Welcome to The Daily Carnage Show.

🎙️ Is this thing on?

Every Friday, Shannon, will cover the top stories, coolest campaigns, and freshest ideas from around the marketing and advertising world.

It’s kind of like our Friday recap—now with A/V. Find it on YouTube, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

This week, we’re talking “Dead Mascots & Giant DQ Blizzards.” Plus… porch geese. IYKYK. 🪿

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🥚 McDonald’s celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Egg McMuffin.

🎬 Instagram may launch Reels as a separate app.

✅ Meta expands access for advertisers to connect to GA4.

🟢 Duolingo’s TikTok mastermind dishes on its unhinged social strategy.

🎧 YouTube is now the most frequently used service for listening to podcasts in the U.S.

🗣️ Amazon introduces Alexa+, powered by AI.

📊 Instagram explains how the algorithm weighs watch time.

🫧 PepsiCo and Coca-Cola disagree on diversity programs.

💬 Instagram is is expanding its Partnership Ads feature with “Testimonials.”

📧 LinkedIn adds email analytics for Newsletters.

▶️ A cheaper “YouTube Premium Lite” ad-free tier is reportedly coming soon.

🗡️ Did Gen Z kill the marketing funnel?

• 💡 According to our poll, over 76% of marketers believe that the marketing funnel is still a valuable, representative model.

🔍 Study: Not appearing in Google AI Overviews significantly harms webpages.

✂️ RIP, Joann.

🧼 What Lush learned from three years of being mostly offline.

🐦 Even Elon Musk forgets that X isn’t Twitter sometimes.

🤢 Did you know iPhones have a built-in motion sickness feature?

Monday: AI is here to stay, which means good taste is about to be even more of an invaluable asset. If you want to be able to distinguish good work from derivative dribble, you’ve got to start cultivating your taste in ads. Here’s how.

Tuesday: Referred customers are not only more valuable (at least 16% higher than non-referred customers) but also 36% more likely to refer others. Take a look at the data.

Wednesday: Music is critical to engagement on TikTok. Brands that strategically leverage trending genres and sounds can maximize their engagement, brand recall, and product sales on TikTok. In a recent study, Adobe found that Rock, country, and indie fans are the most likely to shop on TikTok Shop. Check out the full report for more insights.

Thursday: Stuck in a rut using the same tired CTAs? It helps to think of calls-to-action in categories for different purposes—for triggering FOMO, encouraging immediate action, sparking curiosity, and more. Here are some examples.

How well do you know your marketing acronyms?

Answer: …is made with liquefied eggs.

Fortunately, the Egg McMuffin is made with one whole, USDA Grade A egg.

If it were the 70s, you might have enjoyed it open-faced with some strawberry preserves — or today, as a 3 p.m. pick-me-up in France.