Top Stories

  • As the Federal Trade Commission investigates Facebook Inc.’s privacy practices, the company has found emails that indicate that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other senior officials were not prioritizing compliance with a 2012 consent decree with the FTC, according to people familiar with the matter. Facebook denied that such emails exist and that Zuckerberg and other employees never intentionally violated the company’s obligations under the consent order. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • The nation’s largest meatpacker, Tyson Foods Inc., is entering the fake meat market this summer by offering pea-protein “chicken” nuggets as part of a new brand called Raised & Rooted, which will offer both alternative meat and blended meat products. Tyson CEO Noel White said alternative protein could be a billion-dollar business for the company. (CNBC)
  • Epic Games Inc., maker of the video game Fortnite, acquired the video chat app Houseparty, whose young user base is similar to Fortnite’s, as a way to further interaction between gamers. Epic Games said that all friend lists will stay the same and that the user data in both Houseparty and Fortnite accounts would not be shared between the two. (Fortune)

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Advertising

From Zuckerberg to JFK, how advertisers are deploying deepfakes
Katie Deighton, The Drum

The emergence of ‘deepfake’ video, audio and imagery is threatening to undermine our sense of a shared reality. But to what extent are advertisers and creatives colluding in this, and how transparent should they be when releasing synthetic work?

BuzzFeed’s tweaked studio strategy showcases challenges for publisher studio units
Sahil Patel, Digiday

BuzzFeed plans to produce 20 digital shows this year, including upcoming projects with Facebook and Snap. When it comes to film and TV projects, the publisher will seek to work with a traditional Hollywood partner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Videos most engaging in-app ad formats, study finds
Shawn Lim, The Drum

A new study on in-app ad pricing and performance has found that the average click-through rates (CTR) of in-app video ads are 7.5 times higher than display ads.

Watch out, Google, Facebook is eating into paid-search budgets
Seb Joseph, Digiday

Paid search no longer dominates the performance budgets for advertisers. In fact, some have noticed that paid-social ads on Facebook can deliver better results, such as driving traffic to sites, than they did previously.

Media and Entertainment

Twitch is emerging as a favorite new platform for publishers
Kerry Flynn, Digiday

As the Amazon-owned live video platform grows its sales team, publishers like The Washington Post, Cheddar and BuzzFeed have invested in creating specific shows catered to the platform over the last year.

KKR is buying the publisher of Business Insider in a $7.7 billion deal
Charles Riley and Hadas Gold, CNN

US private equity giant KKR wants to take the owner of Business Insider private in a deal that values the European publishing company at nearly $8 billion.

The Daily Show Buys Ads on Fox News in DC Inviting Trump to Its Presidential Twitter Library
Jason Lynch, Adweek

The local spots will air on Fox & Friends and Hannity through Saturday.

Fox, Agencies Join Addressable Tv Consortium
Jeanine Poggi, AdAge

Project OAR’s agency advisory committee includes Publicis, Omnicom Media Group, GroupM, IPG’s Magna Global, Dentsu Aegis, Havas and Horizon Media.

WarnerMedia Hires Chief of Enterprise Inclusion
Paul Bond, The Hollywood Reporter

WarnerMedia on Wednesday announced it has named former CAA executive Christy Haubegger its executive vp and chief enterprise inclusion officer, a role where she is expected to oversee the company’s growth in diverse audiences and make sure the workforce represents the markets served.

Social Media and Technology

YouTube channels from prominent white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis are still on YouTube, a week after it announced new hate speech policies
Paige Leskin, Business Insider

YouTube says that “enforcement will take time,” and that its policies indicate a channel has to get three strikes (videos removed) within a 90-day period in order to be removed.

Alphabet-owned Jigsaw Bought A Russian Troll Campaign As An Experiment
Andy Greenberg, Wired

As part of research into state-sponsored disinformation that it undertook in the spring of 2018, Jigsaw set out to test just how easily and cheaply social media disinformation campaigns, or “influence operations,” could be bought in the shadier corners of the Russian-speaking web.

Pandora Debuts Digital Audio Consultancy Ahead of Cannes
George P. Slefo, AdAge
As brands continue to pour ad dollars into digital audio – the format grew to $2.3 billion in 2018, up 23 percent from the previous year – many marketers are tuning in to how they’re heard and not seen.

Slack’s stock market debut may value the workplace chat app at $17 billion
Sonali Basak et al., Los Angeles Times

Slack Technologies Inc. is expected to be valued by investors at $16 billion to $17 billion when it lists its shares publicly next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bird just bought its way into San Francisco by purchasing scooter rival Scoot
Sean Hollister, The Verge

Bird has bought its way back into the city by purchasing Scoot, one of the two scooter companies that did get permits to operate in San Francisco.

PR and Marketing

Target expands same-day shipping option, marking the latest move in the delivery wars with Walmart and Amazon
Lauren Thomas, CNBC

Shoppers will be able to pay a flat fee of $9.99 and have the option to get 65,000 different items on Target.com delivered same day.

BB&T and SunTrust reveal new name. The merging banks had ‘thousands’ to choose from
Deon Roberts, The Charlotte Observer

BB&T and SunTrust Banks on Wednesday unveiled the name of the massive bank they plan to create and base in Charlotte through a proposed merger announced this year.

A Buyout Won’t Solve Saks Owner’s Real Issue: Department Stores Are Dying
Suzanne Kapner, The Wall Street Journal

A retail empire builder bets one more deal can save Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor from themselves

‘War of the giants’: Disney+’s Ricky Strauss has a lot riding on him
Tim Peterson, Digiday

The $7-a-month subscription service, which will launch on November 12, is widely considered a cornerstone of the company’s future.

Amazon’s unique new credit card is a play for low-income Americans
Alison Griswold, Quartz

This week, Amazon announced Amazon Credit Builder, a special credit card for US customers who need to build (or rebuild) their credit history.

The Resurrection of Dolce & Gabbana
Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times

After last year’s debacle in China, the brand went dark. Now it may be on its way back.

Kohl’s adds adaptive clothing to its three top kids’ brands
Kelly Tyko, USA Today

Kohl’s announced Wednesday that it has added clothing designed for people with disabilities into its three largest kids’ brands – Jumping Beans, SO and Urban Pipeline – that look just like clothing worn by their peers but are easier to wear.

J&J, Colgate talc powder lawsuit: Firms ordered to pay nearly $10M
Thomas Barrabi, Fox Business

Johnson & Johnson and Colgate Palmolive were ordered to pay a total of nearly $10 million to a California woman who alleged that the consumer product companies’ talc-based body powders contributed to her diagnosis of terminal mesothelioma.

Immigration advocacy group says the tech industry deserves ‘a lot of blame’
Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN

Onstage at Recode’s Code Conference on Tuesday, RAICES CEO Jonathan Ryan said “the tech industry deserves a lot of blame for what is happening at our borders and assisting and enabling our government to bring to scale and into more efficiency this devastating violation of human rights.”

Lululemon Reports Higher Sales, Raises Full-Year Outlook
Aisha Al-Muslim, The Wall Street Journal

Vancouver company is looking to double the revenue of its men’s and digital businesses.

American Airlines plans to use its own execs as guinea pigs to convince people that the Boeing 737 Max won’t crash again
Sinead Baker, Business Insider

American Airlines plans to fly its own senior executives will fly on the Boeing 737 Max plane before any regular passengers, in an attempt to reassure the public that the aircraft is safe.

Walmart eliminates Jet president role as it further integrates e-commerce business
Lauren Thomas, CNBC

More than two years after Walmart bought Jet.com, the big-box retailer is taking steps to more fully integrate and fold the e-commerce platform into its own business.

Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research

Why Brands Need to Focus on Value Creation Over In-Housing
Jon Suarez-Davis, Adweek

The goal of marketing today remains the same as it has always been: winning the hearts and minds of customers to drive sustainable growth. Yet how marketers do this has radically transformed in recent years.

Morning Consult