• Meta Platforms Inc. announced it will sunset livestream shopping on Instagram in March and shift its strategic focus back to improving the performance of more traditional advertising functions on the app, including its Checkout feature, which lets users buy a product from feed posts in just a few taps The move follows a similar shutdown of livestream shopping on Facebook last year. (TechCrunch)
• Subway on Tuesday confirmed it is up for sale, a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that the fast food chain — which has been privately owned by its two founding families for more than five decades —  was exploring the possibility. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will facilitate the sale process. (CNN) 
• Twitter Inc. owner Elon Musk ordered a major overhaul of the social media platform’s algorithm this week specifically to ensure posts from his own account would always appear at or near the top of users’ timelines, according to several people familiar with the matter. The change was reportedly made because Musk’s tweet about rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl received significantly less engagement than President Joe Biden’s tweet expressing the same position. (Platformer News) 
• LVMH’s Louis Vuitton hired musician and designer Pharell Williams as its next creative director of menswear, succeeding Virgil Abloh, who died in November 2021. Williams’ first collection for the brand will debut during men’s fashion week in Paris this June. (The Wall Street Journal)

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: U.S. TikTok bans gain ground

Context News

Google starts beta testing its rebrand of interest-based ad-targeting on Android

Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch

Google has begun letting Android developers kick the tyres of its claimed reboot of ad-targeting — announcing the launch of the first Beta for its “Privacy Sandbox”, an adtech stack proposal which aims to iterate how ad tracking, targeting and reporting is done so it appears less creepy for individual users while maintaining an interest-based, behavioral targeting capability on web users’ eyeballs.

‘Safe, lazy, boring’: How Super Bowl LVII ads mostly fumbled

Peter Adams and Chris Kelly, Marketing Dive

Celebrity fatigue was prevalent in a night overly reliant on famous faces doing goofy humor, while a handful of emotionally driven spots hit the mark.

Yahoo Shuttering Its SSP Is Evidence That Ad Exchanges Are Becoming Interchangeable

Anthony Vargas, AdExchanger

The end of Yahoo’s SSP represents an unexpected shift in the digital advertising landscape.

Time will launch a new commerce site powered by Taboola

Sara Fischer, Axios

Time plans to launch a new commerce website next quarter powered by content created by a team of editors and writers at Taboola, executives told Axios.

Vice Media Gets $30 Million-Plus Lifeline From Fortress as Bills Pile Up

Alexandra Bruell et al., The Wall Street Journal

Company owes millions of dollars in overdue payments to several vendors, some of whom have resorted to debt collectors.

Disney Will Animate ESPN Coverage for Disney Channel to Get Kids Into Hockey

Brian Steinberg, Variety

On March 14 at 7 p.m. ET, ESPN will make available a live telecast of a match between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers on the Disney Channel and Disney XD cable outlets as well as the Disney+ streaming service — and kids might just see it as another fun program. That’s because the game, the “NHL Big City Greens Classic,” will be animated and feature a few characters from the popular cartoon series “Big City Greens.” 

Paramount Global tries again to sell Simon & Schuster 

Amy Jo-Crowley and Anirban Sen, Reuters

Paramount, formerly known as ViacomCBS, is working with a financial adviser to explore a sale of Simon & Schuster that could value it between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, the sources said, cautioning the process was at an early stage and a deal was not certain.

Sean “Diddy” Combs Rebrands Company

Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter

The name change from Combs Enterprises to Combs Global by the rapper and record producer marks a continuing expansion for his portfolio of music, fashion and TV ventures.

BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, creating personalized stories powered by OpenAI

Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

Infinity Quizzes will give users a basic theme, ask a few keyword questions, and build a breezy, personalized narrative based on these. BuzzFeed said the quizzes are powered by an AI that it calls “Buzzy the Robot”, based on OpenAI’s publicly available API trained on a blend of text, code and information prior to June 2021.

Fox News must face Smartmatic’s lawsuit over election-rigging claims

Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

A New York state appeals court rejected Fox News’ bid to dismiss a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit accusing the network of falsely accusing an electronic voting systems company of helping rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election to favor Joe Biden over Donald Trump.

Movie Trailers in Super Bowl 2023 Highlight Studios’ Need For Post-Pandemic Boost

Parker Herren, Ad Age

This year’s Big Game saw several studios promoting flashy films, with some yielding extraordinary engagement scores.

Netflix Shuns Live Sports but Embraces Sports Documentaries

John Koblin and Alan Blinder, The New York Times

Unlike many of its rivals, Netflix has not pursued showing live games. Instead, it has invested in series on professional auto racing, tennis and now golf.

‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Sets Premiere Date at Apple, Drops First Teaser

Joe Otterson, Variety

The streamer announced that the critically-acclaimed sports comedy will return on Wednesday, March 15, with new episodes dropping weekly thereafter. 

Facebook is going to explain more about how machine learning decides the ads you see

Jay Peters, The Verge

Meta is updating Facebook’s ad transparency tools to better explain how it uses machine learning to decide which ads you see you.

Twitter Cuts Salesforce Bill 75% as More Buyers Scrutinize Software Spending

Kevin McLaughlin and Erin Woo, The Information

Twitter last month cut its contract for Salesforce’s customer-management software by 75%, to $5 million a year from $20 million, after reducing its workforce by roughly the same percentage, according to a person with direct knowledge. 

YouTube quietly tests letting creators add multiple audio tracks in different languages to their videos

Amanda Perelli, Insider

YouTube has been quietly testing the ability for creators to add multiple audio tracks in different languages to their videos, the company confirmed to Insider. 

Reddit Aims for IPO in Second Half as Market’s Gears Quietly Turn

Cory Weinberg, The Information

Social media company Reddit is far from profitability but has its sights set on finally going public later this year—likely in the second half, people familiar with the matter said.

ChatGPT Lookalikes Proliferate in China

Zephing Huang, Bloomberg

China’s obsession with ChatGPT runs deeper than curiosity. Search giant Baidu Inc. is preparing to launch its own competitor, Ernie Bot, in March. It’ll embed the tool initially into its search services and smart speakers.

Coca-Cola Has a Sports-Drink Problem as BodyArmor Stumbles

Jennifer Maloney and Dean Seal, The Wall Street Journal

Fourth-quarter beverage sales rise 7% from higher prices but company sees sales growth slowing; share of sports-drink market slips.

Man becomes human taboggan in Cheez-It’s first brand campaign in five years

Amy Houston, The Drum

The Kellogg’s-owned salty snack is over a century old and hopes that this new ad will put the focus back onto super fans of the brand.

Why Michaels is launching its first branded credit card

Gabriela Barkho, Modern Retail

On Wednesday Michaels introduced a private-label credit card, the first ever in the company’s 50-year history. The launch is part of the arts and crafts retailer’s strategy to encourage frequent shoppers, such as teachers and business owners, to keep coming back to Michaels for all their supplies.

H&M and Remondis form textiles recycling venture

Reuters

H&M the world’s second biggest fashion retailer, said on Wednesday it had formed a joint venture with German recycling group Remondis to collect, sort and sell used and unwanted garments and textiles.

Hanes undies gets a colorful redesign to win over Gen Z

Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company

Hanes is known for its classic tighty whities. Can its colorful new Hanes Originals line sell the brand to a new generation?

Gucci, Balenciaga Struggle Amid Designer Shakeup and Ad Controversy

Nick Kostov, The Wall Street Journal

French luxury conglomerate Kering said its biggest brand, Gucci, booked a 14% drop in comparable sales over a three-month period ending in December.

Tesla employees launch New York union campaign

Ashley Capoot, CNBC

Tesla employees in New York have launched a campaign to organize a union with Workers United Upstate New York, according to a release posted to Twitter Tuesday.

Lee Enterprises forces furloughs in latest cost-cutting move

Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer, Axios

Lee, one of the last remaining independent local newspaper companies, dodged a hostile takeover bid from hedge fund Alden Global Capital last year. 

Here’s how 10 industries are experimenting with ChatGPT

Amanda Shendruk, Quartz

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI chatbot trained on vast amounts of data, debuted in public in November 2022, immediately fueling both concern and creative conversation about the role of AI in the working world. In the subsequent months, the buzz has only grown, as more and more professionals ask: What does ChatGPT mean for my job?