• Facebook Inc. said it will no longer pay employees commissions for political ads, a product the social media giant used to view as an opportunity for growth but now sees more as a burden, former employees and campaign staffers say. By one estimate, out of the $623 million spent on digital political advertising in the 2018 midterm elections, $284 million was spent on Facebook — a tiny fraction of the $55 billion in revenue Facebook pulled in last year. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Nike Inc.’s latest release of its Jordan Brand sneakers is only available on Epic Games’ Fortnite video game. Players can purchase two versions of the sneaker, in red and black or purple and yellow, for their avatars to wear for $13 to $18, though it’s unclear what share Nike earns in each purchase. (Bloomberg)

• A group of over 100 public health and anti-tobacco organizations is asking executives at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. to address tobacco advertising on their platforms after Philip Morris International Inc. hired young social media influencers to tout its smokeless IQOS device. Advertising tobacco and e-cigarette products online is not illegal, but social media companies have policies that limit it. (Reuters)

NRA Sues Ad Agency, Claims It Engineered Failed Leadership Coup
Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal

The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit accusing its longtime advertising firm of orchestrating a failed executive coup at the gun-rights group and leaking details about lavish expenses, as part of an alleged attempt to “tarnish and ultimately destroy the public image of the NRA and its senior leadership.”

Conde Nast launches new ad program for performance marketers
Max Willens, Digiday

Condé Nast has long boasted that advertisers that use Spire, the publisher’s data and ad targeting platform, get better bang for their buck.

Apple Plans To Make Ads More Private, But Give Advertisers Data, Attribution
Laurie Sullivan, MediaPost

Apple has introduced a new technology that allows attribution of advertising clicks while protecting user privacy.

Amazon Is Working on a Device That Can Read Human Emotions
Matt Day, Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc. is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions.

Susan Rovner, Brett Paul Named Presidents of Warner Bros. Television
Elaine Low, Variety

Longtime television executives Susan Rovner and Brett Paul have been tapped to become presidents of Warner Bros. Television, ascending from their most recent roles as executive VPs of the studio.

Netflix Is Realizing That Shows Don’t Have to Be Long to Be Good
Justin Kirkland, Esquire

New series like Russian Doll, I Think You Should Leave, and Special are the anti-Game of Thrones.

Amazon Can Continue Selling Facial Analysis Tech to the Government
Lisa Lacy, Adweek

Amazon shareholders voted down two proposals impacting its facial analysis technology, Rekognition, during the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle on Wednesday.

Starbucks drives further business transformation with introduction of store pre-visit order app
Stephen Lepitak, The Drum

Starbucks Now, a mobile order and payment service, has been released by the coffee giant across 300 stores in Beijing and Shanghai.

Liketoknow.it Brings Shoppable Content to YouTube
Alexa Tietjen, WWD

The app’s YouTube will be a curated, shoppable channel featuring members of its influencer community.

Snapchat Takes Down Porn Lenses, May Start Cat-and-Mouse Game
Janko Roettgers, Variety

Snapchat quickly removed a handful of x-rated augmented reality lenses Tuesday, dealing a blow to efforts by adult entertainment company Naughty America to promote its subscriptions to the service’s users.

Pepsi Unleashes Hundreds Of Instagram AR Filters For Summer
Karlene Lukovitz, MediaPost

The #Summergram campaign filters are accessible by scanning QR codes accompanying sassy summer-themed statements on the labels of more than 200 million Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar bottles in stores across the country during the summer months.

Google Search redesign puts brands to the front
Chris Davies, SlashGear

Google Search is getting a makeover, with results set to add recognizable brands and more in order to make finding your answer even quicker

How a Silicon Valley startup is trying to rebrand payday loans
Gaby Del Valle, Vox

Earnin promotes itself as a way to “get paid the minute you leave work.”

The World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019: Apple On Top At $206 Billion
Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes

Apple’s iPhone sales have dropped in recent quarters, particularly in China, where cheaper rivals Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi have gained traction. Smartphone revenue fell 17% for the latest three months to $31 billion, but the stock jumped 5% on the results. One big reason: record-high services revenue.

Victoria’s Secret Owner L Brands Buoyed by Bath & Body Works
Micah Maidenberg, The Wall Street Journal

L Brands Inc. raised its profit outlook for the year as the retailer beat overall sales targets in the latest quarter thanks to Bath & Body Works.

McDonald’s workers say restaurants are a magnet for crime
Kate Gibson, CBS News

Workers at a Chicago McDonald’s have filed a complaint with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration claiming that the restaurant had been the scene of 31 violent incidents over six months within the last year.

Prada is finally going fur-free
Melissa Locker, Fast Company

Italian fashion house Prada is going fur free in 2020. The company made it official in a tweet this morning.

Ai Weiwei sues Volkswagen over use of refugee lifejacket artwork in ad
Jack Guy, CNN

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is taking German automaker Volkswagen to court after he said his work appeared in an advert for the company without permission.

Best Buy beats quarterly same-store sales estimates
Uday Sampath, Reuters

Best Buy Co Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly same-store sales on Thursday, as the consumer electronics retailer sold more wearables and tablets and signed up more people to its subscription-based tech support services.

8,000 Amazon employees asked the company to do more on climate change. Shareholders just said no.
Emily Stewart and Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

Amazon is already doing a lot to reduce its carbon footprint — but employees say it’s not enough.

Making history: Rihanna launches brand Fenty in Paris store
Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press

Rihanna, the first black woman in history to head up a major Parisian luxury house, is unveiling her first fashion designs for Fenty at a pop-up store in Paris.

Unilever-owned Schmidt’s Naturals is using AI to handle customer service
Kristina Monllos, Digiday

Deodorant company Schmidt’s Naturals is using an AI platform, called Alexander, to handle all of its customer service — and collect more first-party data.

This Is What It Sounds Like When Brands Cry
Lauren Oyler, The New York Times

There’s a ubiquitous joke on Twitter that goes like this: “Sir, this is an Arby’s.”

Men Are Paying Sixfold Markups to Feel Cool About Buying Generic Viagra
Kristen V Brown et al., Bloomberg

Hims, Roman and other online drug sellers offer customers modern marketing, slick packaging and discretion—for a cost.

Why women’s football is a different ball game for sponsors, the media and fans
John McCarthy, The Drum

Football fans love to see an underdog triumph. Mythologized by the press and commoditized by advertisers, they live on as chest tattoos, their names given to babies. But there is no bigger underdog story than the women’s game’s fight for survival.