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WPP Names New Boss; AI Labels Cause Chaos; Inside Yaccarino's X-it
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Good morning. This is Katie Deighton filling in for Nat Ives. Today, WPP found Mark Read's successor in a Microsoft executive; the hodgepodge of AI labeling methods isn't working perfectly; and why Linda Yaccarino called time on X.
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The announcement of Cindy Rose as WPP's CEO comes a day after the company issued a profit warning. Photo: Simon Dawson/Reuters
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The wait is over: WPP this morning named Microsoft executive Cindy Rose as its new chief executive officer, Najat Kantouar and Elena Vardon report.
Rose will take the helm on Sept. 1. She is currently chief operating officer for global enterprise at Microsoft, where she helps companies use digital technology and AI to drive business transformation, WPP said.
The announcement comes a day after WPP issued a profit warning, citing the effect of economic uncertainty on client spending and weaker-than-expected net new business. WPP Chair Philip Jansen emphasized Rose’s experience in using AI to help reshape large companies’ business models and revenue streams.
“Her expertise in this landscape will be hugely valuable to WPP as the industry navigates fundamental changes and macroeconomic uncertainty,” Jansen said.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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The Future of Biopharma: 5 Strategies to Transform Commercial Models
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The current commercial model for the biopharmaceutical industry is unlikely to meet company and customer needs in the future. Five strategies can help the industry transform. Read More
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The hyper-realistic characters in a recent NBA Finals ad from Kalshi, a prediction-market company, were generated entirely with Google’s Veo 3 AI tool. Photo: Kalshi
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The patchwork of imperfect AI tools and voluntary policies imposed by Meta, YouTube and TikTok is sometimes inadvertently punishing “real” content, Patrick Coffee writes.
TikTok star Nikolai Savic, for example, says he has had “AI-generated” labels misapplied to many of his popular videos, provoking dismissive comments from some of his 4.8 million followers. Savic said he occasionally taps AI to smooth out rough patches but otherwise uses standard editing tools.
Meanwhile, AI work without disclosures continues to circulate freely.
Kalshi, the prediction-market startup that lets people bet on current events and pop culture, ran an ad on YouTube TV during last month’s NBA Finals that was generated entirely with Veo 3, according to a Kalshi spokesman. By the time viewers see an alien chugging beer at a college party, they may realize that nothing in the Kalshi ad is real. But it wasn’t labeled as AI.
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41%
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The dip in Amazon Prime “Day” sales on Tuesday when compared with the start of Prime Day last year, according to Momentum Commerce. This year's event is running four days compared with two in 2024.
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Linda Yaccarino often butted heads with X's chief financial officer, according to people familiar with the relationship. Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters
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Linda Yaccarino said she is stepping down as chief executive of X after months of uncertainty at Elon Musk's social-media company, Suzanne Vranica, Alexander Saeedy and Jessica Toonkel report.
Musk merged X with Grok chatbot maker xAI this spring, making the social-media platform part of a broader AI-focused company. The high-growth potential of artificial intelligence became more important to investors than the tighter-margin social-media business overseen by Yaccarino.
And when X hired the former finance chief of Tubi, Reza Banki, as the social-media company’s chief financial officer late last year, he and Yaccarino often butted heads, people familiar with their relationship said.
He pressured Yaccarino over costs, specifically over the money she was spending on content deals with celebrities for shows that appear on X, one of the people said.
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The Volkswagen ID. Buzz electric bus on display at the New York International Auto Show in April. Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for WSJ
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The rise and fall of the Volkswagen bus in America. [WSJ]
Publishers are stepping up efforts to protect their websites from AI scrapers. [WSJ]
Self-described “skinny” creators are inking deals with clothing and supplement brands, and earning affiliate revenue by recommending diet-friendly snacks. [WSJ]
F1's Red Bull fired its longtime chief Christian Horner... [WSJ]
...leading to the departure of the team's chief marketing officer. [Autosport]
CMOs' new creator marketing playbook involves control, consistency and minimizing risk. [Digiday]
Athleisure brand Vuori named former Fabletics executive Ashley Kechter as its global president. [WWD]
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