🖼️ Google redesigns Image Search, adds built-in AI creation.

😬 Anthropic’s newest ad is creeping people out.

💬 In customer service, third-party gen AI tools are beating brand chatbots.

💘 Brands won this season of Love Island USA.

📚 Book publishers sue Google over AI training.

A new study suggests that telling people you used AI could come with an engagement penalty.

Researchers from the University of Southern California analyzed over 1 million TikTok posts alongside eight controlled experiments to understand how “Made with AI” disclosures influence audience behavior.

When people knew content was AI-generated, they were less likely to interact with it, not necessarily because the content was worse, but because they assumed the creator invested less effort.

Here are some of the biggest findings:

• 7–8% fewer likes on posts labeled as AI-generated.
• 7% lower overall engagement, including comments and shares.
• Creators were perceived as putting in 15.6% less effort.
• Audiences felt 14.5% less connected to creators who disclosed AI use.
• The effect largely disappeared when the AI tool was seen as requiring skill or expertise, such as advanced creative software.

Audiences appear to value the human effort behind the final product, so simply adding an “AI-generated” label without context may unintentionally signal low effort.

Google is making it easier to measure how social content performs in Google Search.

Platform Properties in Search Console now allow you to track the search performance of your Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube accounts directly within the platform.

You can now track:

• Clicks from Google Search to social content.
• Impressions showing how often posts appear in search results.
• Click-through rate (CTR) to measure search performance.
• Average search position for social and video content.
• Search queries that lead users to Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube posts.

The reports only measure how content performs on Google, so they don’t replace platform analytics like TikTok views or Instagram reach. Each social account must also be added as its own property in Search Console.

Don’t miss the latest episode of The Daily Carnage Show, “Brand vs. Planet: The Marketer’s AI Footprint,” to learn more about the energy, water, land, and infrastructure costs behind the tech that powers your whole stack.

🎙️ Plus, catch up on Season 2:

• Our Picks for the 2026 Titanium Lions (13:06)
• Silent Spring: Is Rainbox Capitalism Dead? (11:41)
• The Future of Google Search (9:56)
• GLP-1s are Disrupting Every Sector (9:56)
• Spirit Airlines 2.0: Will it Fly? (11:08)
• Major Platform Updates (8:17)
• Nike Runs into Controversy (12:19)
• Transgressive OOH (18:45)
• 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.

Let’s take this party outside of the inbox, Carnies!

Connect and network with over 20,000 marketers to get (and give) advice, feedback, support, and LOLs.

• 💬 Join r/TheDailyCarnage on Reddit
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😎 See ya there.

🎙️ The Daily Carnage Show is growing!

So, we’re excited to share a new sponsorship opportunity.

Book a Pre-Roll Ad at the top the episode with your preferred script, on-screen text, and link in description.

🎧 Podcast advertising is one of the highest-performing brand channels:

• 60%+ of listeners say they’ve searched for a product after hearing it on a podcast.
• Podcast ads consistently outperform display ads on engagement and recall.
• Pre-roll ads are among the most-heard placements, with the strongest completion rates.

🗣️ This is your opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience of marketers, creatives, and strategists when they’ve got their listening ears on.

Interested in sponsoring an upcoming episode? Reach out and let’s build something together.

Hasbro has launched a new line of floral sculpting kits designed specifically for adults.

They’re repositioning Play-Doh as a creative wellness activity, targeting consumers looking for screen-free hobbies and stress relief.

The kits guide users through creating decorative flowers that are meant to be displayed… not squished back into the container.

Mattel, 1975