The hottest Advertising Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways

Inside ‘The Situation Room’

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 162 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26

🎭️ Culture Advertising

Many events today are staged mainly to get media attention rather than to have real purpose.
This constant cycle of publicity makes everyday things feel unreal because they exist largely to be talked about.
Planned stunts can backfire and sometimes end up promoting the opposite message, like logging off and hanging out for real.

I’m Proud to Call Myself a Disney Adult

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 343 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26

🎭️ Culture Advertising

Disney stays popular because it promises tradition and timeless rituals in a world fixated on innovation and disruption.
The cruise ad succeeds by showing a quiet, magical family moment. It taps into people’s longing for simple, shared, wholesome experiences.
Disney’s marketing makes cultural moments that spread widely and feel more resonant than many other modern events, showing how much influence and emotional pull the brand still has.

This Week in Marketing: Evidence of Social Media Outrage vs. the Emergence of AI Sloptainment

The Social Juice • 85 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Social platforms reward outrage and engagement, which lets harmful and scammy content spread quickly. Companies often fail to enforce their own rules, leaving users and advertisers exposed to risk.
AI is rapidly reshaping search, publishing, and advertising, cutting referral traffic and forcing marketers to rethink where value and measurement live. That shift creates big uncertainty for publishers, brands, and agencies about monetization and control.
Low‑quality, viral AI‑generated entertainment is exploding on social feeds, driving attention but creating safety, copyright, and creator‑rights problems. Creators and regulators are pushing back as these ‘AI slop’ formats scale.

Will Google Become Our AI-Powered Central Planner?

BIG by Matt Stoller • 28075 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26

💼 Business Advertising

Google is combining its huge trove of user data with a partnership with Apple to make Gemini a deeply personal AI assistant, giving it unmatched reach and control over consumer information.
Google plans to sell merchants AI tools that personalize offers and set prices for individual shoppers. That could enable opaque surveillance pricing, price discrimination, or automated price coordination across markets.
Because antitrust enforcement has often failed, Google can repeat past monopolization tactics, and without strong remedies this consolidation could hurt competition, small businesses, and democratic market signals.

360 million views and unable to pay her rent

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 274 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Creators can get massive TikTok views but still earn very little, so many move their audiences to platforms like YouTube that offer clearer ways to make money.
Sustainable publishing can come from prioritizing high‑quality, differentiated journalism and building subscription revenue rather than chasing scale with ad tech.
Niche experts can expand a small audience into a diversified media business — podcasts, courses, events, and communities — though some eventually refocus on their core trade.

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Super Bowl Matchup: Anthropic vs OpenAI

Marcus on AI • 6560 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

Anthropic ran its first Super Bowl ad mocking OpenAI’s move to put ads into ChatGPT searches and positioned Claude as ad-free; OpenAI is running ads too.
The companies may seem similar but they act differently: Anthropic publicly supports regulation and appears to better support business customers, while OpenAI has mainly given lip service on regulation.
Ultimately it’s a Coke-vs-Pepsi style fight for the same market, and both firms are turning to advertising to win loyal users.

The AI Super Brawl, NVIDIA’s OpenAI Gut Check, The World Eats Software

Big Technology • 4003 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

The Super Bowl ad fight between major AI companies highlighted their rivalry but mostly spoke to people already inside the AI world rather than convincing everyday users to adopt chatbots.
Nvidia is considering a roughly $20 billion investment in OpenAI, a single decision that could reshape funding, control, and competitive dynamics across the AI industry.
There’s massive spending and hype around AI, yet real user adoption and software-market outcomes remain uneven, fueling concerns about AI-washing, an AI bubble, and the long-term payoff for software investments.

Has the internet stopped producing mega stars?

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 299 implied HN points • 05 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Major social platforms have tweaked their algorithms to spread attention across more creators, so it’s now much harder for a single person to become a blockbuster star with tens of millions of followers.
AI-generated search answers have gutted organic traffic to many tech publications, forcing outlets to rely on deeper audience relationships, paywalls, and original longform reporting to survive.
The creator economy is shifting toward niche, subscription-driven projects and more journalists launching indie publications, but live niche shows may not scale easily and launching a new mass-media giant feels much harder today.

Problems at Yelp (YELP)

The Bear Cave • 1096 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Revenue has stalled and recently turned negative, with ad clicks falling — a clear sign the business is losing momentum.
Rising competition from social platforms and the move from web search to AI agents are making Yelp less relevant to consumers and advertisers.
A high-pressure, often sleazy sales culture and many angry or disgruntled merchants are harming Yelp's brand and making growth harder.

Brands, ads, and video games

SuperJoost Playlist • 416 implied HN points • 17 Oct 24

💼 Business Advertising

Brands are realizing that video games offer a better way to connect with younger audiences compared to traditional media like TV and magazines. This shift is important for capturing the attention of the next generation.
There is a growing trend for brands to work directly with gaming companies to create engaging and immersive experiences. However, many brands still struggle to commit to long-term strategies instead of just one-time campaigns.
As user acquisition costs rise, game developers are looking for new ways to make money, leading them to collaborate more with brands. This partnership is changing how audiences experience both gaming and advertising.

Should media outlets vet their advertisers?

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 274 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Media outlets can’t realistically audit every advertiser because that would be too expensive, so clear sponsorship disclosures and letting advertisers police their own claims are the practical safeguards.
Smart dealmaking can create value even when leadership is weak on creativity; sometimes walking away or playing rivals off each other improves a company’s long-term position.
Marketing and content skills can be turned into media ownership — building an online presence and audience can be a direct path to monetizing and growing niche publications.

David Ellison gets his pyrrhic victory

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 424 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Netflix stepping out of the bidding war cleared the way for David Ellison’s Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that likely burdens the buyer with heavy debt and weakens a major competitor over time.
Publishers lose time and money to fragmented publishing stacks, so unified platforms that combine editorial workflows, live publishing, and analytics can reduce operational complexity and let teams focus on content and monetization.
FAST streaming faces long‑term risks because many services are filling catalogs with overlapping, lower‑quality content, creating signal‑to‑noise for viewers, while YouTube’s broad reach and attractive revenue split could lure away content suppliers.

Netflix wants to offer more ambient TV

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 349 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Netflix is pushing video podcasts and other ambient TV as a low-cost way to keep the TV on and win more living-room attention instead of spending big on prestige shows.
Creators are getting better at weaving sponsorships into their work, so ads feel more natural and help creators monetize without turning audiences off.
News organizations are unifying TV and digital operations and moving content behind paywalls to collect first-party data and charge more for subscriptions and ads.

Zombie news sites are taking over the internet

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 174 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Marketing firms are buying or hijacking gaming and news sites and filling them with AI-written content and gambling ads to exploit existing SEO and expired domains for easy revenue.
Relying on platform referrals like Google Discover is risky because traffic can drop suddenly. Publishers shouldn’t build their operations around audiences they don’t own.
Media businesses are shifting toward direct monetization and platform-native distribution. Newsletters, specialized ad platforms, and multiplatform streaming personalities are becoming more reliable than chasing programmatic or referral traffic.

There's a goldmine hiding in your content archives

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 349 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Evergreen content in your archives is a goldmine that’s often overlooked. Regularly resurfacing older articles can boost reader interest and significantly increase subscription conversions.
AI is changing how sourcing works and raising the risk of fake experts and AI-generated commentary. Publishers need stronger verification and access to vetted expert networks to protect trust.
The creator economy and platform monetization are evolving fast, with subscriptions, royalty-tracking tools, and brand deals creating new revenue paths. Creators and startups that capture scale or better revenue tools can reshape how media dollars are distributed.

An Excellent Means of Electioneering

Looking Through the Past • 178 implied HN points • 20 Oct 24

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Advertising

Political posters have played a crucial role in campaigning since the 19th century. They were used to quickly catch voters' attention and communicate key messages.
The artwork on these posters often included historical references, emotional imagery, and symbols to appeal to voters. This made them both informative and visually striking.
As technology improved, the design of campaign posters evolved, leading to more colorful and complex images. This innovation mirrored the way political messages became more sophisticated over time.

Meta keeps finding new ways to not pay its creators

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 274 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Meta pays creators almost nothing compared with how much Reels and Instagram earn, so monetization is dominated by creators in low-cost countries and that encourages lots of low-effort, AI-driven content.
Shifting from ad-based models to subscriptions and creator-owned projects can sustain independent journalism and niche media, and podcasts or blogs can successfully spin out from companies to build paying audiences.
A purely data-driven playbook that cuts niche or lower-traffic coverage can alienate loyal, information-hungry subscribers, risking long-term subscription value and reader loyalty.

An Ugly New Marketing Strategy Is Driving Me Nuts (and You Too)

The Honest Broker • 30453 implied HN points • 11 Jun 25

💼 Business Advertising

A new marketing trend encourages companies to annoy customers instead of trying to sell to them. This strategy makes people want to pay for premium services just to escape the annoying ads.
Digital platforms now focus on grabbing user attention through irritating tactics. This creates an 'Annoyance Economy' where companies prioritize engagement over good customer experience.
Customers are getting fed up with these annoying practices, and some are even choosing to walk away from brands altogether. Companies that ignore this feedback risk losing their customers in the long run.

Best of Advertising: Forget Influencers, Focus on Narrative

The Social Juice • 66 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

A product needs a strong narrative; without a compelling story, influencer marketing and ads become more expensive and less effective.
Brands can create big attention cheaply by controlling the story — through events, keynote-style reveals, familiar faces (even CEOs), or stunts that make the product unignorable and invite organic creator coverage.
The industry is shifting: brands are experimenting with rebrands, mascots, partnerships and AI-driven creative, while agencies restructure and new measurement tools change how advertising performance is judged.

This Week in Marketing: Instagram has links, Disney is Quibi, and Perplexity exits Amazon

The Social Juice • 53 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Social platforms are racing to capture attention with new formats and creator tools, from clickable links and edit features on Instagram to Disney’s vertical 'Verts' and TikTok’s radio and podcasts.
AI is reshaping content and commerce but also causing legal, safety, and trust headaches — shopping agents face blocks, deepfakes and misinformation are rising, and publishers are pushing licensing and protections.
Big tech is changing business models and controls by shifting costs to advertisers, altering privacy and moderation rules, and rolling out ad and AI features that could reduce traditional traffic and revenue.

Apple's move into video podcasts is too little too late

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 299 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26

🎙 Podcasts Advertising

Apple’s new video-podcast features and HLS support improve the experience but are likely too little, too late to stop market share loss to Spotify and YouTube, which benefit from much stronger user lock-in.
More publishers are shifting from metered paywalls to hard paywalls and confidently charging full price, because metered models only work if you produce enormous volumes of repeat traffic.
Niche and independent publishers can build durable businesses by selling direct subscriptions, high-priced specialized access, memberships, events, and brand-funded projects, reducing dependence on big tech platforms.

AI won't kill marketing. We'll do it ourselves.

The Social Juice • 151 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

AI is overhyped and partly a bubble — many AI tools promise productivity but often add workload and don’t solve new marketing problems. Marketers should use AI to learn and research, but not fall in love with packaged productivity that replaces real work.
Ethics and trust must guide AI use: disclose AI-generated content, guard against deepfakes, and keep real people in testing and creative decisions. Don’t let dependence on black-box chatbots replace human judgment or customer research.
Brand, creativity, and human insight still matter most: big holding companies chasing AI ecosystems risk losing creative trust while indie agencies and brands that invest in long-term brand building will fare better. Focus on honest brand search, real customer contact, and avoid vagueposting or short-term attempts to game AI.

The ‘Dirty Jew’ Ad Is Bad for Jews

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 783 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26

🎭️ Culture Advertising

A Super Bowl ad meant to fight antisemitism can actually feel harmful to Jewish people and weaken efforts to combat hate.
Instead of reducing prejudice, the spot risks pushing people who already dislike Jews to hate them more.
The ad comes across as tone-deaf and mis‑targeted, leaning on a victimhood narrative that seems aimed at Jewish Boomers and wastes a $15 million Super Bowl buy.

The 'F--- You, Pay Me' Progression

Total Rec • 13440 implied HN points • 24 Feb 24

🎭️ Culture Advertising

Ads and content on the internet are becoming indistinguishable, blurring lines between genuine recommendations and advertisements.
Marketing strategies have shifted from targeting emotions like fear and greed to creating relational and aspirational connections with consumers.
The transition from authentic content creation to monetization has flooded online platforms with sponsored content, challenging the authenticity of online interactions.

The AI Tremors Are Real

Nonzero Newsletter • 801 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

Agentic AI is here: combining large language models with coding agents lets bots carry out multi-step online tasks and form networks that can act, build, and coordinate in ways we didn’t see before.
Big economic and labor disruption is already happening: advanced agent tools can threaten entire companies and markets, and contributed to tech selloffs and newsroom layoffs as AI changes how people find and consume information.
New social risks are emerging: these agents can act for users and be highly persuasive, creating dangers from manipulation, ad-driven incentives, and unpredictable collective behaviors that society needs to address fast.

Why I Deleted ChatGPT After Three Years

The Algorithmic Bridge • 1295 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

Ads in ChatGPT are a deal-breaker because they make the service prioritize advertisers over users and change the experience for people who don’t pay.
The economics of running large AI models aren’t compatible with a free, high-quality consumer product, so companies will raise prices, cut quality, or turn to ads to cover costs.
Promises about no ad influence and privacy are hard to verify, and the result will be a two-tier system where paying users get better, ad-free experiences while free users face subtle biases and worse outcomes.

The Saturday Selection, Vol. 92

Why is this interesting? • 241 implied HN points • 14 Feb 26

🎭️ Culture Advertising

Jony Ive put physical buttons, aluminum toggles, and glass controls back into Ferrari’s first electric car as a pushback against the touchscreen-everything trend.
New York’s congestion pricing is creating unexpected winners by speeding up trips in suburbs and easing traffic in outer boroughs.
Well-crafted, beautiful design often loses because decisions are made by people who won’t have to live with the results, so systems tend to punish good design.

Facebook’s Agents Still Run. Apple Keeps Wiping Their Memory.

Big Tech • 515 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency effectively killed persistent cross-app identifiers like the IDFA for most users, so apps can no longer track individuals across apps without consent.
Apple replaced that surveillance with privacy-preserving tools like SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit. These systems use verified Universal Links, crowd-anonymity thresholds, and delayed, aggregated postbacks so advertisers can measure performance and re-engage users without personal identifiers.
Facebook’s SDK still runs in many apps but lost its ability to build individual behavioral profiles, forcing Meta to rely on probabilistic and aggregated measurement, while Apple’s own ad business has grown inside the new privacy guardrails.

The Streaming Wars Were Just Plain Weird

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 345 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

The streaming wars were predictable and ended up as an expensive overbuild: too many companies launched loss‑making streaming bundles and only the player with massive scale and the right capital story—Netflix—managed to outlast the rest.
Legacy studios misread streaming as a software platform but found the economics didn’t fit; without global scale or a profitable business to subsidize losses, mid‑sized direct‑to‑consumer services couldn’t make money and have returned to licensing and consolidation.
Attention has already shifted to ad‑supported, user‑generated platforms like YouTube, which dominate viewing time and pose a different threat to subscription streamers; big consolidation moves (e.g., a Netflix‑Warner deal) could accelerate market concentration but face regulatory and financial risks.

Why influencers are creating fake sponsored content

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 174 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Some influencers post fake “sponsored” content to make it look like they work with big brands and boost their credibility when pitching paid deals, and that strategy often goes unpunished.
New platform features like creator subscriptions make it easier to monetize fans, but when the platform controls payments and data creators can lose direct access to their audience, so many still prefer channels where they own email lists and relationships.
Scammers are using deepfakes and AI avatars to impersonate real creators and push affiliate or product scams, which can earn real money while evading platform moderation.

This Week in Marketing: Meta’s Ad Business Upgrade, AI Copyright, and the Unexpected Economy

The Social Juice • 66 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26

💼 Business Advertising

Big platforms are racing to upgrade ad, measurement, and creator tools — from richer targeting and new measurement systems to unskippable TV ads and revamped creator subscriptions.
AI is reshaping rules, privacy, and industry risk: copyright and legal standards are still unsettled, models can unmask users, and firms face lawsuits, regulatory scrutiny, and new defense/contracting questions.
The market is volatile — unexpected job losses and large tech layoffs sit alongside big mergers and shifting ad spend, while platform policy changes are moving attention and revenue around the media ecosystem.

The Brands Propping Up Right Wing YouTube

Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter • 2328 implied HN points • 22 Nov 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Advertising

Right-wing brands spend a lot of money on YouTube influencers, which helps those influencers grow and succeed. This creates a strong support system for conservative content creators.
YouTube's recommendation system often favors content that creates strong emotional reactions, which disproportionately helps right-wing creators get more views and engagement.
There's a lack of financial support for left-wing influencers compared to their right-wing counterparts, making it harder for them to build a successful platform.

The threat of Google Zero was always overblown

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 274 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

The fear that AI 'Google Zero' would wipe out publisher traffic was exaggerated. AI summaries cut clicks on simple queries, but many searches are exploratory so people still visit multiple sources.
YouTube has become a massive, profitable platform by combining ad and subscription revenue without paywalls, surpassing many streaming rivals in size. That success highlights the value of creator-friendly monetization and pressures other platforms to share revenue.
Strong brands, diversified revenue (subscriptions, bundles, ads), and real audience engagement matter more than raw traffic. Companies that build loyal audiences or smart bundles can thrive even as search and AI change distribution.

Who's spending $80 a month on microdramas?

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 349 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26

💼 Business Advertising

TikTok-like microdramas are making lots of money by using game-like, addictive monetization where viewers buy tokens or pay monthly to unlock short, low-budget episodes.
The Washington Post’s relevance dropped sharply after its current publisher took control, and the data suggest much of that decline is self-inflicted.
Paramount+ plans to add short-form video and user-generated content to its platform, but it’s unclear if it will share revenue with creators or rely on exposure to attract them.

Jeff Bezos has given up on the Washington Post

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 374 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26

📰 News Advertising

The Washington Post’s recent moves, like cancelling planned Olympic coverage, suggest ownership is prioritizing cost cuts and managing decline rather than investing to grow the business.
YouTube’s push toward Shorts is reducing reach for longform videos, making discovery more algorithm-dependent and forcing creators to rethink formats and monetization.
Newsrooms are using citizen-shot video as raw material but adding reporting and context—names, dates, and follow-up—to correct narratives and provide the fuller story.

Why Anthropic Is Making Fun of OpenAI

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 268 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Advertising

Anthropic ran Super Bowl commercials that poke fun at a better-known AI rival to draw attention to the competition.
The ads position Anthropic as a challenger to that rival’s dominance, suggesting a different, less domineering vision for AI’s future.
By using humor, the campaign aims to shape public perception and spark debate about AI power, safety, and who should control the technology.

We are all going to regret Kalshi and Polymarket.

The Future, Now and Then • 242 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26

🎭️ Culture Advertising

Prediction markets and sports betting are becoming ubiquitous and too easy to access. Celebrity endorsements and media tie‑ins normalize betting on everyday events.
These platforms are negative‑sum: winners win what losers lose, minus platform fees, so they don’t create new value. Over time money flows to professional bettors and the house, hurting casual players.
Gambling should be legal but treated like cigarettes — heavily regulated, hard to access, banned from advertising, and taxed. That would help limit social harm, reduce corruption risks, and prevent normalization of betting.

Boys Like Me Need Protection from Sports Betting

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 264 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26

🎾 Sports Advertising

Watching sports has shifted from simple fun with friends to constant talk of parlays, live bets, and odds during games.
Young fans, including high school boys, are being exposed to and drawn into online gambling, and many find it hard to resist.
There is a clear need for protections to shield kids from the pervasive influence of sports betting and its advertising.

Why sports leagues are going all in on the Creator Economy

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 124 implied HN points • 12 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

Sports leagues are using social creators as low‑risk content partners, giving VIP access so creators produce lots of promotional material without threatening broadcast rights or big ad spends.
The creator economy is maturing into real business power: creators are launching companies, attracting investment, and being funneled into TV, retail, and sponsorship deals that turn audiences into revenue streams.
Journalism faces a new credibility risk from AI‑generated fake experts and quotes, so newsrooms must adopt fast vetting practices and trusted expert networks to protect accuracy and trust.

From Gucci to WPP, marketers are rethinking AI, ad agencies, and the rest is marketing campaigns

The Social Juice • 75 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26

💼 Business Advertising

AI is upending marketing: companies are using generative tools to make ads, cutting roles because of automation, and facing backlash when AI work feels low-quality or ethically shaky.
The agency landscape is being reshaped as holding companies and clients reorganize, consolidate accounts, and rethink commissions and media models to stay lean and more integrated.
Brands are leaning hard into bold creative moves — stunts, cultural partnerships, celebrity tie‑ins and purpose-driven campaigns — to cut through noise and stay culturally relevant.