Claire’s new chief brand officer quickly found herself facing a tough decision, The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton writes.

The accessories store and mall staple had long built its brand with a distinctive shade of bright violet, but its internal research was conclusive: Claire’s current target of girls about 10 to 14 years old didn’t think the color was cool.

“The Gen Alpha girl is just really feminine and not super edgy,” said Michelle Goad, who joined the retailer in January.

Eventually Goad scrapped the characteristic purple in favor of a delicate lilac named “Lilith,” picked by a committee of girls. A palette of pastels will complement the new color in stores starting in the summer. 

She hopes that group’s power to make ostensibly unserious things go viral (see: squishy toys like NeeDoh) will boost sales among other shoppers, too, including both younger kids and millennial moms.

I asked Katie a follow-up on a particular youth trend in the headlines:

Tweens and even younger kids are getting deeper into skincare and makeup, to the dismay of some parents and dermatologists. Where does Claire’s vision of tweendom fit into the new landscape?

Katie: When I went into this interview I really thought I’d be reporting that Claire’s was setting itself up to be the antithesis to that phenomenon—a safe space, if you will, that would appeal to parents as much as young girls. The company had, after all, been talking up the idea of providing space for “girlhood” in other interviews, and had already made a splash as part of the wholesome NeeDoh craze.

But Goad’s point of view is slightly more nuanced. In our interview, she said Claire’s has no interest in changing culture.

“If you come in and tell girls to be different than what they want to be, then you're not listening to your consumer,” even if that consumer is 10 years old, she said. “....If girls want to experiment with beauty, let’s get the right brands in that make sense for their age. They’re going to do it.”

Publicis Groupe has agreed to acquire the data platform LiveRamp in an all-cash deal with an enterprise value of nearly $2.2 billion, the French advertising holding company said on Sunday.

LiveRamp helps thousands of companies such as advertisers, retailers, data sources and media publishers connect their information on consumers without exposing personal data.

Publicis said it intends to use LiveRamp’s platform to let clients build powerful AI agents, with capabilities such as cross-selling products and tracking the incremental benefits of various consumer contact points.

“By building the future of data co-creation, we’re empowering our clients to generate new, exclusive and proprietary data, to build the smartest, most differentiated AI agents on top of the leading LLMs,” Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said.

One key point immediately leaps out: LiveRamp has won its many clients as a neutral player, available to anybody and with no stake in the results that its platform helps generate.

Publicis pledged to protect that position.

“LiveRamp will continue to operate as a neutral, interoperable platform and provide open access across the ecosystem,” it said in its deal announcement. “No current or prospective customer will be prohibited from accessing, or restricted in using, its services.”

That promise “deserves credit,” the agency veteran and consultant Doug Ray wrote in MediaPost. But marketing leaders need to make sure they are clear on their own needs and their priorities.

“Not every brand wants or can afford an integrated model where the same partner owns the data, executes the media, measures the results, and earns margins at multiple layers of the stack,” Ray wrote.

Two senators are introducing bipartisan legislation that would ban digital gambling ads targeting people under the age of 18, hoping to address fears that minors are getting hooked on betting through ads on social media, Amrith Ramkumar reports exclusively for The Wall Street Journal this morning.

The bill from Sens. Katie Britt (R., Ala.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) would create a federal prohibition on ads on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram that promote sports betting to minors.

Many states and big social-media companies already have such bans, but critics say they are ineffective and don’t have adequate punishments.

Under the new bill, the Federal Trade Commission would enforce the provisions, and penalties could reach up to $100,000 per advertisement.

The bill would not cover ads seen by a wide audience during sporting events and any results from minors actively searching for betting content.

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Fast-fashion e-commerce power Shein is buying Everlane, the direct-to-consumer apparel brand that gained fame with its “transparent” pricing and factory sourcing. [Puck] 

Clothing brand Simkhai is developing a .ai version of its website as a companion to the .com, offering more of a “discovery mode” for visitors who aren’t sure what to search for yet. [Glossy] 

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced a new line of MrBeast toy kits as well as MrBeast-themed in-store workshops for kids. [BI]

Pabst is putting Schlitz beer “on hiatus,” shutting down production of the “beer that made Milwaukee famous.” [Milwaukee Magazine] 

Diageo North America Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer Ed Pilkington is leaving the maker of Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff as part of broader changes at the company. [Ad Age]