• The Coca-Cola Co.’s Fanta soda brand unveiled a new logo and branding suite as part of a push to unify its visual identity across all markets. The refreshed logo replaces Fanta’s long-held orange backdrop with a bright blue one and features the brand name written in a bold, angular font, which Global Vice President of Design Rapha Abreu said aims to communicate that Fanta “values spontaneous play.” (Marketing Week)
• Johnson & Johnson announced a proposed settlement to pay out $8.9 billion to consumers over thousands of claims that its talc products, including baby powder, caused cancer. Despite the proposal, Global Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said Johnson & Johnson still believes the allegations are “specious and lack scientific merit.” (CNBC)
• Florida-based software company Kaseya Ltd. reached a $117 million naming rights deal with Miami-Dade County to sponsor the Miami Heat’s arena, which will now be called the Kaseya Center. The NBA team began searching for a new stadium sponsor last year after its previous sponsor, cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd., filed for bankruptcy. (The Wall Street Journal)
• General Motors Co. said approximately 5,000 of its U.S. corporate employees opted to take buyouts offered to them last month. The voluntary program was initiated to help the automaker reach its goal of cutting $2 billion in annual costs by the end of 2024. (CNN)

The State of Workers 2023 

Morning Consult

The secret sauce behind LinkedIn’s $5bn advertising business 

Chris Sutcliffe, The Drum

LinkedIn’s digital advertising business is worth $5bn annually – an especially impressive figure given how recently many of its ad formats launched. But as the peer network approaches its 20th anniversary, it believes there is still significant headroom to find new users and create new advertising formats.

The FTC makes a rare appearance at advertising conference

Ryan Barwick, Marketing Brew

At an IAB event this week, a senior attorney in the FTC’s advertising division said the agency isn’t anti-advertising.

Hype Around Weight-Loss Drugs Shows No Signs of Abating. Neither Do the Ads.

Katie Deighton, The Wall Street Journal

Ads for the likes of Ozempic and Wegovy are spreading through social media feeds, subway stations and TV.

The Obamas’ Higher Ground Inks Podcast Advertising Deal With Acast

J. Clara Chan, The Hollywood Reporter

Acast will handle ad sales and distribution for the production company’s podcasts.

Disney EMEA Staff Bracing For Layoffs & Content Cuts

Max Goldbart and Jesse Whittock, Deadline  

Multiple sources both inside and outside the Mouse House have told Deadline they are expecting redundancies and budget cuts to come shortly, and that these plans are currently being finalized.

Fox News says Carlson, Hannity, Bartiromo set to testify at defamation trial

Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

Fox News said Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo and other top on-air personalities will be available to testify as it defends itself against a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit claiming it lied about voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Netflix set to release first live reunion special on April 16 with ‘Love is Blind’ cast

Lauren Forristal, TechCrunch

Netflix continues with its livestreams, this time with the “Love is Blind” season 4 cast. This will be the streamer’s first live reunion special in its history. “Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion” will air on April 16 at 8 p.m. ET.

Who Owns SpongeBob? AI Shakes Hollywood’s Creative Foundation

Jessica Toonkel and Sarah Krouse, The Wall Street Journal

Artificial-intelligence tools raise questions about intellectual-property rights that are under scrutiny by courts and entertainment executives.

Bill Gates says calls to pause AI won’t ‘solve challenges’

Jennifer Rigby, Reuters

Calls to pause the development of artificial intelligence will not “solve the challenges” ahead, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told Reuters, his first public comments since an open letter sparked a debate about the future of the technology.

TikTok fined $16 million in UK for misusing kids’ data as scrutiny of Chinese-owned app intensifies

Ryan Browne, CNBC 

The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office said in a statement Tuesday that it was fining TikTok for “a number of breaches of data protection law, including failing to use children’s personal data lawfully.”

A new group of Twitter vendors is suing the company for alleged unpaid bills

Clare Duffy, CNN

The four firms — captioning services company White Coat Captioning, consulting group YES Consulting and public relations firms Cancomm and Dialogue México — allege that Twitter is in breach of their contracts and has yet to pay bills ranging from around $40,000 to $140,000 for services they provided the company last year.

Amazon wants to boost ten generative AI startups around the globe

Natasha Mascarenhas, TechCrunch 

AWS has created a 10-week program for generative AI startups around the globe. Generative AI startup founders within the cohort can expect to have access to AI models and tools as well as machine learning stack optimization and custom go-to-market advice. There’s also a Demo Day in San Francisco at the end of the program.

Instant Videos Could Represent the Next Leap in A.I. Technology

Cade Metz, The New York Times

A start-up in New York is among a group of companies working on systems that can produce short videos based on a few words typed into a computer.

Apple’s Weather App Is Working Again After More Than 14-Hour Outage

Joseph Pisani, The Wall Street Journal

Service may have been slow or unavailable, tech company says, without offering reason for outage.

Why are brands still pulling pranks on April Fools’ Day?

Katie Hicks, Marketing Brew

Despite some calls for the tradition to end, brands like Duolingo are still seeing results.

Dunkin’ staff mistake Affleck for Damon in second spot starring ‘Air’ director

Peter Adams, Marketing Dive

Dunkin’ released its second ad starring Ben Affleck, building on a well-received Super Bowl campaign from February, per details shared with Marketing Dive.

Italy’s Golden Goose to spread its wings beyond sneakers

Elisa Anzolin, Reuters

Italian luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose reported a 30% rise in revenues last year and sees scope for further growth by expanding beyond its core product range, Chief Executive Silvio Campara told Reuters. “We will keep on innovating our business, which is sneakers, but there will be something out of sneakers that is ready to be launched on the market,” CEO Silvio Campara told Reuters.

These Brands Scored Big at the Women’s Final Four

Mollie Cahillane, Adweek

Dozens of brands had an on-the-ground presence in Dallas over the weekend, where record-breaking crowds gathered to watch the nation’s top talent. 

Inflation Is Helping Drive a Boom in Secondhand Shopping

Zahra Hirji, Bloomberg

Sales of secondhand clothes, shoes and accessories jumped 28% in 2022 from the previous year, according to a new report.

Walmart aims for 65% of stores to be automation serviced by 2026

Siddharth Cavale, Reuters

Walmart Inc on Tuesday said it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026, just days after revealing plans to lay off more than 2,000 people at facilities that fulfill online orders.

The New Rules of Layoffs

Chip Cutter, The Wall Street Journal

Executives weigh the best way to let people go.

So long treadmill desks! Meet the Walking Room

Elissaveta M. Brandon, Fast Company

An office building in Amsterdam is turning one of its rooms into a giant treadmill.

Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

Martin Coulter, Reuters

Hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout at the company’s London offices on Tuesday, following a dispute over layoffs.

Amazon lays off more than 100 employees in its video games division:

Annie Palmer, CNBC

Since its launch in 2013, Amazon Games has struggled to produce a hit despite several published projects, and the company luring top talent from the likes of Sony Online Entertainment.

The Complicated Business of Personal Lives

Madeleine Aggeler, The New York Times 

The ubiquity of corporate organizational tools means how we manage our work and personal time often doesn’t look that different. Is that bad?