NEWS

⚖️ Jury orders Meta and Google to pay woman $3 million in social media addiction trial.

🎤 SXSW 2026: AI rewrites search, podcasts explode, and humans push back.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

🔌 OpenAI pulls the plug on Sora.

🤖 Meta replaces moderation staff with AI.

📉 ChatGPT ads pilot leaves advertisers without proof of ROI.

SOCIAL

📣 TikTok announces five new ad formats.

📸 You can now reorder images in your Instagram carousels.

🛍️ Reddit introduces Shopify integration and shoppable ads.

BRANDS

🍪 How Crumbl leveraged CTV to drive mobile app downloads.

🥤 What’s next for Stanley after the rise and fall of the water bottle craze?

🍎 Apple creates ad platform for Maps.

🧥 Gap becomes first retailer to launch AI checkout in Google Gemini.

Monday: Content only works when mapped to the customer journey (not created randomly). A content funnel is a structured path guiding users from discovery → purchase. Each piece of content has a specific job, not just “engagement.” Without this structure, content becomes disconnected and inefficient. Here’s how to scaffold.

Tuesday: The best PPC managers eliminate unnecessary manual work through smart shortcuts and built-in automation. Features like negative keyword lists, labels, and automated recommendations exist specifically to reduce “busy work” and prevent account bloat. Here are shortcuts to know.

Wednesday: Choosing between modals and separate pages is a decision about user flow, interruption, and task complexity. Modals are best when users need to complete a quick, focused action without losing context, while full pages are better for deeper, multi-step, or exploratory tasks. Modals intentionally interrupt the flow, so they should only be used when that interruption is justified and minimal. Here’s what to consider.

Thursday: We have heard frequently from marketers in the nonprofit space looking for more relevant resources. Budget constraints are one of the biggest challenges for marketers in nonprofit organizations. But there’s good news. Many marketing tools and services offer discounted pricing for nonprofits. Here are a few tips for finding them.

Can you solve this puzzle? 🍌

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✨ Don’t miss the latest episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Transgressive Out-of-Home Advertising (18:45).

Shannon gives a brief history of OOH—all the way from ancient murals to Mail Pouch Tobacco barns to augmented reality. Then, we deep dive into 12 examples of transgressive OOH in the 21st century that changed or challenged how we as a public move through space and time.

Catch up on Season 2:

• Your Brain on AI (12:33)
• Meta, McDonald’s Mukbang, and The OpenAI Mess (14:41)
• Ethics in the AI Era (18:33)

🎙️ Now streaming on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music.

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Texas Ranger Cowboy Outfit, 1950s

Answer: A puffer jacket stuffed with pickles and brine.

Yeah.