Good morning. Today, a reminder that marketing needs emotional intelligence.

There were plenty of ways OpenAI could have responded to Anthropic’s sudden broadside, a Super Bowl campaign insinuating that ads are about to invade ChatGPT replies. Long posts on X might not have been the best one.

“First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote to start his 421-word retort, continuing:

“Those ads are funny!” OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch wrote in her own post. “....Here’s what’s not funny: Calling ‘ads’ a betrayal when your business model is selling paid subscriptions to companies.”

Both executives proceeded to paint Anthropic with a palette out of “1984”:

“I guess it’s on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that aren’t real, but a Super Bowl ad is not where I would expect it,” said Altman, calling Anthropic’s emphasis on subscriptions elitist, its approach to AI too controlling and its care for “safe, broadly beneficial” next-level AI insufficiently collaborative.

“One authoritarian company won't get us there on their own, to say nothing of the other obvious risks,” Altman said. “It is a dark path.”

And here’s Rouch again:

But the wounded tone and accusations about shadowy cabals or even the fate of the world failed to project “There’s nothing to see here” on the big question that Anthropic’s campaign poses: Will ads, or consumer distrust of ads, hurt ChatGPT?

It’s the schoolyard dilemma: How do you handle a taunt without making it bigger?

Another option would have been to borrow from social media and tell us they’re fine without telling us they’re fine:

• Briefly reiterate the company’s approach (labeled ads beneath replies, not in them) and the value that ads could provide (free access).
• Leave out Anthropic’s role in the AI apocalypse for now.
• And keep working on the communications strategy around all of it.

That’s easy for me to say. Your turn: Hit reply to tell me how OpenAI should respond to Anthropic’s ads. I’ll share a selection with readers. Direct replies only, please—no notes written by your PR team (or, of course, AI).

Spotify is getting into the physical book business, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.

The streaming service, which started selling audiobooks in 2022, will soon let premium subscribers buy hardcovers and paperbacks through its app. Bookshop.org will fulfill sales and Spotify will get a fee.

Consumers might not immediately think of Spotify when they set out looking for a physical book, but Bookshop.org CEO Andy Hunter said a growing number of people want to own both physical and audio formats of the same book.

“They read at night and then listen on the way to work in their car or subway,” he said.

Spotify is also introducing a feature called Page Match, enabling users to find the right spot in their audiobooks by scanning the right pages in their physical copies.

Brian Baumgartner, who played the accountant named Kevin on “The Office,” is joining Super Bowl Sunday’s celebrity parade—in force.

Finance software startup Ramp will fill an office with helpful Baumgartner copies in a pre-game ad called “Multiply What’s Possible,” then send the real him to the game with winners of a lookalike contest he’s judging that day.  

Baumgartner, who previously promoted Ramp by acting out accounting in an office set in a New York City park, talked about the work with the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Megan Graham. Here’s their talk, lightly edited.

MG: How do you decide which brands to work with for ads?

BB: I am looking for brands that are organic to who I am, to what I like—golf, sports, the sort of everyman activities that I enjoy. Obviously for this, I'm not an accountant, but I played one on TV.

MG: How will you handle the judging at your lookalike contest?

BB: I come in many, many different sizes, shapes, colors and so it’s really about that commitment. There will be some wigs, or lack thereof. Shaving will be possible, if you’re really willing to commit. It’s not that you have to exactly look like me, but it’s about embodying me. 

MG: So you’re saying I have a chance.

BB: That is precisely what I’m saying.

MG: I know there’s a live-streaming element to this weekend, too, when you pick your winners and drive them to the Super Bowl. Back in October, you were live-streamed too, for hours on end. What’s that like?

BB: What we did in October, it was one of the most challenging things that I've ever done. The setup essentially was you're going to be in there and you’re going to be “working,” right, in quotes. But every 15 minutes, someone is going to come in and interact with you. Keeping all of that together and straight, that was very challenging. It was very much a live performance element that was also being recorded.

MG: You were in a 2013 Super Bowl commercial for Subway. How does it feel to be in a Super Bowl ad again?

BB: It’s an incredibly moving, almost emotional thing for me—the Super Bowl every year. As a huge sports fan growing up, I love football. I became friends with Mike Vrabel, who’s the coach of the Patriots, playing golf at the American Century Championship a number of years ago. We’ve stayed very close friends. It’s a very meaningful thing.

“The Office” aired after the Super Bowl in season five, and I went to the Super Bowl that year. That was the first time I’d ever been. And so this sort of brings that all back.

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

Behind Disney’s search for a lasting successor to Bob Iger. [WSJ]

Chris Hemsworth worries that Alexa+ will kill him in Amazon’s 60-second Super Bowl ad. [Adweek]

AI productivity platform Genspark will run a last-minute, 30-second ad starring Matthew Broderick twice in this Sunday’s Super Bowl. [Ad Age]

“He Gets Us” is back for a fourth Super Bowl in a row and this year spreading out to the World Cup as well. [Marketing Brew]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has opened an investigation into whether Nike discriminated against white workers in its efforts to diversify its workforce. [WSJ]

The Washington Post is cutting one-third of its staff, slashing hundreds of jobs across the newsroom and other departments in an effort to trim costs and reshape coverage. [WSJ] 

A startup says its tech can help retailers spot counterfeit merchandise being “returned” by fraudsters. [WSJ]