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Bot Networks Are Helping Drag Consumer Brands Into the Culture Wars; SMU Fans Fight to Save ‘Pony Up’; Amazon Settles FTC Suit for $2.5 Billion
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Good morning. Today, botnets magnify culturally charged brand controversies; a college booster’s rebrand attempt goes poorly; and canceling Prime will soon be as easy as signing up.
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Cracker Barrel abandoned plans to update its logo after backlash made louder by bots on social media. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Coordinated bot networks are now a brand problem, too, Patrick Coffee reports for CMO Today.
AI has made botnet campaigns easier to manage and harder to detect, enabling their growth beyond criminal enterprises and state-based actors.
Cracker Barrel’s recent logo controversy started with real humans and resonated with others. But bots or likely bots authored 44.5% of X posts mentioning Cracker Barrel in the 24 hours after its planned new logo gained attention on Aug. 20, and 49% of the posts calling for a boycott, according to PeakMetrics, which tracks online discussions and threats.
Pinning down the motives for these attacks can be as difficult as identifying the people behind them, but money is a top contender.
Verified users on X who meet minimums for followers and impressions can get paid based on the likes, replies and shares their posts get from other verified users.
Bots masquerading as humans can help meet those minimums and spread posts so they reach more people who might engage, PeakMetrics said.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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Why ‘Rightsizing’ AI Security Is the New Imperative for C-Suite Leaders
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Rather than overengineer controls or leave gaps in protection, develop a rightsized approach that aligns with the organization’s singular risk profile and business goals. Read More
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SMU's live mascot is a Shetland pony named Peruna. Photo: Patrick Green/Cal Sport Media/ZUMA Press
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Fans of Southern Methodist University athletics are in an uproar over a billionaire booster’s declaration that “Pony Up,” the school’s popular slogan, “has died a natural death,” Laine Higgins writes.
SMU’s live mascot since 1932 is a Shetland pony named Peruna, and the catchphrase “Pony Up” has been around since 2007. But the booster, David Miller, saw the school’s entry into the Atlantic Coast Conference last fall as a chance to emphasize the Mustangs, the official team name.
“Nobody hates ponies,” said Miller, who chairs the board of trustees. “But a pony is, in my view, you know, less aggressive.”
Now irate fans are protesting with signs at game day, social media is awash with retaliatory “Pony Up” posts and the student government has passed an emergency measure to reinforce the sanctity of “Pony Up.”
“Obviously he doesn’t know a goddamn thing about marketing,” SMU alum Greg Gaylor said of Miller, who also chairs the board of trustees. “To mess with something that works is the height of stupidity.”
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Photo: David Zalubowski/Associated Press
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Amazon has reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, just days into a civil trial examining whether the company duped customers into signing up for its signature Prime service and created a confusing process to cancel, Erin Mulvaney and Dave Michaels report.
The e-commerce giant will pay a $1 billion penalty and create a $1.5 billion fund to pay back to consumers. It will also be required to make canceling Prime as easy as signing up, a demand the FTC has made in other recent enforcement actions against online merchants.
The commission said it is the largest civil penalty in its history.
Amazon agreed to settle the case without admitting or denying the FTC’s allegations. The company said Thursday that the resolution allows it to move forward and focus on its business.
“We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world,” Amazon said.
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“There are too many cooks in the kitchen, too many stakeholders pulling at budgets with different KPIs.”
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— Jason Trubowitz, senior VP of media and measurement at the Association of National Advertisers, on marketers’ need to set their own measurement standards and goals as retail media networks continue to proliferate and expand
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The WSJ CMO Council Summit
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This Nov. 18 and 19, CMOs will gather in New York for The WSJ CMO Summit to explore fan-fueled growth, AI in marketing and the evolving CMO-CEO partnership. Join the CMO Council and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing leadership.
Request Invitation
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President Trump holds up his new executive order on TikTok. Photo: Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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President Trump signed an executive order formalizing the agreement for a group of American investors to take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations, setting the stage for the other steps needed to finalize the deal. [WSJ]
Meta said U.K. users in the coming weeks will be able to subscribe to ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. [The Independent]
Why Meta thinks it can challenge Apple in consumer AI devices. [WSJ]
Aldi slashed the number of names its exclusive house brands sell under and made sure they all carry its own name as well. [Modern Retail]
Costco saw a boost in sales for the fourth quarter thanks in part to its newly extended store hours for executive members. [WSJ]
Banana Republic bought Abandoned Republic, a fan-built archive of the brand’s history, to complement its new vintage site Banana Republic Archive. [Fashion Network]
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