Jeff Speaks
“Are you Ad Tech God?”
That was Ari Paparo’s first question for Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green during the closing fireside at Marketecture Live in New York City on Wednesday.
“I’m too busy,” Green said, taking a sip of water.
“Too busy to post on social?” Paparo shot back, eliciting a chuckle from the room and from Green, who’s had some salty words for the trade press on LinkedIn lately in response to critical coverage of The Trade Desk.
With that elephant acknowledged, Paparo peppered Green with questions about everything from chatbot advertising and the future of Amazon’s DSP to, colorfully, why everyone is “up your ass on OpenPath.”
Green teased that advertisers will “soon” be able to buy chatbot inventory via The Trade Desk – widely read as a nod to OpenAI – and argued that conversational AI needs a new ad model rather than a warmed-over AdWords clone.
He also doubled down on his take that the Amazon DSP might not exist in five years, not because Amazon’s ad business is weak, but because the real upside is in high-margin sponsored listings and Prime Video – i.e., embracing O&O, not wading deeper into the open internet.
As for OpenPath, Green’s answer to why everyone is “up [his] ass” is that the product shines a light on – and therefore undercuts – middlemen who are “trying to exploit inefficient supply paths” rather than make them more efficient.
It’s tough out there for a martyr.
Agents Of Commerce
For a company that’s heavily invested in the rise and adoption of agentic shopping, Amazon seems not to like agentic shopping.
At least not when it’s filling orders placed by someone else’s shopper bot.
Perplexity’s web browser, Comet, offers users a built-in browser agent that autonomously purchases from Amazon.
That is until next week. Since, pending appeal, Perplexity must disable the practice by then, following a lawsuit brought by Amazon, Search Engine Land reports.
Amazon’s case rests on the fact that, while Prime subscribers give permission and password credentials to the Comet browser for such purchases, the Perplexity agent accesses accounts “without authorization by Amazon.”
If Perplexity’s appeal fails, it must also destroy records of any Amazon Prime subscriber account data.
The use case employed by Comet/Perplexity is precisely the vision Amazon has laid out for agentic shopping. It’s just the wrong agent.
This issue also presages sweeping new scandals and dramas that will occupy digital advertising as the industry comes to grips with questions like, “Is an ad served to an account operated by a bot, even with a human’s authorization, a valid impression?”
MrBeast Goes To Washington
Here’s how you know the creator economy is officially legit – it’s funding politicians now. (Not actually MrBeast, though. We couldn’t resist the pun.)
As Wired reports, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok influencers have spent years not just selling products to their fan bases, but also raising money for various causes. Lately, however, they’ve also organized more into political coalitions, such as the recently launched Creators Against ICE, and backing specific politicians.
On Monday, for example, leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker helped raise $50,000 for Oliver Larkin, a Democratic Socialist and former Berner Sanders staffer running for Congress in Florida.
Politicians (especially Democrats) have long struggled with digital marketing, as Tech for Campaigns founder Jessica Alter told AdExchanger back in 2024. The bulk of Democratic politicians’ ad budgets are still spent on linear TV and direct mail – not exactly the hotspots to reach young voters.
The media spend has changed with younger candidates and campaign staff rising up the ranks. But the rise of influencer fundraising also speaks to the influencers themselves realizing the power they’re able to wield, too, in politics. And vice versa.
TikTok influencers can act like lobbyists without following all the legal criteria. And despite political ads being prohibited on TikTok, political influencer content is rampant.
But Wait! There’s More!
Meta says it will stop covering digital service taxes for ads served in Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The location taxes range from 2% to 5%, depending on the country. [blog]
Why is the tech world so obsessed with Moltbook, anyway? [Bloomberg]
There’s no sure way to measure a publisher’s visibility in AI chats, and publishers are stumped on how to approach AI referral traffic. [Digiday]
Grammarly has officially pulled their controversial “Expert Review” feature, which used LLM technology to impersonate specific writers without their consent. [Futurism]
Turns out vibe coding is killing the vibe by churning out bug-ridden code. [Morning Brew]
Will the UK’s ban on fast-food advertising actually impact CPG sales? (Probably not.) [The Guardian]
Why Publicis Sapient CMO Teresa Barreira feels AI is a “reckoning” for marketers. [Business Insider]
A sportswriter says Temu comms pushed back on his use of the brand as “a shorthand for ‘cheap off-brand garbage.’” [post] (h/t Christian D’Andrea)
You’re Hired!
Nextdoor announces Anthony Di Muccio as VP of North America sales. [release]
Affle appoints Martin Price as VP of products. [release]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
