The Ugly Ad Tax
Pretty privilege is real, even for ads.
Per Adweek, a recent update in X’s ad quality policy now advises marketers to avoid hashtags, punctuation and grammar mistakes, excessive emojis and “gimmicky” visuals.
More importantly, X will reportedly begin assigning an “aesthetic score” to ads based on how well they align with this policy. So-called “beautiful ads” with better scores will actually cost less, according to X Head of the Americas Monique Pintarelli.
Owner Elon Musk has complained about hashtags “looking ugly” for years. Last month, he even announced a hashtag ban on platform ads, calling them an “esthetic nightmare.”
But there might be another reason beyond beautification.
Unlike the AI algorithms that power most social media networks today, hashtags are generated by users. Why would you want people to sort content manually when you could make them further rely on your own tech instead?
At the risk of going full conspiracy mode, perhaps part of the reasoning behind X’s new ad policy shift is to convince advertisers to use Grok’s AI tools for brands – which, according to head of advertising and safety Sid Rao, are already capable of creating “beautiful ads.” Interesting turn of phrase, that!
Eujeanics?
Things that were not on our 2025 bingo card:
American Eagle being accused of promoting eugenics.
Sydney Sweeney not knowing how to pronounce the word “offspring.”
And yet, here we are. In case you missed it, American Eagle’s latest ad campaign features Sydney Sweeney in an array of confusing positions (such as lying on her back while buttoning her jeans or, inexplicably, wearing two pairs of jeans at once) – and it’s certainly causing a buzz.
The campaign’s tagline, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” is a clear play on the word “genes,” which Sweeney doubles down on in an ad where she talks about genes such as eye color being passed down from parents to offspring (or, as she seems to say, osspring). “My jeans are blue,” she says, looking into the camera.
The backlash was quick and immediate, but maybe that’s the point. Marketers are “figuring out how to break through in a world where everyone is screaming and saying, ‘Look at me, look at me,’” Allen Adamson, co-founder of brand marketing firm Metaforce, told NPR’s Morning Edition.
This is indicative of a larger shift away from the focus on diversity that was gaining traction in recent years, he added. MSNBC described it as an “unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness.”
The internet turns every conflict into a “self-perpetuating controversy” and “an attention spectacle,” as The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel put it, allowing American Eagle to capitalize on the wealth of content coming out of it.
We’re not so sure about her jeans, but one thing is clear: Sydney Sweeney has great lead gene-ration.
A Delist Best Served Cold
Journalist Jack Poulson recently discovered a vulnerability in Google that would allow someone to maliciously delete links from its search results, 404Media reports.
Poulson, who writes a newsletter called All-Source Intelligence, noticed that two of his articles had been delisted from Google, both having to do with a tech CEO that had already attempted to suppress the content via lawsuits and DMCA takedowns.
The trick was apparently done by making repeated requests to reindex the page using Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool. Capitalizing different letters of the URL in each request would trigger a 404 error that caused Google to delist all variations, including the actual live page.
A Google spokesperson told Poulson that the bug has now been fixed, but couldn’t share anything about how frequently it might have been used prior to being discovered.
Obvious concerns about censorship aside, the story serves as another example of just what a pronounced impact Google has on publishers – something that’s worth pointing out even as the company’s own AI search tools continue to siphon referral traffic away from those same outlets.
As Poulson said, “If your article doesn’t appear in Google search results, in many ways it just doesn’t exist.”
But Wait! There’s More!
The FCC is investigating NBCUniversal Local and Comcast for their treatment of broadcast affiliate stations. [Adweek]
Fortune used generative AI to “help with an initial draft” of its error-laden obituary for Blackstone’s Wesley LePatner, a victim of the recent New York City mass shooting event. [The Verge]
Intelligence platform Contentsquare is in talks to buy Loris AI, also an intelligence platform. [Morningstar]
Amazon invested in Fable, a startup that enables the creation of AI-generated TV shows founded by Edward Saatchi, scion of the Saatchi advertising family. [Variety]
Amazon will also pay The New York Times at least $20 million a year as part of an AI content licensing deal. [Wall Street Journal]
Lovense, a manufacturer of internet-connected sex toys, slow-rolled bug fixes after hackers discovered a security flaw that exposed user emails and allowed unauthorized account takeovers. [TechCrunch]
How the Paramount/Skydance merger and Paramount’s settlement with the Trump Administration will reshape news coverage at CBS and impact future media deals, like the potential breakup of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. [FT]
Labor union SAG-AFTRA renewed its license with Nielsen. [Variety]
You’re Hired!
AI startup Komerz hires WPP alum Michelle Whelan as global chief business officer. [Decision Marketing]
Nexxen taps Irina Katsnelson as SVP of enterprise sales and Oscar Rondon as VP of data and measurement solutions. [release]
Marketing SaaS platform 2X named Amber Tobias as SVP of Corporate Development. [release]
AI customer acquisition platform Scowtt hires Abhishek Priya as its first head of engineering. [release]
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