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Companies Are Desperately Seeking ‘Storytellers’; The Deal That Turned Disney Into an OpenAI Ally; ChatGPT Punches Back
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Good morning. Today, why storyteller as a job title is still growing long after the gurus are gone; how Disney’s licensing deal will play out; and what the latest ChatGPT model is good for.
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The percentage of LinkedIn job postings in the U.S. that include the term ‘storyteller’ doubled in the past year, according to the company. Thomas R. Lechleiter
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America’s latest hot job title is also one of the oldest in history: storyteller.
Some companies want a media relations manager by a slightly flashier name, The Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton reports. Others need producers for blogs, podcasts, case studies and more. All have a different meaning for the word than we learned growing up.
“As storytellers,” a Google job ad said last month, “we play an integral role in driving customer acquisition and long-term growth.”
“Storyteller” titles have been getting eye rolls for a long time, Katie notes.
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“People who actually tell stories, meaning people who write novels and make feature films, don’t see themselves as storytellers,” said designer Stefan Sagmeister in a 2014 interview. “It’s all the people who are not storytellers who…suddenly now want to be storytellers.”
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How has this framing not only lasted but grown?
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As a stretch title, it beats past hits like “guru,” “ninja” or “digital prophet.”
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And brands really have gained their own means of publication: social-media accounts, YouTube channels and, most recently, Substack. Somebody’s got to write the songs.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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With Brand Refresh, USAA Draws on a Century of Shared Experiences
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For interim CMO Lindsey O’Neill, both facts and feelings were critical to shaping USAA’s refreshed brand, which launches with a campaign focused on the individual experiences of military families. Read More
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Disney went from an AI skeptic to an OpenAI investor, buying a $1 billion stake and striking a licensing deal to put its characters in AI-generated videos. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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Don’t overlook the slick marketing angles in Disney’s head-spinning deal with OpenAI, both on offense and defense.
Yes, Disney agreed to let more than 200 of its iconic characters—the jealously guarded intellectual property that makes its business go—star in videos that everyday people generate on OpenAI’s Sora.
But it didn’t just allow the characters’ use. Facing a disruptor like OpenAI, whose tech could open the means of IP production to just about anyone, Disney also ensured that its characters will star in consumers’ creations.
Alternative outcomes include a growing ecosystem around Sora, whose app reached 1 million downloads in less than five days, and videos populated by original creations or rival companies’ creations.
Zoom out further and imagine a world in which Disney isn’t just absent from the new UGC—user-generative content—but seeing its own turf of movies and TV invaded by franchises that started with a single consumer prompt.
It’s much better from Disney’s perspective to keep Darth Vader, Deadpool, Cinderella and Stitch in action on screens and in front of young people.
Others have a different perspective:
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“It feels like Disney throwing in the towel, rather than competing
with these tech companies.”
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— Danny Lin, a Disney storyboard artist and president of the Animation Guild, on Disney’s deal to let Sora users generate videos with its characters. The animators and others who created the characters “are not being included in the conversation in terms of licensing compensation,” she said.
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Wading into an arena that many people call “slop” could also pose a risk to Disney’s desired brand image of professionalism and creative excellence.
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Going where entertainment goes: The OpenAI pact follows the example set last year when Disney invested $1.5 billion in “Fortnite” maker Epic Games and this year brought “The Simpsons” into the game.
The road not taken: Why OpenAI got a $1 billion investment and a three-year licensing deal but Google got a cease-and-desist letter.
There Might Not Be Blood: Both companies promised that content safeguards will prevent Mickey Mouse or other Disney property from appearing in harmful or illegal content, although critics quickly questioned the effectiveness of OpenAI controls.
Labor split-screen: The actors union said it will “closely monitor” the agreement, which is limited to animated, masked or non-human characters.
The writer’s union has already heard everything it needs to. The deal seems to sanction OpenAI’s “theft of our work,” it said “and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs.”
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At least somebody gets to touch grass. Bloomberg News
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Will there ever be a day when we don’t hear or say “AI” again? In the meantime, the tech keeps bubbling across the marketing and media landscape.
OpenAI has released GPT-5.2, calling the new model better at math, science, coding and creating spreadsheets, The Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute’s Belle Lin writes.
The release comes about a week after CEO Sam Altman declared a “code red” to improve ChatGPT and delay some other initiatives, including ads.
The company has been on high alert over Google’s latest Gemini AI model, which outperformed ChatGPT on benchmarks like expert-level knowledge and math, and competition for its corporate customers from Anthropic.
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More scenes from one day early in the AI era:
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President Trump signed an executive order that aims to override state laws on artificial intelligence. [WSJ]
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Time magazine’s Person of the Year is “The Architects of AI.” [Time]
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An AI search box on Time’s website—persistently obscuring some of whatever you’re trying to read—apparently can’t be closed. [Futurism]
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Washington Post reporters crowded an internal Slack channel to report factual errors, editorializing and potentially fabricated quotes from the paper’s new AI podcast generator. [Status]
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AI gadgets are bad right now but their promise is huge: Joanna Stern reviews smart pendants, rings and glasses. [WSJ]
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$5,000
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Cost per date secured for male users of Keeper, a startup AI matchmaking service, although those fees count toward the $50,000 “marriage bounty” that men pay if they reach the altar. Business Insider has the company’s pitch deck.
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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.
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Lululemon founder Chip Wilson and his wife Shannon Wilson arrive at a fashion show on the sidelines of the 2022 World Cup. Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images
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Lululemon Athletica CEO Calvin McDonald will step down in January, according to the athletic gear maker, which has been under pressure from estranged founder Chip Wilson to reverse its “loss of cool.” [WSJ]
Retailers are promoting buy now, pay later options to shoppers well before checkout to maximize the potential sales boost. [Modern Retail]
A Saks stylist for the Wealthy is accused of a $400,000 returns scam. He denies the allegations. [WSJ]
The director of the Keanu Reeves movie “47 Ronin” was convicted on charges of defrauding Netflix of $11 million for a sci-fi show that he never completed, spending the money instead on luxury goods including two mattresses for $638,000. [CBS News]
Home Depot signed a group of influencers including soccer star Trinity Rodman and trick-shot YouTubers Dude Perfect ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. [Tubefilters]
Inside the brief reign of Fortune’s abruptly departed CEO. [Adweek]
The online styling service Stitch Fix predicted that consumers’ big clothing color of 2026 will be chili red. [Fashion United]
Standing out in restaurants’ new chicken wars requires niche flavors, extreme spice and promotions like the Davezempic meal at Dave’s Hot Chicken. [Fast Company]
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