply […]

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Please Don’t Vote for the Guy With 91 Felony Charges

It’s an election year and the campaign is now in full swing. While former President Donald Trump appears to be headed for his third consecutive Republican nomination, current President Joe Biden is focusing on getting the facts straight about January 6th and delivering a message about how much worse it will be for everyone if […]

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Influential Voices in the Marketing and Advertising Industry Today

Last year I tried to resist AI. I had my reasons, and have them still, but I’m adopting a different, more curious, and accepting posture now. That’s what led me to ask my AI Assistant, Claude, to name the 10 most influential voices in the advertising industry today. Claude quickly named Seth Godin and Bob […]

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What Can We Learn from MrBeast’s Brand of “Stunt Philanthropy”?

Do you know MrBeast? His real name is Jimmy Donaldson and his YouTube channel has 217M subscribers. His latest video, which I’m posting below, has 86,434,314 views since debuting five days ago. The video also has a ‘live read’ and product demonstration (at 11 minutes, 10 seconds) featuring Shopify and Kanga Coolers. It’s an old-school […]

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Mr. Musk Fires Several F-Bombs at Advertisers Who Dare to Defy Him

More than 100 brands have “fully paused” their ads or left the social media platform once known as Twitter, following an important report by Media Matters on how advertising from prominent corporations was appearing next to pro-Hitler, Holocaust denial, white nationalist, pro-violence, and neo-Nazi posts and accounts. Media Matters, a not-for-profit organization, has since been […]

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Tweet, Tweet: Twitter Is Failing Harder Every Single Day

Once upon an Internet moment, Twitter was a big deal. Then a braggadocious billionaire bought the company and within minutes the social media platform’s engine began to sputter and its wheels flatten. Flash forward to the present. An internal presentation obtained by The New York Times reveals that Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five […]

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What ChatGPT “Thinks” About Ageism in Advertising and Media

Discriminating against people due to their age is a pox upon advertising and media houses. It’s bad business, and another bad business practice is the last thing that these industries need, right now. Ageism is also a particularly perplexing issue emanating from professional workers who truly ought to know better. Given that everyone who is […]

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Long Live the Indie Bookstore

As a former English major, professional writer, and fan of books, I was happy to read in The New York Times that “small booksellers not only survived the pandemic, but many are thriving.” More than 300 new independent bookstores have sprouted across the United States in the past couple of years. Given how bookstore sales […]

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Beauty Brand Dangles NFTs Like Newly Discovered Jewels

 | SHINY OBJECTS ALERT | YSL Beauty is dipping its manicured toes into web3 technologies. Stephan Bezy, CEO of YSL Beauty, says, “To us, web3 holds the promise of intensified experiences, where artistic reinvention and genuine emotions collide.” Intensified experiences and colliding emotions? Sounds like a failed commune from the 1960s. To make web3 accessible […]

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