Good morning. Today, Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino execute an unusual strategy to boost ad sales on X; ABC News defenestrates the correspondent who harshly criticized a Trump adviser; and a fake-meat marketer recalibrates after a national ad campaign fell flat.

Elon Musk’s X has threatened lapsed advertisers with lawsuits if they don’t resume their old spending, Suzanne Vranica, Dana Mattioli and Jessica Toonkel report.

X is already suing an ad trade group and several major marketers, accusing them of breaking antitrust laws by conspiring to withhold advertising. Its threats to other brands involve adding them to that suit.

It may be working: Verizon, Ralph Lauren and at least four more marketers that faced either legal threats or other pressure later struck ad deals with X.

The strategy is part of an extraordinary pressure campaign by Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino to cajole advertisers to spend on the platform.

“This type of activity may be common on Nanjing Road in China, but absolutely not at all common on Madison Avenue,” said Greg Paull, president of global growth for MediaSense, a consulting firm that helps match advertisers with ad agencies.

ABC News is parting ways with correspondent Terry Moran, who published an incendiary post on X about Trump aide Stephen Miller, Isabella Simonetti reports.

Moran, who was initially suspended, said in the now-deleted post on Sunday that Miller “is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called that “unhinged and unacceptable.”

An ABC News spokesman said Tuesday that the post “was a clear violation” of its policies. He said the news organization was at the end of its agreement with Moran and decided not to renew it.

The decision may head off a new feud with President Trump. In December, ABC News agreed to contribute $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by the president. 

Impossible Foods faces an unsavory conundrum, Joann S. Lublin writes: How can a plant-based meat marketer succeed in a shrinking industry?

CEO Peter McGuinness is implementing a new brand identity that stresses the meatiness of the company’s products and pivoting to target flexitarians—people whose diets only occasionally include meat.

The switch is motivated parly by the results of a national ad campaign that reached “a lot of meat-only people who wouldn’t consider buying our products,” McGuiness said. “Our spend wasn’t efficient because we tried to move immovables. We learned we don’t have a national message.”

An upcoming summer campaign will focus on where flexitarians live and shop, he added. “If we’re doing TV, we’ll buy time on local stations. Instead of trying to do all stores, we will target stores with a density of flexitarians. We’ll focus on making the biggest impact in the quickest way.”

L’Oréal formed a collaboration with Nvidia to scale its artificial intelligence efforts in areas like AI-generated ads and product recommendations. [WSJ]

Apple’s promised new AI image search gives marketers a new channel to reach consumers. [Ad Age] 

Videogame actors reached a tentative deal with top game makers that would end their monthslong strike, in which protections related to AI were a sticking point. [WSJ]

Walmart used the arrival of Nintendo’s Switch 2 to show off its delivery capabilities by bringing preorders to customers by 9 a.m. on the console’s release day and threw in Coke and Pringles as a bonus. [Modern Retail]

Khaby Lame, the most-followed person on Tiktok, left the U.S. after ICE detained him for overstaying his visa. Self-described pro-Trump influencer Bo Loudon took credit, saying he reported Lame. [Politico]

Starbucks is looking to hire two content creators to spend a year posting from its restaurants around the world. [Fast Company]

Local businesses are filling some of the gap in Pride sponsorships after major marketers pulled back. [NYT]

Lowe’s is trying to reach Gen Alpha and young Gen Z consumers by forming an influencer network with creators including MrBeast. [Ad Age]

Condé Nast named Mark Guiducci the first global editorial director of Vanity Fair, assuming duties that had been handled by outgoing editor-in-chief Radhika Jones as well as editions around the world. [THR]