SOCIAL

📸 Instagram introduces thumbnail post editing for grids.

🛠️ Plus, Instagram opens up access to Creator Tools for all public accounts.

✨ Meta has a new way to measure social engagement beyond just clicks.

🧢 Instagram gets backlash for “Shop The Look” recommendations.

🛍️ Meta enters the AI shopping wars to challenge ChatGPT and Gemini.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

👀 Tens of thousands of ChatGPT users cancel their accounts in response to OpenAI’s new deal with the U.S. military.

📢 Meanwhile, advertisers will soon be able to buy ChatGPT ads through Criteo.

🤖 Study: Brands may actually benefit from advertising next to AI content.

🎨 AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted after Supreme Court declines to review the rule.

CAMPAIGNS

🎈 Macy’s new platform celebrates the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade all year long.

✈️ Kayak pokes fun at millennial travel anxiety in new brand platform.

💍 A look behind The Knot’s ChatGPT pilot ads.

Monday: Season 2 of The Daily Carnage is here! Shannon kicks us off with an ethical discussion of ChatGPT’s decision to integrate ads, along with how Australia’s recent youth social ban is reshaping youth marketing; why some users are uncomfortable with TikTok’s new Local Feed; why Meta’s facial-identification update is being called “sneaky”; the backlash and fallout after Ring’s Super Bowl campaign, and more. Streaming everywhere now (18:33).

Tuesday: According to Socialinsider’s analysis of millions of Reels across hundreds of thousands of accounts, the majority of views are accrued in the first few days after publication. There’s a clear pattern, in fact. Days 1–5 are the “golden window,” where Reels receive the bulk of their views here, averaging around 17,100 views across accounts of all sizes. Here’s what happens after Day 5.

Wednesday: MarTech recently examined why many B2B brands are rarely cited in generative AI responses. Analyzing over 1,000 buyer prompts across 29 tech-focused B2B companies, they found that most brands appear infrequently, with only about 21 % cited in more than a quarter of relevant answers. Surprisingly, strong web domains do not guarantee citations, since AI models prioritize signals beyond traditional SEO metrics. Here’s what they found.

Thursday: WordStream analyzed over 15,666 Google Ads accounts and found widespread inefficiencies in how advertisers are managing search campaigns. Average wasted spend was $1,127/month, over a third of typical budgets. These are the key insights to know.

Can you solve this puzzle? 🎙️

🔥 Trending in The Daily Carnage Facebook group…

“Is anyone here told regularly that they have leadership potential but simply do not want a leadership role? My role is engaging, challenging and full and my pay is great. It’s a tough spot where I’m grateful for the recognition of my skills and don’t want to be viewed as underperforming or uninvested.”

💬 Our community of experts says…

• “You don’t need to be in leadership to be a leader. I think knowing what you love and excel at is a strength, though I know there are orgs who would see it as a “weakness.”
• “As an employer, I would value you even more. If every employee wanted to get promoted to leadership, we’d have to constantly back fill positions. You are not only saving the company money, you are also the backbone of it.”
• “I’ve had a lot of team members who feel this way and honestly it was refreshing cause they clearly could see that the leadership level is politics and meetings… and less of the stuff they love.”
• “Superstars are the people who step into leadership—they want to climb and excel there. Rock stars are the experts who consistently deliver outstanding work in their lane. They may not want to manage people, but their depth and reliability make the whole organization better. Healthy organizations build paths for both.”

“The Daily Carnage was the newsletter that brought us the most meaningful demo clicks and new trials.” — Digital Summit

“Open rate was nearly 50% and CTR was relatively high, especially considering this newsletter’s audience was likely being exposed to our event for the first time.” — Adweek

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Aqua-fresh, 1983

Answer: OREO.

Happy birthday, OREO. Did you know that the creme filling in Double Stuf is actually more like 1.86x the regular amount?