Is this email difficult to read? View it in a web browser. ›

The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal.

Sponsored by
Deloitte logo.

Nat Ives stipple portrait

Sam Altman Startup Leans on Consumer Brands to Promote Its Plan for ‘Human Verification’

By Nat Ives | WSJ Leadership Institute

 

Good morning. Today, cross-promotion isn’t just for blockbuster movies and Happy Meals.

Trevor Traina speaks into local TV news microphones, standing in front of an Orb display

Tools for Humanity Chief Business Officer Trevor Traina speaks at the opening of a World ID verification location in San Francisco. Noah Berger/Associated Press

Sam Altman’s project to help humans distinguish themselves from bots is increasingly banking on household names to sell its far-out concept, Patrick Coffee reports for the WSJ Leadership Institute: 

  • A Gap store in San Francisco has begun helping visitors get World IDs, the “proof of human” product from the startup Tools for Humanity, by installing one of its signature volleyball-sized “Orb” devices to take images of faces and eyes.
  • A planned Visa payment card will let World ID holders spend digital assets including Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency that people receive in most markets as an incentive to sign up.
  • And Tinder is testing the ID in Japan to verify that users are human (and the age they say they are).

Previous marketing has included outdoor displays mocking “I’m not a robot” captcha tests and a campaign lauding human achievements like the invention of the airplane. “In a world of AI,” ads urged, “be human.”

But Tools for Humanity now plans to lean on partnerships with traditional brands like these to handle a large share of the marketing for World ID, according to Trevor Traina, chief business officer at the company.

It hopes that the deals will help better explain World ID to skeptics who don’t understand the need for a human verification product or suspect that it’s really just a crypto play, Traina said.

“We’re right at the precipice right now of the moment where we don’t have to say anything, where our partners are going to do all the talking,” he said.

Speaking of artificial intelligence (and artificial humans): Have you seen the viral faux ad for “Energym,” an AI energy source founded by future versions of Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos? [BI]

 
Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
Smarter Shopping: Forecasting the Future of AI Agents in Retail

Marketing leaders are cautiously optimistic about the emergence of agentic commerce, which has potential to reshape the retail landscape and transform customer engagement. Read More

More articles for CMOs from Deloitte
 

The Color of Money

A Target employee with a line of stacked red shopping carts outside a store

Target is searching for ways to stand out again to shoppers. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A big retailer is borrowing a page from Whole Foods’ brand book as wellness trends continue to work their way through the food business.

Target said Friday morning that its stores will soon stock only cereals made without the kind of synthetic colors that require FDA certification.

Shopper research and sales-trend data show that consumers are shifting toward foods made without artificial additives, the retailer said, adding that it has worked with national brands and store-brand suppliers to reformulate products where necessary.

“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester said.

Target’s ongoing turnaround project will need more hooks for visits like this one—a relatively rare opportunity to stand for something on-trend without turning lots of consumers off.

Next up: Sylvester had been chief guest experience officer at Target until earlier this month, when new CEO Michael Fiddelke reassigned her as part of a wider leadership shakeup.

As Patrick Coffee recently discussed in this newsletter, the company is now running an external search for a combined chief guest-experience and marketing officer.

More turnaround strategy: Check out the new ceramic cups and big plush chairs that Starbucks revealed this morning as part of its attempt to bring some warmth back to its cafes. [Fast Company]

 

The Magic Number

32.6 million

Average viewers for President Trump’s State of the Union address
on Tuesday, according to Nielsen, down from 36.6 million for his joint session speech to Congress last year. Fox News topped other networks with over 9 million viewers, per preliminary Nielsen numbers.

 

The WSJ CMO Council

The community where marketing leaders drop the corporate speak and share what’s actually happening. The WSJ CMO Council unites leaders from the world’s most influential brands including Adobe, Audi, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Meta, Taco Bell, P&G and Verizon.

Tap into the connections and WSJ intelligence that move careers forward and separate the prepared from the scrambling.

Request Information

 

Keep Reading

David Ellison, Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos

Paramount CEO David Ellison, who won the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos, who walked away. Getty (2), AP

Hollywood doesn’t have to anguish over what Netflix would do with Warner Bros. any more. Now free-press advocates get to worry about what Paramount will do with CNN, where David Ellison has promised the Trump administration sweeping changes. [WSJ] 

“I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” CNN boss Mark Thompson advised staff. [Deadline]

Netflix is now free to get back to what it does best, like streaming sports as clickbait. Coming soon, a boxing match between 49-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. and 47-year-old Manny Pacquiao. [WSJ] 

Amazon formed a strategic partnership with OpenAI to develop custom models for the e-commerce company’s customer-facing applications. [CNBC] 

Burger King’s new AI can keep track of how frequently employees say “please” and “thank you.” [The Verge] 

The plaintiff in a landmark trial over whether the design of social-media apps can foster addiction in children told a jury that using YouTube and Instagram fed her social isolation and mental health problems. [WSJ] 

Instagram-friendly startup Graza struck a deal to become the official olive oil and official mayonnaise of Nascar. [Sports Business Journal] 

Saucony’s new four-minute ad celebrates the reasons we run. [Adweek]

Walmart agreed to pay $100 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and 11 states that it misled delivery workers about pay and tips. [CBS] 

The New York City subway is testing 30-second ads that play over the speakers throughout stations. [NY Post]

Flavor Flav will celebrate Olympic medal-winning women in Las Vegas this July with MGM Resorts and sports media company The Gist, with more brands volunteering in the comments. [Flavor Flav on Instagram]

 
Share this email with a friend.
Forward ›
Forwarded this email by a friend?
Sign Up Here ›
 

Deloitte Logo.
 

About Us

We bring you the most important (and intriguing) marketing and experience news every day. Write me at nat.ives@wsj.com any time with feedback on the newsletter or comments on specific items. We want to hear from you.

And follow the CMO Today team on X: @wsjCMO, @megancgraham, @dollydeighton, @patrickcoffee and @natives.
 
Desktop, tablet and mobile. Desktop, tablet and mobile.
Access WSJ‌.com and our mobile apps. Subscribe
Apple app store icon. Google app store icon.
Unsubscribe   |    Newsletters & Alerts   |    Contact Us   |    Privacy Policy   |    Cookie Policy
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 4300 U.S. Ro‌ute 1 No‌rth Monm‌outh Junc‌tion, N‌J 088‌52
You are currently subscribed as [email address suppressed]. For further assistance, please contact Customer Service at sup‌port@wsj.com or 1-80‌0-JOURNAL.
Copyright 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.   |   All Rights Reserved.
Unsubscribe