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Realism over romance: Why some brands weren’t lovey-dovey for Valentine’s Day
Romance isn’t dead, but for some of the brands marketing around Valentine’s Day this year, it got something of a reality check.DoorDash created a “Bad Boyfriend Bootcamp” ad where low-effort partners were instructed on how to order flowers. Sweethearts Candies updated the phrases on its heart-shaped candy with realisms like “split rent” and “cook for 2” to be relevant “for…
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Jeffrey Epstein Advised an Elon Musk Associate on Taking Tesla Private
For Elon Musk, the US Justice Department’s release of 3 million additional files related to criminal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein last month was immediately embarrassing. Attention in particular fell on emails Musk sent the financier…
All things AI with Dipin Oberoi
Affiliate marketing has grown up. The new report from impact.com breaks down the five pillars of partner sophistication, shows how top teams measure creator performance with precision, and explains what actually drives revenue beyond the…
OpenAI’s President Gave Millions to Trump. He Says It’s for Humanity
OpenAI’s president and cofounder Greg Brockman doesn’t consider himself political, which is surprising, because he was one of President Trump’s biggest individual donors of 2025.Greg and his wife, Anna Brockman, gave $25 million to MAGA…
Amid Super Bowl and Olympic season, some brands go all in on NBA All-Star
Some NBA fans may be less than thrilled with the league’s All-Star Game in recent years, but even though viewership has been trending downward, brand presence seems to be heading in the opposite direction.There will…
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More Than 800 Google Workers Urge Company to Cancel Any Contracts With ICE and CBP
More Than 880 employees and contractors working for Google signed a petition this week calling on the company to disclose…
Inside Vita Coco’s ‘super fluid,’ organic-first social strategy
Affiliate marketing has grown up. The new report from impact.com breaks down the five pillars of partner sophistication, shows how…
OpenAI Abandons ‘io’ Branding for Its AI Hardware
OpenAI will not use the name “io” for its forthcoming line of AI hardware devices, according to a Monday court…
Creators showed up at this year’s Super Bowl ‘more than ever’
Affiliate marketing has grown up. The new report from impact.com breaks down the five pillars of partner sophistication, shows how…
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Budweiser won the Super Bowl
Budweiser made like the Seattle Seahawks on Super Bowl Sunday and decisively declared victory over its rivals.The AB InBev beer brand scored a record 10th win on the USA Today Ad Meter, and its second in a row. Budweiser’s patriotic spot, called “American Icons,” celebrates the brand’s 150th anniversary with…
‘Uncanny Valley’: Tech Elites in the Epstein Files, Musk’s Mega Merger, and a Crypto Scam Compound
Leah Feiger: Talking about him. Yeah. Absolutely.Brian Barrett: Yeah. It's just this web. It fills out this web.Leah Feiger: Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, these are the tech titans.Brian Barrett: Yeah. Up until as recently as 2019, I think some of these people were actively in touch.Leah…
OpenAI’s CMO on the brand’s Super Bowl spot, the AI Bowl, and Anthropic’s ads
Each Super Bowl there are typically a few dominant themes. Some are questionable (ahem, Toilet Bowl), while others are expected (the Beverage Bowl and, maybe, the Wellness Bowl).It’s no surprise that this year could also be called the AI Bowl, as companies like Google, Amazon (with spots for Alexa+ and…
How iPhones Made a Surprising Comeback in China
After a prolonged slump, Apple’s business is suddenly thriving again in China. The tech giant said in its latest earnings report last week that revenue from the country rose 38 percent year over year in the last quarter, primarily driven by surging demand for iPhones. The rebound came after Apple’s…
Double duty: How a filmmaking company made a Super Bowl ad while shooting a feature film
Film producer Andrew Panay is currently shooting Somedays, a feature film about an unusual friendship between a delivery driver and a teenage girl starring Billy Bob Thornton, Pamela Anderson, and Ariana Greenblatt. At the same time—and sometimes on the same set—he also hammered out the details for a Super Bowl…
Loyalty Is Dead in Silicon Valley
Since the middle of last year, there have been at least three major AI “acqui-hires” in Silicon Valley. Meta invested more than $14 billion in Scale AI and brought on its CEO, Alexandr Wang; Google spent a cool $2.4 billion to license Windsurf’s technology and fold its cofounders and research…
This Super Bowl, the ads are in the toilet. Literally
During the Super Bowl, advertisers aim to leave a lasting impression with viewers. This year, some hope to do it by grossing them out.During the commercial breaks of this year’s game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, potty humor will abound. Liquid I.V. is slated to run a…
Why the Cadillac F1 team is unveiling its race-car livery in a Super Bowl ad
Crossover Formula 1 and NFL fans, fasten your seatbelts.The Cadillac F1 team, which is set to make its debut on the grid when the 2026 F1 season gets up and running in Australia in March, is releasing its car livery this weekend on marketing’s biggest stage: the Super Bowl.Standing up…
After Minneapolis, Tech CEOs Are Struggling to Stay Silent
It was November 12, 2016, four days after Donald Trump won his first presidential election. Aside from a few outliers (looking at you, Peter Thiel), almost everyone in the tech world was shocked and appalled. At a conference I attended that Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was “a…
How Deloitte went from behind the scenes to front and center with McLaren
McLaren has been on a hot streak in Formula 1, winning back-to-back Constructor’ Championships and a Drivers’ Championship this year. Through it all, brand partner Deloitte has had a seat in the car.The consultancy’s yearslong relationship with McLaren dates back to 2017, when McLaren was a Deloitte client and the…
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The Tech Elites in the Epstein Files
“I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his…
‘He Gets Us’ wants to be more than ‘the Super Bowl ad about Jesus’
Every Super Bowl there are a few advertiser wild cards—the ads or brands that make…
A Yann LeCun–Linked Startup Charts a New Path to AGI
If you ask Yann LeCun, Silicon Valley has a groupthink problem. Since leaving Meta in…
How longtime Olympic sponsor Samsung keeps its campaigns fresh
How do you keep a relationship exciting after almost four decades? Just ask Samsung Electronics…
Coworking with Jim Freeze
Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to…