🤖 Anthropic, Google, and Meta CEOs pledge to “self police” AI development.

📱 Facebook goes back to the Forum age with its new app.

🔎 LinkedIn tests advanced creator discovery to power brand campaigns.

👻 Snapchat launches its first B2B creator campaign.

🔨 Amazon puts Yelp plumber and roofer ads on order confirmation pages.

💬 DoorDash debuts text-to-order AI agent that works in Apple messages and Slack.

A new study out of Stanford suggests that if your headline is phrased as a question, you might be making your content less appealing before anyone even clicks.

Researchers analyzed more than 22,000 news articles, 3 million academic articles, and 53,000 Reddit posts, along with three experiments, to compare question-based titles with statement-based ones.

Compared with statements, titles framed as questions received:

• 71.6% fewer comments
• 53.7% fewer upvotes
• 12.6% fewer clicks
• 4.9% fewer academic citations

And it didn’t seem to matter what kind of question was being asked. Direct questions, rhetorical questions, and open-ended questions all showed the same general effect.

Why? Researchers suggest it comes down to certainty.

When we’re deciding whether something is worth our attention, we tend to look for information that feels clear and definitive. A question can signal uncertainty, essentially telling the reader, we’re not sure either.

So instead of:

“Do you need to optimize for AEO?”

Try:

“How to optimize for AEO.”

Or, better yet, make a specific claim:

“AEO is changing how brands optimize for search.”

Head to Science Says for more on the research.

Datastory is an AI-powered data storytelling platform that turns raw datasets into polished, interactive visuals and narratives.

Upload your own data or tap into Datastory’s catalog of open datasets. The AI can analyze your tables, surface trends and anomalies, recommend the right type of chart, and generate captions grounded in the data.

Then, you can customize the visuals, add annotations and sources, and publish them as standalone pages, embeds, or high-quality images.

Don’t miss the latest episode of The Daily Carnage Show to explore AI’s impact on entry-level marketing jobs—and the potential talent pipeline crisis that could follow.

Companies are already hiring fewer junior employees as AI takes over foundational tasks. But those “boring” tasks are also where marketers develop judgment, critical thinking, strategic instincts, and creative voice.

So what does an entry-level marketing job look like when AI can handle much of the routine work? And how do we make sure we aren’t optimizing ourselves into a future shortage of experienced marketers?

Shannon breaks down the entry-level talent crisis, the rise of AI-native marketers, the importance of mentorship and apprenticeship, and what young marketers can do to build real expertise in an AI-first world.

🎙️ Plus, catch up on Season 2:

• Microdramas Are Taking Over Marketing (10:43)
• Meta Muse Will Change How We Use the Internet (11:53)
• AI CEOs Want to Slow Down. The AI Race Won’t. (11:39)
• Reddit Is Changing SEO & AI Search (10:55)
• The Creator Economy Rules Gaming (43:53)
• Dark Patterns Are Becoming a Legal Problem for Meta (12:06)
• Dissecting the Brand Apology (11:35)
• Instagram’s Controversial New Logo (10:34)
• Google Image Search is… Pinterest? (9:26)
• Sony & The Death of Physical Media (8:57)

🎙️ 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
• 👍 Join The Daily Carnage Facebook Group

😎 See ya there.

Got a marketing problem you’re trying to solve? Need a second opinion? Wondering whether a new platform, AI tool, campaign idea, or strategy is worth pursuing?

Every Friday, we’re clocking in for Agency Office Hours sessions: 30-minute sessions for Daily Carnage readers to chat with the Carney team.

Bring your questions. We’ll bring our experience.

Whether you’re trying to improve performance, navigate industry changes, troubleshoot a campaign, or simply sanity-check an idea, we wanna hear what you’ve got going on.

No pitches. No obligations. No sales deck. Seriously.

Just a free 30-minute conversation with the team behind The Daily Carnage.

👉 Reserve your Office Hours session now.

For the first time in decades, the iconic New York deli added a new soda to its menu: Stiller’s Soda.

It’s their first Shirley Temple. To announce it, Ben Stiller and creator New York Nico turned the product launch into a three-minute comedy bit.

Stiller shows up at Katz’s dressed as Munkustrap from Cats, apparently believing he’s there to film something about the Broadway musical rather than a soda commercial.

The costume was even sourced with help from Stiller’s Severance costume designer and included an original Cats wig.

That’s probably all the convincing you need to watch it.

Victor Talking Machine Co., 1906