• The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block JetBlue Airways Inc.’s proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines Inc., arguing the deal would leave consumers with fewer options for low-cost airfare. It marks the latest effort by the Biden Administration to curtail big business consolidation across several industries. (CNBC) 
• Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced a bill that would empower the Department of Commerce to ban foreign technologies and companies — including ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok — from operating in the United States if they pose a threat to national security. (The Wall Street Journal) Meanwhile, the short-form video app on Tuesday rolled out a new monetization feature, called Series, that allows creators to post collections of premium content behind a paywall. (Mashable) 
• Adidas AG’s new Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden said the company is considering selling the last of its Yeezy products and donating the profits to charity as a way to offset the financial burdens imposed by its now-defunct partnership with rapper Ye. In his first press conference since taking over the sportswear giant earlier this year, Gulden ruled out a number of other options for discarding Yeezy products, including burning or rebranding them. (Bloomberg)
• The Hershey Co. announced it will launch vegan versions of its Hershey Bar and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup candies nationwide later this month. The vegan options will feature updated packaging with the phrase “Plant Based” emblazoned in large font at the top of the wrapper. (CNN)

Retail, search and Amazon’s $40bn ‘advertising’ business

Benedict Evans

Miller Lite Turns Sexist Ads Into Fertilizer For Female Brewers

Fern Siegel, MediaPost

Miller Life will turn its old sexist beer print ads, displays and posters into fertilizer — and give it to more than 200 female brewers to make approximately 330,000 beers. The brand partnered with actor-producer Ilana Glazer (“Broad City”) to star in an ad underscoring the brewer’s intentions.

Hundreds of sexual deepfake ads using Emma Watson’s face ran on Facebook and Instagram in the last two days

Kat Tenbarge, NBC News

A deepfake app advertised itself on Meta platforms using faces of actors Watson and Scarlett Johansson.

A conversation with Google’s VP of global ads

Ryan Barwick, Marketing Brew 

Google’s VP of global ads on what the DOJ lawsuit could mean for the company.

YouTube is killing the overlay ad format next month

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica

Banner ads that cover videos are getting the boot. 

Elon Musk thinks he can fix Twitter’s advertising business after derailing it

Catherine Thorbecke, CNN

Elon Musk on Tuesday offered an optimistic picture for how Twitter can improve the advertising business he helped derail and boost its bottom line while also admitting that keeping the social network running is proving to be a challenge after multiple rounds of layoffs. In remarks at a Morgan Stanley Conference, Musk laid out his vision to boost Twitter’s core advertising business by adopting the standard strategy of most of the company’s peers: improving the relevance of the ads it serves.

Fox Hires Nielsen Exec to Lead New Data-Driven Sales Strategy

Parker Herren, Ad Age

Mainak Mazumdar joins Fox as its first executive VP, chief advertising research and analytics officer.

Global brands look to boost media investment in women’s sports through a new partnership, The Women’s Sports Club

Jessica Golden, CNBC

More than 20 global brands that buy and sell sports media and sponsorships are coming together to drive media spending to women’s sports. They include names such as Morgan Stanley, Nike, Gatorade, Coca-Cola and Delta, in addition to leagues such as the WNBA and LPGA.

Graydon Carter debuts first Air Mail vertical, plans print magazine

Sara Fischer, Axios

The isn’t yet profitable, but Carter said it brings in more than $15 million in annual revenue and has “a significant amount of the money we raised in the bank” to continue expanding for the next few years.

NFL Black Friday game on Prime Video won’t be under paywall

Joe Reedy, The Associated Press

Prime Video will give an early Christmas gift to football fans for the coming season: Amazon announced Tuesday that the Black Friday game on Nov. 24 will be available for all fans to stream for free.

No Bylines for Bots: BuzzFeed CEO Says AI Won’t Replace Human Journalists

Diane Haithman, The Wrap

“The place where I’m most excited about AI is not in news, but in entertainment,“ Jonah Peretti says.

Apple Debuts Yellow iPhone 14 to Boost Interest Until New Model

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is returning to a frequent trick it uses to keep buyers interested in its current iPhone line until the new model arrives: adding a new color. 

FTC Twitter Investigation Sought Elon Musk’s Internal Communications, Journalist Names

Ryan Tracy, The Wall Street Journal

Documents obtained by a House panel shed light on the probe into Twitter’s compliance with settlement.

TikTok Asks Creators to Help Win Over Lawmakers

Kaya Yurieff, The Information

TikTok sent a message to some creators this week inviting them to join top company executives in Washington D.C. in late March as the ByteDance-owned company continues to fight calls for a ban of the app in the U.S.

Facebook tests bringing back in-app messaging features as it competes with TikTok

Clare Duffy, CNN

 Nearly a decade after Facebook angered some users by splitting off messaging features from its flagship social networking application and forcing people to download a separate app to chat with friends, the company is now testing out reversing the move.

Reddit’s new features include a TikTok-style video feed

Mia Sato, The Verge

Reddit is splitting text and video content into two separate feeds.

Twitter Blue’s quiet rollout in EU frets watchdog over lack of notice

Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch

Twitter has ruffled more regulatory feathers in the European Union by going ahead with a rollout of a much criticized paid verification feature without informing its lead data protection watchdog ahead of time — despite previously saying it would.

How Google Became Cautious of AI and Gave Microsoft an Opening

Miles Kruppa and Sam Schechner, The Wall Street Journal

Researchers developed a powerful chatbot years before rival ChatGPT went viral. After management stalled its release, they quit.

Elon Musk Says Twitter’s Finances Improving After Big Cuts

Ryan Mac, The New York Times 

Twitter’s owner says the company is recovering after a sharp drop in ad sales. But its revenue is still far short of its level in 2021, before he took over.

International Women’s Day 2023: How Google, PepsiCo and Other Brands Are Celebrating

Mia Gindis, Ad Age

These campaigns are honoring and advocating for women from the coffee fields of Costa Rica to the protests in Iran.

How Lego Beat Barbie and Monopoly

Trefor Moss, The Wall Street Journal

Maker of toy bricks reports rise in sales, pushing further ahead of U.S. rivals.

WeightWatchers jumps into the prescription weight loss drug business

Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN

The company, now known as WW International, will buy Sequence, a telehealth subscription service that connects patients with doctors who can prescribe weight-loss and diabetes drugs, including the hot new diabetes drug Ozempic.

Claire’s opens high-end Paris store during fashion week

Danny Parisi, Glossy

Claire’s CEO Ryan Vero told Glossy in September that his goal for Claire’s is to be a brand that can sell anywhere and everywhere, from mass market stores like Walmart to high-end places like Galeries Lafayette. The high end of Claire’s reach is expanding this week with the opening of a new store in Paris.

What Long-Form TikTok Videos Mean for Brands’ Future Social Strategies 

Gillian Follett, Ad Age

With the correct approach, brands can emulate the success of Hilton’s video with their own long-form content, social media marketing experts say.

Gannett shed nearly half its workforce since GateHouse merger

Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn, Axios

A major leadership shakeup at Gannett, along with drastic cost-cutting and strategy shifts, underscores just how much pressure the country’s largest newspaper company is facing as it tries to appease stockholders and remain independent.

Google boss Sundar Pichai says staff are bemoaning office ghost towns—‘It’s just not a nice experience’

Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune

His company’s dominance in ad-rich search engine queries is under acute threat by Microsoft’s A.I.-enabled Bing just as heavy investments in Google Cloud mean the business continues to bleed red ink in an industry where profits seem to grow on trees for other hyperscalers.Google CEO Pichai, who is now in the process of rushing out his own chatbot dubbed Bard to respond, is having to cut back elsewhere. Last month he received immediate pushback on a new policy that forces staff at his loss-making Cloud operations to share their desks with a partner. 

Salesforce Strives to Make Its Sales Force More Efficient

Tom Dotan, The Wall Street Journal

Business-software company slims its teams and takes other steps to pump up profit margins.

Starbucks CEO agrees to testify before US Senate panel

Kanishka Singh, Reuters 

Starbucks Corp. interim Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz has agreed to testify this month before a U.S. Senate committee, the company and panel chairman Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday. Schultz will testify on March 29 before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee after he had earlier declined an invitation from 11 senators to testify before the panel on March 9. Schultz is stepping down from his post this month.