This week’s issue is a tour of how brands win by matching story to setting. Duolingo turns a mascot into retail theater in Tokyo. LinkedIn rides the Wrapped wave and discovers the emotional risk of year-end scorecards. Instagram signals a shift from polished feeds to raw signals in an AI-saturated world. Louis Vuitton proves how
AI scam farms are using deepfakes to run billion-dollar fraud rings. Pine-Sol is turning floor cleaner into TikTok chaos. Heinz wants you to drink ketchup. And CMOs? They’re dropping like flies. This week’s stories show how fast marketing, culture, and reputation can flip — from crisis to comedy, from absurd to iconic. This Week’s Lineup
This week’s newsletter starts with a request for help. And let’s be clear – I really dislike asking for help – so you know this is a last resort. I’m facing an issue with the YouTube Partner Program and Adsense. My YouTube channel is linked to an old Adsense account I deleted years ago, preventing