• Ad companies targeted by a Rumble lawsuit say it's an attempt to "weaponize" antitrust laws.
• Rumble accused Diageo, WPP, and an ad trade group of colluding to boycott the platform.
• The ad companies say Rumble wasn't an attractive ad platform and that there was no conspiracy.

Advertisers targeted by the video platform Rumble in a lawsuit are hitting back.

Drinks giant Diageo, WPP and its media buying arm GroupM, and trade body the World Federation of Advertisers are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them last year by Rumble. They accuse the platform, which is popular among conservative audiences, of trying to "weaponize" antitrust laws to force advertisers to do business with it.

In Rumble's complaint, initially filed in a Texas court in August, the platform alleged that advertisers and agencies "collectively agreed to restrict the output of digital advertising on social media platforms"
through the WFA's now-defunct initiative, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

Rumble's lawsuit said this conspiracy resulted in higher advertising costs, reduced earnings for content creators, and inhibited the platform's growth and profitability.

In their response filed Friday, the WFA, WPP, and Diageo said the case should be dismissed because it didn't successfully allege an agreement, a relevant market, or harm to competition.

The filing says there are "perfectly good non-boycott reasons" why those advertisers and others "have chosen not to advertise on Rumble, which prides itself on lax content moderation and brand-safety measures."

Rumble, the WFA, and Diageo didn't respond to requests for comment. WPP declined to comment.

Rumble's case and the response from advertisers are notable in part because of the suit's similarities to one filed by Elon Musk's X, also in August last year. X is suing the WFA and almost a dozen advertisers who were GARM members — including big names like Mars, Shell, and Nestlé — alleging they conspired to pull ad dollars from X following Musk's takeover of the company formerly known as Twitter.

Those advertisers haven't yet filed a response.

Founded in 2019, GARM was a US-based initiative that aimed to provide frameworks and common language for the ad industry regarding harmful and sensitive content categories like hate speech, online piracy, and violence. Adherence to its Brand Safety Framework was voluntary, and it didn't single out any websites for advertisers to avoid by name.

However, some conservatives argued that GARM had an anti-conservative bias. The House Judiciary Committee, led by its chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, published an investigation last summer that alleged GARM and its members colluded to boycott platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content they disfavored, such as X and Joe Rogan's podcast on Spotify.

The WFA has maintained that it will contest the allegations and is confident that it adhered to competition rules.

In August, GARM ceased operations in the wake of Rumble and X's lawsuits, with the WFA saying at the time that the not-for-profit organization only had limited resources.

Advertisers avoided Rumble because its content was risky, the filing says

On its website, Rumble says its video platform grew amid the rise of "cancel culture" and as other services tightened their content moderation rules. Rumble says it supports "diverse opinions, authentic expression, and the need for open dialogue."

The motion to dismiss the suit from Diageo and others says this commercial decision also made Rumble riskier for brands.

"No sweeping conspiracy is needed to explain why brands would have separately and unilaterally chosen not to advertise on Rumble, which prides itself on allowing content other sites will not allow," the legal filing reads. It also says Rumble's lawsuit doesn't sufficiently provide evidence of a group boycott.

In its complaint, Rumble said that starting in June 2023, it contacted GroupM and Diageo separately about advertising on the site, but both parties declined to do so. Rumble speculated in its complaint that Diageo and GroupM didn't advertise with the company because it hadn't implemented policies based on GARM's brand safety standards.

In their legal filing, the advertising companies contend that this didn't amount to a collective agreement to withhold ad dollars from Rumble. While marketers used the GARM framework to inform their ad decisions, GARM didn't direct them to boycott a platform that didn't adhere to it or dole out consequences to advertisers who ignored it, the legal filing says.

"Rumble tries to convert a trade association initiative's short-lived, voluntary 'Brand Safety Framework' into a global conspiracy," the filing says.

The filing argues that brand-safety standards are pro-competitive rather than harming competition because they help protect advertisers and make it easier to transact across various platforms.

"The fact that Rumble did not grow as fast as it wanted does not suggest that the advertising it wished to host evaporated as opposed to landing at a different platform that is more attractive to advertisers," the legal filing says.

Advertisers being sued by Rumble say the case could have 'troubling' First Amendment implications

Rumble is seeking a "permanent injunction" against the WFA, WPP, and Diageo, prohibiting them from continuing their alleged conspiracy to withhold ad dollars from the platform.

The companies argue in their filing that this would have "troubling" First Amendment, or free speech, implications.

"Just as it would violate the First Amendment for the government to tell Rumble what content it must host on its website, it would be similarly unconstitutional for this Court to order Defendants to speak on Rumble," the WFA, WPP, and Diageo argue in their filing.

In addition, they argue that Rumble's choice of court is inappropriate because the case "has nothing to do with Texas, much less the Northern District of Texas" because none of the companies operate their businesses out of the state. The Northern District of Texas has become a favored venue among conservatives, with many of its judges appointed by Republican presidents. Rumble itself is headquartered in Canada.

X's lawsuit against advertisers was also filed in the same court in the Northern District of Texas.

Advertising industry executives are closely following the X and Rumble cases and the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing probe of GARM and its members. Some industry insiders previously told BI that while they felt the cases were without merit, the outcomes of the separate actions could stymie future responsible advertising initiatives.

• The founder and ex-CEO of OpenWeb, who was ousted from the company, is back as an advisor.
• It ends a dispute between OpenWeb's board and Shoval, which led to his exit from the company.
• Shoval, who sued OpenWeb and some of its board members, said they had resolved their differences.

Nadav Shoval, the founder who was ousted as CEO of OpenWeb by its board in a messy public battle, is back with the adtech company in an advisor role, Business Insider has learned.

In an email to employees sent on Friday morning and obtained by BI, OpenWeb's interim CEO, Tim Harvey, announced that the company and Shoval had "reached a mutually agreed resolution" in which Shoval would remain connected to the company as a senior advisor to its chief executive.

Later on Friday, the company published a post on its website confirming the move. OpenWeb didn't respond to requests for comment.

"We resolved our differences," Shoval told BI. "The company remains committed to its mission of OpenWeb, and I'm excited to continue to support the mission in my role as senior advisor to the CEO."

The settlement caps months of drama at OpenWeb, which began in mid-2024 after Shoval and some board members disagreed over a potential investment in the company from BlackRock, Shoval previously told BI in an interview in December.

The relationship between Shoval and the board became further strained last year after the board changed his reporting line — a move Shoval said was in breach of his contract because, in his view, it diminished his role and hindered his management capabilities.

Shoval wrote to the board in September, demanding it reverse the change. Later that month, the board fired him instead.

He took the matter public, posting to LinkedIn in September that he hadn't stepped down as CEO, writing: "I do not accept these actions. I will continue to fight for OpenWeb's mission and purpose alongside our team."

Shoval also went the legal route, suing OpenWeb and many of its board members in a Tel Aviv, Israel court in October, alleging that he had been the victim of a boardroom coup. The complaint demanded he be reinstated as CEO and given the ability to appoint two new board members.

In response to Shoval's suit, OpenWeb said in court filings that the case was a classic situation in which the board of directors had lost confidence in its CEO. OpenWeb said Shoval was trying to extract money that was not owed to him and that he had chosen to give up control of the company when he brought in investors.

The case has now been settled, Shoval confirmed.

OpenWeb, which has around 350 employees, provides technology that helps publishers boost revenue and engagement on their websites, such as comment moderation and advertising tools. Clients and partners include publishers such as CNN, Fox, and Hearst, and the advertising companies WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis Groupe, according to its website.

Founded in 2012, OpenWeb has raised more than $392 million and was last valued at $1.5 billion. Its investors include the venture capital firms Insight Partners, Georgian Partners, and Index Ventures, companies like The New York Times and Dentsu, and the famed NYU Stern professor and podcaster Scott Galloway, who sits on the company's board.

• X is attracting new advertisers, though its ad revenue recovery is uncertain, third-party data suggests.
• X's ad revenue dropped significantly after Musk's 2022 takeover.
• Some advertisers are cautiously plotting a comeback to X.

Elon Musk's X has successfully courted a new set of advertisers in recent months, and some big-name brands, such as Apple, are returning.

Does that mean it's seeing an advertising rebound? Well, it's complicated.

A Business Insider analysis of four independent data sources suggests X's pool of advertisers is growing, but it's far from recouping the revenue lost in the ad exodus following Musk's 2022 takeover.

X didn't respond to a request for comment. X is a private company and doesn't publicly report ad revenue data.

According to the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, 46 of the 100 top-spending US advertisers on X in January this year weren't spending on the platform in 2022, suggesting it has cultivated a new base of advertisers. (Sensor Tower says its estimates are based on proprietary panel data and data science models and should be used for directional trend analysis.)

President Donald Trump's election victory and Musk's political ascension may have drawn new advertisers to X. It's notable, however, that a large chunk of the top 100 were spending on the platform throughout 2024 — even before the election. Chinese e-commerce giant Temu was the top advertiser last year, accounting for 3% of total US spend on the platform, according to Sensor Tower's estimates. Temu didn't respond to a request for comment.

Here were the top 10 spenders in January 2025, per Sensor Tower:

1. Temu
2. Robinhood
3. Solar Heavy
4. The NFL
5. DraftKings
6. Shein
7. Restaurant Brands International
8. Amazon
9. Dell
10. Red Deer Games

Sensor Tower data estimated that these advertisers spent less on X overall in January 2025 compared to the previous set of top advertisers in January 2024.

More advertisers, but fewer ad dollars

Data from the research firm MediaRadar, which analyzed a panel of more than 2 million US users, showed a similar trend. It estimated that X's US advertising revenue was $1.4 billion in 2024, down 28% from the nearly $2 billion spent on the platform in 2023.

While revenues declined, the number of companies advertising on X in 2024 increased 15% year-over-year, according to MediaRadar.

This increase could stem from a string of new deals X signed with adtech vendors to drive advertiser demand. Ads sold this way tend to go for lower prices than ads sold directly by sales teams, and X would need to share some of this revenue with these vendors. X this month signed a deal with the adtech company Magnite, as BI first reported. X has also done deals with Google and PubMatic.

Musk earlier this month reposted a screenshot of a Wall Street Journal article saying that X's 2024 revenue was down versus 2021, the last full year before it went private, but it had improved profitability in that time on an adjusted EBITDA basis. Musk didn't confirm the numbers but posted: "It's almost like I'm good with money 😂." An overall X revenue figure would also include income from its data licensing and subscription businesses, in addition to advertising.

Some advertisers are cautiously plotting a return to X

Many advertisers have been cautious about spending on X after Musk's takeover of Twitter in 2022.

The company laid off a large number of its staffers, loosened moderation and account verification rules, and brought back some banned accounts of controversial figures. Musk famously told advertisers that had stopped spending on the platform to "go fuck yourself." X is also suing 11 advertisers, alleging they collectively conspired to boycott the platform in contravention of antitrust laws.

Despite these concerns, some industry insiders who spoke with BI posited X could benefit from Trump's November election win and Musk's increasingly influential role in his administration. They said some advertisers are contemplating whether spending on X might make sense this year.

"We see more advertising money hedging against political risk," said a top media buyer, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive client spending decisions. Their identity is known to BI.

"Normally, the CEO does not get involved in media buying decisions; the CMO is responsible. Now, in this political environment, the CEO is getting involved," the media buyer added.

Ruben Schreurs, CEO of the marketing consultancy Ebiquity, which works with 70 of the top 100 global advertisers, said it is seeing isolated cases of advertisers coming back to the platform, "but as of yet, no signs of a mass return."

Apple, for example, which stopped spending on X in 2023, bought ads on X again this month, MacRumors earlier reported, and BI confirmed. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, Ebiquity's analysis of client spending showed that just one of its clients was spending on X in December 2024, down from 13 clients in December 2023.

Still, at least one data source suggested X has seen an uplift since the election. That was Guideline, an analytics firm that aggregates data from the world's largest media buying agencies.

Its data showed there was a 123% uplift in US spending on X from these major agencies year-over-year in December — the first full month of data after the election — and a further 42% year-over-year growth in January. This came from a low base, however, as X had experienced two years of consistent year-on-year ad spend decreases in the 60% to 80% range, per Guideline's data.

It also looks like spending in February from these agencies will be up 25% year-over-year, though this estimate from Guideline is based on forward bookings of early advertiser commitments and is still subject to change.

• Kanye West's Super Bowl ad pointed people to YEEZY.com, which was later updated to feature only a swastika T-shirt.
• After the listing received backlash, Shopify removed the website on Tuesday.
• Shopify has faced criticism before for hosting controversial stores, leading to policy changes.

Four days of Kanye West controversy came to a head on Tuesday when the artist's website was taken offline after facing backlash.

The website was removed by the vendor powering it, Shopify, less than 48 hours after West's Super Bowl ad directed viewers to a storefront selling a single item: a swastika T-shirt labeled "HH-01."

A Shopify spokesperson confirmed to BI on Tuesday morning the company had removed the store.

"All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify," the spokesperson said.

On Friday, West, whose legal name is Ye, posted a slew of social media posts on X praising Adolf Hitler, describing himself as a Nazi, and defending music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was arrested in September and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Ye also purchased a 30-second ad that aired during Super Bowl LIX. Unlike the national Super Bowl ads that reached a cost of north of $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime this year, the Yeezy team instead purchased ad slots on local stations — which would have come at a lower price.

The ads ran on local Fox stations in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, and some other affiliate stations, according to USIM, the media agency that brokered the buy.

Doug Livingston, president and chief operating officer of USIM, said the agency immediately ceased working with Yeezy LLC after seeing the "disparaging and vile comments" Ye had posted on X on Friday.

Livingston said Fox had said the media buy was "non-cancelable."

"We informed Fox that they should cease airing any remnant spots immediately upon learning that Yeezy, LLC was promoting vile content," he said.

A Fox insider told BI they received no communication from the agency about requesting to drop the ad until Monday morning after the Super Bowl spot had aired.

The Yeezy Super Bowl spot, which purported to be shot on an iPhone and featured the rapper sitting in a dentist's chair showing off his new teeth, was unlikely to have caused alarm when it was submitted and subsequently approved for broadcast because it didn't contain any obscenities.

"So whassup guys, I spent like all the money for the commercial on these new teeth. So, once again I had to shoot it on the iPhone. Um, um, um, go to Yeezy.com," Ye said in the sparse ad. (Yeezy.com also ran a local spot during last year's Super Bowl, starring Ye.)

At the time of the ad's approval and airing, the Yeezy store displayed a number of items for sale. It was only after the ad was shown that the website was updated to display the swastika T-shirt for sale, according to screenshots of the site captured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

USIM's Livingston said the agency was unaware that Ye had intended to change the nature of the store's offerings.

"The commercial was to promote general athletic apparel listed on the website," Livingston said.

Along with his website, Ye's X account appears to also be deactivated on the platform as of Tuesday morning.

"Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being," spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos said in a statement to NBC News. Representatives for Ye did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from Business Insider.

Ye was previously banned from X, then known as Twitter, in 2022 after he tweeted an image containing a swastika and the Star of David. His account was later reinstated.

In the hours following the Super Bowl ad airing, many called for the Yeezy site to be taken down.

This week, the Anti-Defamation League, which called the T-shirt listing "further proof of Kanye's antisemitism," encouraged people to sign an open letter calling on Fox Sports to condemn Ye's ad. At the time of writing, the letter had more than 9,000 signatories.

"The swastika is the symbol adopted by Hitler as the primary emblem of the Nazis," the ADL said in a statement posted to X on Monday. "It galvanized his followers in the 20th century and continues to threaten and instill fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy."

"If that wasn't enough, the t-shirt is labeled on Kanye's website as 'HH-01,' which is code for 'Heil Hitler,'" the statement said.

On Tuesday, talent agent Daniel McCartney of 33 & West announced on Instagram that he would no longer represent Ye "due to his recent harmful and hateful remarks."

Shopify under pressure

Several former Shopify executives, including former chief product officer Craig Miller and former senior director of investor relations Katie Keita, spoke out against the company's hosting of the Yeezy store before it was taken down.

"Even if @Shopify views it as 'morally ambiguous' to empower the exponential buildup of hate toward a religion/ethnicity, it is, at the very least, a grave public disservice," Keita said in a post on X.

It wasn't the first time Shopify has faced criticism for its hosting of an online store. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke frequently defends free speech and has said he doesn't view it as Shopify's role to police points of view.

In 2020, a legal defense fund was set up for Kyle Rittenhouse via Shopify. After several weeks of criticism, Shopify shut the store down. It also removed sites affiliated with President Donald Trump after a group of pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In 2022, critics called for Shopify to remove the store for Libs of TikTok, saying it violated Shopify's acceptable use policy. At the time, that policy said Shopify's platform could not be used to "promote or condone hate or violence against people based on race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, veteran status or other forms of discriminatory intolerance."

Shopify did not remove the Libs of TikTok store as it did not find it to be in violation of the policy, a spokesperson told Business Insider in 2022. That decision frustrated some employees, including some in customer support who fielded complaints from angry customers.

Shopify adjusted its acceptable use policy last year, removing some of the more specific language.

"There are activities we don't allow on the platform because they breach the social contract of commerce," it now reads, in part. "This means you can't call for, or threaten, violence against specific people or groups. And you can't sell products that facilitate intentional self-harm."

• Elon Musk's X is working with the adtech company Magnite to boost programmatic ad sales.
• Magnite is a large supply-side platform, which helps publishers monetize their sites and apps.
• X has recently been expanding its ad partnerships.

Elon Musk's X has signed a partnership with the adtech company Magnite, the latest in a string of deals it has signed with programmatic advertising firms, Business Insider has learned.

Magnite operates a supply-side platform, technology that helps web publishers, app developers, and streaming TV providers manage and sell advertising. It's one of the largest SSPs in the US by market share, according to the analytics platform Pixalate.

A spokesperson for Magnite confirmed the partnership with X and said it offers advertisers an option to include or exclude X's inventory from their media buys.

X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magnite joins Google and PubMatic as official third-party sellers of X's ad inventory. X had also previously forged a partnership with InMobi, but the adtech company hasn't offered ads on X for well over a year, as BI previously reported.

By opening up its ad inventory to partners, X can theoretically tap into additional advertiser demand — including companies that may not have previously considered buying X or other social-media ads.

It could help fill gaps that X's sales team and self-service buying platform couldn't sell. That said, it's likely these would be bought at a lower price, and X would have to share some of that revenue with its adtech partners.

Prior to Musk's takeover of the company (previously called Twitter), it only sold directly and didn't make its inventory available to third-party adtech vendors.

X has been working to reverse the large revenue shortfall that came as many advertisers pulled or dramatically reduced their spending on the platform after Musk's takeover of the company in 2022. X laid off swaths of its safety and sales staff, loosened content moderation rules, switched up its verification system, and allowed previously banned accounts back onto the platform.

Musk's own behavior toward advertisers has sometimes not been cordial. He famously told companies that had pulled advertising from X to "go fuck yourself" during a 2023 onstage interview. X is also currently suing 11 advertisers, alleging they collectively conspired to boycott X through their membership in a now-defunct trade body initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

MediaRadar, a marketing intelligence firm, estimated that X's US advertising revenue came in at $1.4 billion in 2024, down 28% from the nearly $2 billion spent on the platform in 2023. The number of companies advertising on X in 2024 increased 15% year-over-year, per MediaRadar, which analyzes a panel of more than 2 million US users.

Despite some struggles on the advertising side, X remains an influential platform under Musk, who has been in the spotlight as a powerful political figure following President Donald Trump's reelection.

• Instacart on Sunday is set to air its first Super Bowl ad, featuring nostalgic brand mascots.
• In an interview, Instacart CMO Laura Jones shared the risks involved in creating the campaign.
• Instacart is betting its investment will boost the brand along with sales and ad revenue.

Instacart's chief marketing officer, Laura Jones, acknowledges she's been a little stressed recently.

Jones and her team are preparing to air Instacart's first Super Bowl ad, and the stakes are high.

Any brand looking to stand out this weekend during TV advertising's tentpole event has a lot on the line. Some brands paid the broadcaster Fox upward of $8 million to secure 30 seconds of airtime this year. That doesn't even include the costs of producing the ad and the extra media buys on social media and elsewhere.

"There have been so many mornings over the past six months where I've just been scared we're taking this huge risk," Jones told BI. "There are points in the creative process when you are kind of operating on faith, and it's scary."

Instacart's ad, which is set to air during the second quarter of the game, draws on nostalgia, bringing back memorable brand mascots from previous Super Bowls. Characters like the Heinz wiener dogs, the Green Giant, the Old Spice Guy, and the Kool-Aid Man join forces to deliver a family's grocery order.

Jones said the ad sought to convey the idea that Instacart takes care of the groceries so its users can take care of their lives.

When Jones took the early Super Bowl ad idea to Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, she said, she was asked by Simo, "How do we know this is going to work?"

Jones did have a data point to back up the strategy: The company's "Bunny Ears" back-to-school campaign during the Paris Olympics had driven "material" sales growth. Still, the Super Bowl would be a much bigger investment.

The four members of the Instacart marketing team behind the Super Bowl push had a make-or-break meeting about whether to go ahead.

"We were like, OK, we're choosing to do this," Jones said. "We're about to take on a ton of work. We're about to take on a huge risk. If we don't do this well, it could cost me or all of us our careers, but do we want to take this risk?"

"We did because we felt like we put in the hard work, we were ready, and we felt confident in our ability to execute," Jones added.

System1, a company that rates TV ads on their potential to drive long-term growth for brands, rated Instacart's ad at 4.1 stars out of a possible 5.9. That's a good score that placed it ninth out of the Super Bowl LIX ads that System1 has analyzed so far. The top-scoring ad, with a perfect score of 5.9 stars, was "The Little Farmer" from Lay's, which tells a story about a girl growing her own potatoes. System1 asks a panel of consumers to indicate how they feel about the ad they're viewing from a list of emotions ranging from contempt and disgust to happiness and surprise.

Vanessa Chin, System1's senior vice president of marketing, said the Instacart ad intensified its emotional connection with viewers by using familiar characters and music.

"Using 'Take It to da House' as the soundtrack was particularly effective, tying into Instacart's delivery business while enhancing the emotional impact with its upbeat tune, often played by marching bands," Chin said.

Instacart faced added complexity by partnering with brands that were also its advertisers

The concept of Instacart's "We're Here" Super Bowl ad itself had added challenges. Instacart had to carefully manage the intellectual property and brand guidelines of all the partners involved — which also happen to be advertisers on its platform. The company worked with the ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA to produce the ad.

Instacart has also been mindful of those relationships as it extended the campaign beyond the TV spot. In the lead-up to the game, it brought some of the mascots to shows, including "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and the "Today" show. It partnered with Kraft Heinz to have the Wienermobile, driven by the Cheetos mascot, Chester Cheetah, make deliveries in this year's Super Bowl host city, New Orleans, as well as Kansas City and Philadelphia, the hometowns of this year's teams.

"You get this huge benefit of added reach through social, through news coverage," Jones said.

Jones said Instacart would test whether it achieved demonstrable benefits in areas such as unaided awareness and consideration, and whether the campaign produced a measurable lift in gross transaction volume. Instacart will also look at whether the Super Bowl push helps generate revenue for its own advertising business. It's working with its partners to push promotions in the app, such as letting users add a free bag of Cheetos to their orders during game week.

Like many other Super Bowl LIX advertisers, Instacart decided to keep its campaign lighthearted this year.

Jones said the marketing team had considered making a heartstring-puller but felt it would be difficult to stand out. She recalled The Farmer's Dog's "Forever" commercial from the 2023 Super Bowl, which was widely lauded, while other tearjerkers that year weren't as memorable.

Jones said humor served as a great connector, which she hopes will drive affinity for the brand as millions of people tune in Sunday to watch the Chiefs take on the Eagles.

"Humor is something that really plays better in a group," Jones said. "It's more fun to laugh when you're in a group of people than when you're alone in your bed streaming at 11 o'clock at night."

• Humor, nostalgia, and celebrities are set to feature heavily in this year's Super Bowl commercials.
• Brands are aiming for safe, lighthearted ads amid political tensions and economic challenges.
• Data shows Super Bowl advertisers have leaned heavily on celebrities since 2020.

Super Bowl advertisers are leaning into humor, nostalgia, and generous use of celebrities this year as brands look to provide levity — and avoid controversy — in a politically charged year.

Some advertisers have spent more than $8 million to secure 30 seconds of airtime, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider. They asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive sales negotiations; their identity is known to BI. Marketers will have spent many millions more on production, securing A-list celebrity endorsements, and buying online ads. More than 123 million viewers tuned in to last year's Super Bowl, according to TV measurement firm Nielsen.

Amid these high stakes, advertising insiders said brands have been more likely to play it safe in recent years, wary of a backlash and as they look to guarantee a return on their investment. The ads and teasers released so far for Super Bowl LIX appear to follow that trend.

"Since COVID, Super Bowl ads have taken a pretty decisive turn from being fairly edgy, fairly risque, to ones that are much, much more conscious of the national mood, of sentiment, politics — they sort of became very PC, really shying away from anything that could offend anybody," said Sean Muller, CEO of the ad measurement company iSpot.tv.

Marketers are highly attuned to the recent rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across both corporate America and the federal government.

Bud Light famously became embroiled in a wave of conservative backlash after it featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a 2023 social media promotion. Bud Light's Super Bowl spot this year follows a much more familiar beer-marketing playbook. Its "Big Men on Cul-de-sac" ad features comedian Shane Gillis, rapper Post Malone, and twice Super Bowl winner Peyton Manning hosting a raucous backyard party.

"Advertisers are really smart to stay away from politically charged themes at all times, but to the extent that they get into something like that, they really shouldn't be doing it when economic times are tough, or there's something negative in the national mood," said Charles Taylor, Villanova School of Business marketing professor and author of the coming book "Winning the Advertising Game: Lessons from the Super Bowl Ad Champions."

Super Bowl advertisers are playing for laughs this year

Comedy is the resounding theme of this year's crop of Super Bowl commercials. According to Daivid, an AI platform that predicts viewers' likely reactions to ads, 14 of the first 19 ads released online ahead of the game featured "amusement" as their top emotion.

Examples include the "It Hits the Spot" ad for Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which enlisted Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan to humorously recreate the classic deli scene from "When Harry Met Sally." Elsewhere, Adam Brody sounds a Pringles can like a blowing horn to conjure the facial hair off famous mustachioed men, including Chiefs coach Andy Reid, NBA star James Harden, the actor Nick Offerman, and Mr. Potato Head. And Coors Light features a slew of CGI sloths who encapsulate what it's like to have a "case of the Mondays" after staying up late on Super Bowl Sunday.

Brynna Aylward, North America chief creative officer of the ad agency Adam&EveDDB, said the overriding warmth of the ads released so far reflects "the hug that we all need this year."

Advertisers have clamored to feature celebrities

The sheer number of celebrities in the commercial breaks won't go unnoticed.

In 2010, only around one-third of Super Bowl ads featured a celebrity, but according to iSpot.tv, celebrities starred in around 70% of the ads in every Super Bowl since 2020.

"It's a shortcut to get people's attention, to get people really excited, and to really say what your brand stands for in tying it to a personality," DDB's Aylward said.

Keep an eye out for celebrities who appeal to Gen Z — see Nerds with singer-songwriter Shaboozey, for example — as this generation moves further into adulthood and has increased buying power, Aylward added.

Uber Eats' 60-second ad will feature a host of well-known stars: Matthew McConaughey, Charli XCX, Greta Gerwig, Sean Evans, Kevin Bacon, and Martha Stewart — seemingly looking to appeal to viewers of all ages.

"We know most of America tunes in to the Super Bowl, from the hardcore football fans to those who watch exclusively for the ads and everyone in between," said Georgie Jeffreys, Uber's head of marketing for North America. "That's why our Uber Eats campaign for the Big Game this year strives to have a little something for everyone."

Nostalgia in numbers

Other Super Bowl advertisers are betting that nostalgia will ensure their commercial success.

Budweiser's cinematic Clydesdale horses and Doritos, with its user-generated "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, are among the returning advertisers hoping to stir memories of Super Bowls past.

Instacart's first-ever Super Bowl ad features the Jolly Green Giant, Kool-Aid Man, Pillsbury Doughboy, and the Energizer Bunny, among other famous brand characters, joining forces to deliver groceries.

Instacart's chief marketing officer, Laura Jones, said the company didn't want to use a celebrity as a "crutch" and instead wanted to try something different.

"We said, let's actually break the patterns," Jones said. "Let's not do what everyone else is doing. And frankly, it'll either be a huge hit or a huge flop."

Whatever theme marketers opt for, Super Bowl ads have become much more than a 30-second TV ad. There are the teasers, pre-game promotions and competitions, on-the-ground experiences on game day, and then the social media activity that looks to maintain the momentum long after the final whistle.

"Brands are spending so much more money on Super Bowl ads for such a short time; they are trying to maximize this opportunity more than ever," said Minkyung Kim, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

Margaret Johnson, the chief creative officer at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, has worked on Super Bowl campaigns for Cheetos, Pepsi, and E-Trade, among others, in her 29-year tenure at the creative agency. For Super Bowl LIX, the agency has produced campaigns for Doritos and Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Johnson said the Super Bowl is set to remain advertising's tentpole event for years to come.

"It's one of the last remaining collective viewing experiences and, with the impact you can have on culture, I would say 100% it's worth it," Johnson said.

Correction: February 4, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of a brand character appearing in Instacart's ad; it's the Energizer Bunny, not the Duracell Bunny.

• X is suing more advertisers over what it claims was a coordinated ad boycott.
• Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell have been added to the suit.
• Elon Musk's company is seeking damages, alleging the boycott hurt its competitiveness in digital advertising.

Elon Musk's X is suing more big advertisers as part of a lawsuit that alleges they collectively conspired to boycott advertising on the platform following his takeover of the company.

In an amended complaint filed in a Texas court on Saturday, X added Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell as defendants to its lawsuit, which was originally filed in August.

The complaint alleges that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a now-defunct initiative from the advertiser trade body the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), illegally conspired to "collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" from X.

The WFA, CVS Health, Mars, Ørsted, and Twitch are the other defendants in the case.

The WFA declined to comment. The trade body has previously said that it planned to contest the suit and that it was confident in its adherence to competition law.

X, Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, which were sent outside normal US business hours.

Founded in 2019, GARM was a US-based initiative that aimed to provide common frameworks to be used by media owners, advertisers, and agencies to categorize harmful content such as hate speech, misinformation, and online piracy.

The uptake of the frameworks was voluntary, and many online platforms and agencies adopted them as what became known as a "brand safety floor" — content that was deemed unsuitable for advertising to fund or appear next to. X was also previously a member of GARM.

GARM discontinued operations after X filed its initial lawsuit, saying that, as a small nonprofit organization, it lacked the resources to fight it.

In its latest legal filing, X alleges that the WFA "organized an advertiser boycott of Twitter through GARM, with the goal of coercing Twitter to comply with the GARM Brand Safety Standards to the satisfaction of GARM."

The complaint claims that at least 18 members of GARM stopped advertising on Twitter in the US or worldwide between November and December 2022. Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter closed in October of that year.

"As a result of the boycott, X became a less effective competitor to other social media platforms in the sale of digital advertising and in competing for user engagement on its platform," the complaint reads.

Twitter's ad revenue plummeted following Musk's takeover of the company. Many advertisers shunned the platform after a number of sales and safety staff were let go and controversial banned accounts were allowed back on the site.

X claims in the suit that GARM members "collectively acted to enforce Twitter's adherence" to its brand safety standards by boycotting the platform. The company is seeking "trebled compensatory damages" and injunctive relief for what it claims are violations of US antitrust laws.

The WFA, alcohol giant Diageo, and the ad agency holding company WPP are also facing a similar lawsuit from the video site Rumble, which alleges they collectively agreed to restrict advertising on social platforms, including Rumble. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is also investigating whether advertisers' and agencies' participation with GARM led to conservative media being demonetized.

• The US media agency giant Horizon Media is hunting for acquisitions, CEO Bill Koenigsberg told BI.
• The agency wants to enhance its expertise in retail technology and influencer and sports marketing.
• Industry observers expect a raft of ad agency acquisitions in 2025.

The advertising company Horizon Media is actively searching for acquisitions as it sets its sights on aggressive expansion in 2025.

Horizon Media's CEO, Bill Koenigsberg, told Business Insider in an interview that the agency was particularly interested in teams with strong expertise in areas such as retail technology, influencer marketing, and sports marketing.

Koenigsberg said Horizon felt reinvigorated following significant moves over the past 18 months. It's added several senior hires, restructured the agency to embed product teams with its business-solutions groups, launched a creative agency, and increased investment in its Blu data platform.

"We're 35 years old as a company, but I'll tell you that we're a startup all over again," Koenigsberg told BI.

"Now I have to figure out how to add significantly more resources to get us even faster," he said, though he added that Horizon wasn't looking for additional investment itself.

Advertising industry insiders have predicted that 2025 could be a banner year for acquisitions in the sector, kick-started by the merger of Omnicom and Interpublic Group. That deal, which is expected to close in the second half of the year, is set to create the world's largest ad agency holding group.

"The Omnicom-IPG merger process will likely bring about a period of friction in which agencies compete for accounts and employees," Tim Nollen, a senior media tech analyst at Macquarie, wrote in a research note this month. "It could quite possibly also usher in more M&A, whether large or small."

Horizon hasn't been an active acquirer in the past

With about 2,400 people responsible for about $8.5 billion in annual media investment, Horizon is the largest media agency in the US. It's also the biggest global independent media agency, which means it isn't attached to a wider holding company like many of its similar-sized peers. Media agencies plan and buy ad campaigns across platforms, from digital and TV to billboards and newspapers.

While Horizon has expanded its services into areas like retail media and influencer marketing, it has largely kept to the sidelines when it comes to M&A. Advertising holding companies like WPP, Publicis Groupe, and Stagwell typically do at least half a dozen investments or acquisitions in a given year. Horizon's last acquisition — the sports marketing agency Blake Sports Group — was completed in 2023.

"We probably looked at over 20 acquisitions over the last two years with Temasek," Koenigsberg said, referring to the Singapore-based investment firm Horizon sold a minority stake to in 2021.

Koenigsberg added that there was "nothing out there that we felt was worth what some of these companies were asking."

Horizon is looking at international expansion

According to the media advisory firm R3, Horizon ranked 12th among US media agencies for new business. It estimated the agency brought in $6.7 million in new revenue in 2024 through November, winning clients including Wegmans, ADT, and Auctane.

Greg Paull, the president of growth at R3, said that Horizon had diversified its services into data, retail media, and social media but argued that it needed more of an international edge.

Horizon has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. For clients with international needs, it works with the Local Planet network, a consortium of independent media agencies across 85 markets.

"While all media is local, more and more big media reviews are global — Horizon needs to find partners, or else it will struggle to access the world's largest clients," Paull said.

Koenigsberg said he was focused on helping Horizon get stronger outside the US.

"That's one of our top three priorities," Koenigsberg said. "How do we get more aggressively globally, keeping in mind there's a massive amount of US business for us to go after."

Bob Lord, an advertising veteran formerly of IBM, AOL, and Publicis Groupe, joined Horizon this month as the company's president and is set to lead the agency's acquisition hunt.

"I acquired nine different companies when I was at AOL in a span of two years to build up that platform," Lord told BI.

"If you think about the small little speed boats that can be added from a technology standpoint, that's the hypothesis I have," Lord said.

• Pinterest is moving to take advantage of the chaos around TikTok in the US.
• In recent days, it began circulating a pitch deck, touting its Gen-Z audience and brand safety.
• TikTok is back now for US users and some advertisers have returned, while others are more cautious.

TikTok only went "dark" in the US for a few hours this weekend, but that hasn't stopped rivals swooping in to court its advertisers as uncertainty lingers about the app's long-term future.

As advertisers prepared for a possible TikTok ban in the US, Pinterest circulated a pitch deck promoting the company as an alternative.

The deck linked to a hub on Pinterest's website with an offer of a limited-time incentive of bonus media — free ad space, in other words.

Pinterest also touted its creative support to help advertisers repurpose their ads for the platform and measurement services to assess campaign success.

"As major shifts take place across social platforms, many brands are developing new plans to deliver their goals," the deck said. (Business Insider obtained a copy, which can be viewed below.)

The deck cited data from the measurement firm Comscore, which said that half of TikTok's US Gen-Z audience was already on Pinterest.

Pinterest clearly has e-commerce advertisers in its sights. The deck referenced a survey conducted by the research company Reach3 that Pinterest commissioned last September. The survey found Pinterest's weekly users were "86% more likely" than weekly users of Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, and TikTok to say they were ready to shop when they opened the app.

Pinterest also listed one of the benefits of advertising on its platform as being able to "reflect your company values in your media choices." That certainly feels like a shot at TikTok.

TikTok has said it has around 170 million US users. By comparison, Pinterest was estimated by the research company EMARKETER to have 85.4 million US users last year. EMARKETER pegged TikTok's 2024 ad revenues at $12.34 billion, while it estimated Pinterest pulled in around $2.69 billion.

TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. On Sunday, the company said in a statement that it would work with President Donald Trump on a solution to keep TikTok in the US.

US advertisers are already returning to TikTok, but some are cautious

Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld a law forcing ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its US operations by January 19 in order to address national security concerns.

TikTok went dark for a few hours starting late Saturday ET, before returning Sunday after Trump expressed his support for the app and said he would work to limit liability for companies that helped it keep running. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to pause the ban on TikTok for 75 days.

As of Tuesday, TikTok wasn't yet back in Apple or Google's US app stores. However, users with the app already downloaded on their phones can access the platform, and some advertisers have restarted campaigns.

Jon Molina, senior director at the digital ad agency Brainlabs, told BI on Tuesday that Brainlabs had recommended that its teams resume their TikTok activity.

"As it stands, the stay on the ban that was signed yesterday is sufficient evidence that there is still opportunity on the platform from a marketing perspective," Molina said, though he added that "anything can change within the blink of an eye."

Some other agencies are taking a more cautious approach. Assembly's EVP of brand experience, Toni Box, said the agency was in the process of pulling social media and behavioral trend data to gauge whether there were any lingering issues that might hamper users' trust and readoption of TikTok. Santini added that Assembly's TikTok rep had also warned them that the TikTok ads manager could take some time to stabilize fully.

Meta and Google are most likely to reap the benefits of any long-term damage to TikTok

Analysts had previously said that Meta and Google would likely be the biggest beneficiaries of a TikTok ban, with an estimated $10 billion of TikTok's US ad revenue up for the taking.

In a research note published January 15, Morgan Stanley analysts said platforms like Snap, Pinterest, and Roblox would also likely gain near-term benefits. The analysts added that those platforms would need to improve their performance and scalability and deliver a healthy relative return on ad spend for any TikTok disruption to pay off for them in the long run.

See the 2-pager Pinterest sent to advertisers in recent days below:

• It's a challenging job market for candidates in the ad industry.
• Recruiters and industry insiders say there are bright spots for job seekers with the right skills.
• Advertising employees with expertise in data, tech, and client relations remain in demand.

It's set to be one of the most volatile years yet for the advertising industry.

There's massive ad agency consolidation, return-to-office mandates, and the opportunities and threats posed by artificial intelligence.

It's a lot.

So, spare a thought for the ad industry workers trying to figure out their next career moves. Do they stay on Madison Avenue? Or take the first exit?

The challenging outlook for job hunters is true for those in the early stages of their careers all the way through to the senior ranks. But headhunters, human resources execs, consultants, and other industry insiders told Business Insider there are bright spots for employees who can double down on the skills that are in demand from ad bosses. Those with the best chance of success will be able to demonstrate data and tech capabilities, as well as a bulging Rolodex of top client contacts.

"If you have not been pioneering in AI and data-driven roles in the last 900 days, I don't know what we can offer you," said Michele James, founder of James & Co, United Talent Agency's executive search practice.

James added that there would be little interest for a senior leader "if you don't have interpretative data management skills, a machine learning strategy, if you can't be a player-coach to your client partners." James said this reflects the transformation of the ad industry.

Over time, advertising agencies have expanded their services from creating and distributing ads, to an offering more akin to consultancies, moving into areas such as digital transformation, data strategy, and commerce. As client demands for these services grow, agencies are seeking allrounders who can bring it all together.

"Both brand owners and agency groups are hiring leaders whose skillset equips them to build and choreograph data, tech, and content capabilities at scale," said Gary Stolkin, CEO of The Talent Business, an executive search firm.

A tough advertising job market — with some bright spots

Employment in advertising, PR, and related services jobs in the US declined by 1,500 jobs in December to 520,800, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics — as overall US employment grew by 256,000 jobs.

While ad industry employment was up by 2,900 jobs versus December 2023, industry insiders said there were now fewer senior roles. That was in part due to agencies trimming costs amid shrinking client budgets. The trend is exacerbated by mergers such as the forthcoming tie-up between Omnicom and IPG, which will create the world's largest holding company but will likely lead to job losses, industry insiders have said.

"Everyone I talk to is getting rid of people who were overpaid and hiring back at a different level," said Lori Murphree, founder of the ad industry M&A advisory firm Evalla Advisors.

Murphree said there are some exceptions, such as the raft of independent agencies that have recently taken on private equity investment and are now bulking up.

Out: Skills that AI excels at

Industry insiders are updating their résumés to reflect the changing times.

A LinkedIn analysis found that social media management, e-commerce optimization, paid media advertising, performance marketing, and influencer marketing were among the fastest-growing skills people in the advertising and marketing industries have added to their profiles on the platform between January 2025 and January 2024.

"With nearly 40% of marketers under pressure to measure ROI in the short term, it's no surprise that they are increasingly leaning into skills like influencer marketing to build trust with their audiences and drive continued growth," said Tom Pepper, senior director at LinkedIn. (ROI refers to "return on investment".)

Advertising and marketing LinkedIn users were less likely to add established skills like "marketing communications" to their profiles, as well as skills like web design and email marketing, where AI is increasingly replacing human work.

"Automation continues to squeeze PR, copywriting, media owner sales, and production roles," said Simon Francis, CEO of Flock Associates, a marketing consultancy and search firm.

Advertising recruiters said they are searching for candidates whose career paths have taken unusual or varied turns. This can sometimes indicate that they are adaptable to the industry's ever-changing nature.

"Instead of skillsets, I consistently focus on mindset," said Monica Torres, executive director of global recruiting at the ad agency TBWA\Worldwide. "Having a mindset of curiosity and optimism, those are the traits that are always in demand because they're going to make you a problem solver for clients."

International experience can also be a bonus, industry insiders said.

Industry veteran Emiliano González De Pietri began his career in Madrid, Spain. He said his career and mindset got a jolt in 2013 when he moved to Peru to become deputy chief creative officer of the ad agency Circus Grey, later simply known as Grey.

While he spoke the same language as his colleagues, he clearly didn't share the same cultural references, humor, and understanding of local consumer behavior. He made it his mission to adapt.

"Just like a student, doing at least one year abroad is going to do wonders for your worldliness and ability to be a more interesting person," said De Pietri, who has now returned to Madrid as a global creative partner at McCann Worldgroup, having also done stints in London and New York in between.

"You encounter entirely different business problems, situations, politics — you will become a more versatile advertising beast," he added.

One thing in the industry hasn't changed: the constant fight for new business. But it's not just the domain of a dedicated agency growth department. Almost everyone in senior roles is expected to have those relationships, said Sasha Martens, president of the advertising executive recruiting firm Sasha the Mensch.

"What you're seeing is a lot of creatives a lot closer to the client than they were in the past," Martens said. "There's a greater understanding that you have to understand the strategic needs of your clients."

• Advertisers hope TikTok can return to the US soon after a ban that will likely take effect Sunday.
• TikTok's future in the US now seems to hinge on President-elect Donald Trump.
• Advertisers say a long US shutdown will degrade TikTok's value because users will flee.

If TikTok returns to the US after "going dark," would advertisers come back, too?

That was the big question floating around the ad industry on Friday after the Supreme Court upheld a law forcing TikTok's Chinese owner to divest from the app or see it banned on Sunday.

Brands will not be able to run ad campaigns in the US once the TikTok ban comes into effect, but they will still be able to log in to its ad platform to manage ads running on the app in other countries, several ad agency execs told Business Insider.

TikTok reps have said they will look to refund advertisers for campaigns that weren't completed by the time the ban takes effect, one of those agency execs said. They, like some others interviewed for this article, asked for anonymity to discuss clients' plans and to protect their business relationships; their identities are known to BI.

Despite this movement and disruption — and allegations from Congress that the app could be weaponized by the Chinese government for data collection and to spread propaganda — industry insiders said most advertisers are ready to bounce back should TikTok be switched back on in the US.

"Our clients are seeing too much success on the platform to turn away from it completely," a second agency exec told BI.

TikTok generated around $12 billion in advertising revenue in the US last year, according to estimates from the research firm EMARKETER.

As the potential of a TikTok shutdown loomed in recent months, agencies were already advising clients to distribute their TikTok budgets across a broader range of apps should the ban come to pass.

Jon Molina, a senior director at the digital agency Brainlabs, said it's advising clients to put around 75% of their TikTok budgets with Meta on Facebook and Instagram Reels and the remaining 25% on YouTube Shorts once the ban comes into effect. Advertisers should monitor the performance of those campaigns over the coming days and optimize their budgets accordingly, he said.

While Meta and YouTube are expected to be big beneficiaries of TikTok's woes, some ad buyers said they're not like-for-like replacements.

"A lot of brands have not only seen advertising results but new engagement organically from TikTok — people reviewing products, people filming unboxing videos," a third agency exec said. "Brands are able to connect with new and diverse audiences, and those will be the expectations of any platform moving forward."

Advertisers are hoping a TikTok rescue deal is secured quickly

TikTok and many of its advertisers are now looking to Trump to save the app once he takes office next week. Trump, who recently said he opposes a TikTok ban, wrote in a social-media post on Friday that he would make a decision on the app soon.

A TikTok rep pointed BI to a video posted on Friday, in which TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked Trump for the "opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."

Advertisers' lasting appetite for TikTok will depend partly on how long a rescue deal takes — especially as its parent company ByteDance is expected to need the Chinese government's sign-off. If creators find success elsewhere, they might not be inclined to reestablish themselves on TikTok, and advertisers will follow the audiences.

"I'd be shocked if a big TikTok creator could replicate that success in one week, but if it's several months, it could be too far gone," said Shamsul Chowdhury, EVP of paid social at the digital agency Jellyfish.

The third agency exec said that some advertisers would have big questions for TikTok's new owner before they picked up where they left off. For example, they might want reassurances that they could continue to run global campaigns from the US, more details about how their data would now be handled, and information about which brand-safety controls they could use.

Brands are ramping up on YouTube Shorts and Meta Reels

For now, advertisers are getting ready to put their contingency plans into action. Rival apps are keen to make the process as easy as possible. January is marketing budgeting season, when many media companies entice advertisers with incentives.

"We are hearing from multiple providers, including other social platforms and non-social media providers, about reallocation incentives such as how TikTok's audience is also available on their platforms, added value based on minimum incremental spend, discounts on higher impact units like takeovers, and funding to support creative projects," said Prerna Talreja, managing director of integrated investment and partnerships at the media agency Crossmedia.

As advertisers drag and drop their TikTok campaigns into Meta and Google, ad prices are likely to spike, given the supply-and-demand auction dynamics of those platforms.

"You may end up seeing CPMs going haywire for a short period of time," said James Poulter, head of AI and innovation at House 337, a creative agency. CPM refers to the cost to reach 1,000 ad impressions.

The language-learning app Duolingo, a big TikTok advertiser known for its "unhinged" marketing featuring its green owl mascot and snarky responses in the comments, has seen this movie before.

Duolingo's chief marketing officer, Manu Orssaud, said the company was shown the importance of adaptability when TikTok was banned in India in 2020.

The brand has been doubling down on YouTube in particular. Duolingo grew its view count on YouTube Shorts by 423% to 1.1 billion last year, and it added 3.3 million subscribers to its YouTube channel, bringing the total to 5.2 million.

"While TikTok's algorithm has been a game-changer, what truly drives our success is the creativity and innovation of our social team," Orssaud said.

• The Supreme Court upheld a law on Friday that could ban TikTok in the US.
• The ban could mean the migration of users — and billions of ad dollars — to competitors.
• Meta could gain up to $3.38 billion solely through freed up ad revenue, eMarketer estimated.

Meta stands to be one of the largest beneficiaries if TikTok is booted from US app stores on Sunday.

TikTok is facing a likely ban in the United States after the Supreme Court upheld a law on Friday that forces ByteDance, the app's Chinese parent company, to sell TikTok's US operations or be removed from American app stores.

The law prevents US users from downloading TikTok or installing updates, which could eventually make the platform unusable. TikTok's lawyers said in a Supreme Court hearing that the app could also "go dark," blocking existing users from seeing videos.

The ban would hobble one of the largest social media companies in the United States, leaving the time users spend on the app and billions of dollars of ad revenue up for grabs, according to an analysis from Business Insider's sister company EMARKETER.

"Our latest forecast estimates that TikTok generated $12.34 billion in US ad revenues in 2024," the analysis said. "Assuming TikTok could lose between 50% and 70% of ad revenues due to a ban, $6.17 billion to $8.64 billion of ad spending could need a new home."

And one social media giant's loss could be another social media giant's gain.

The analysis estimated that Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, could reap anywhere between $2.46 billion to $3.38 billion in ad revenue with a TikTok ban.

Spokespeople for Tiktok and Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Similarly, Morgan Stanley analysts say that Meta will be the "largest fundamental winner of any TikTok ban" in part due to its existing user base and data set.

The ban could add 5 to 9 percent in Meta's earnings per share for the 2026 fiscal year, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

Instagram scrolling is also poised to replace some of the time US users spent on TikTok, analysts say.

EMARKETER estimates that TikTok users in the US spent nearly an hour of their day on the app in 2024 and nearly three quarters of those users were also on Instagram.

"That leaves close to an hour of their daily media time up for grabs," eMarketer analysts wrote.

Morgan Stanley analysts say that Meta would gain around $.30 to $.60 to their 2026 earnings per share estimates for every 10% of TikTok's US time Meta captures.

The upside of a TikTok ban won't be concentrated to Meta.

Alphabet's YouTube and Snapchat may also see some benefits with TikTok out of the way.

For advertisers, a looming TikTok ban should serve as a prescient reminder that no platform, however large, is invincible.

"Although it's difficult to say if the TikTok ban will go ahead, as it's possible TikTok could sell at the last minute, this should serve as a warning not to put all your content eggs in one basket," Danielle Dullaghan, social strategy director, at the marketing agency Iris, told Business Insider.

James Poulter, head of AI and innovation at London-based ad agency House 337, told BI that the brands and creators who will succeed are those diversified across platforms and focused on "owned assets like websites and email lists."

"The brands and creators who thrive in uncertain times are those who prepare for the unexpected, ensuring their stories can be told regardless of the platform," he said.

• The app Clapper is reaping the benefits of the forthcoming TikTok ban.
• Clapper is a social-video app founded in 2020 and based in Texas.
• It offers an ad-free experience and monetization for creators.

Clapper, an upstart video and livestreaming app, has soared to third place in the free iPhone app download charts. The surge started in the days before the Supreme Court reached its decision to uphold a law to ban TikTok in the US.

Clapper was founded in 2020 when the first Trump administration initially floated the possibility of a TikTok ban. Bita Motiie, Clapper's head of operations, told BI that since then, Clapper has seen spikes in user growth any time the topic has been in the news.

"We've seen skyrocketing numbers of users joining us recently due to the fact that people are actively now looking for an alternative," Motiie said.

A Clapper spokesperson said the company had added more than 2 million users in the past week.

Data analyzed by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower found that Clapper had increased its US ad spend 10-fold in the month to January 14 this year compared with the same period in 2024. Nearly 100% of its US ad spend was allocated to TikTok, Sensor Tower said.

Clapper had already upped its advertising budget by 35% in the second half of 2024, compared with the first, suggesting the outlay was a response to news of an upcoming TikTok ban, according to Sensor Tower.

The top trending topic on Clapper on Wednesday through to Friday when the ban was confirmed was #TikTokRefugees.

A similar dynamic seems to have pushed the TikTok-like app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, to No. 1 on the free iPhone apps leaderboard.

The US Congress passed a divest-or-ban law last year forcing TikTok to stop operating in the US if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn't sell the app. TikTok told the Supreme Court that the app would "go dark" in the US on Sunday if the divestment deadline isn't extended. The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed it would uphold the law.

"A lot of our focus right now is helping all these TikTok users join our platform and learn about the differences," Motiie said.

Clapper shares much of the same vertical video functionality as TikTok but differs in a few key ways. It's only available to users 17 or older and doesn't carry ads.

"People are being bombarded with ads 24/7 through their phones, and we want to provide a safe haven where creators can focus on that genuine connection with others," Motiie said.

Creators can earn money on Clapper by receiving gifts from other users in livestreams, group chats, and direct messages. Creators can also sell subscriptions to their content or items on Clapper Shop. Clapper takes a 30% commission from some creator earnings and 5% from Clapper Shop.

Clapper's content can appear rougher around the edges than some other social-media platforms. On opening the app in the UK on Wednesday morning, BI was served a video of a man seemingly getting a horrific eye injury after being hit in the face, a woman almost being gored by a bull, and sexually suggestive "thirst traps."

Users can turn off "not safe for work" content. The app also forbids sexually explicit content or nudity.

Motiie said Clapper was focused on hiring three to four additional community managers and utilizing AI moderation tools. Clapper is a small business at present, with around 20 staff based in Dallas, Texas.

A Clapper spokesperson said the company hadn't taken on any outside funding since 2023, when it raised $3 million in seed financing. The spokesperson said Clapper, which is privately owned, is profitable and that it is not currently seeking further investment.

Industry insiders say Clapper needs to move quickly to seize the moment

Asti Wagner, CEO of Invyted, an app that connects brands with influencers, said Clapper would need to move quickly to appeal to creators and refine its marketing to ensure its overnight popularity translates into lasting business success.

"TikTok was lucky in that it massively boomed in lockdown when everyone was on their phones," Wagner told BI.

"The 'no ads' thing is really interesting, but I don't know how long that will last," Wagner said. Social platforms, in general, tend to derive most of their revenue from ads.

Motiie said it was very unlikely Clapper would introduce ads over the next couple of years. However, that doesn't mean brands can't collaborate with Clapper creators, she added. Clapper is also encouraging brands to set up their own profiles on the app.

Gigi Robinson, a creator with more than 150,000 followers on TikTok, joined Clapper in 2020.

She's only posted four videos and grown her audience there to around 1,000 followers. However, Robinson said that in light of TikTok's position, she's considering posting more content on Clapper and has been in touch with the company's partnership team to get her profile verified.

Robinson said the potential of the app going dark has highlighted that creators shouldn't be over-reliant on any single platform for their audience and earnings.

"A majority of creators are scrambling right now," Robinson told BI. "That's going to be the lasting impact."

This story has been updated with new details.

• The casino and entertainment-resort company Mohegan is launching an ad network.
• Mohegan is working with LiveRamp to allow advertisers to target its customers.
• The casino media network is the latest to join the rapidly growing commerce and retail media space.

Meet the latest entrant to the buzzy commerce-media space: the casino and entertainment-resort company Mohegan.

Commerce media, also often referred to as retail media, is growing rapidly as retailers, online marketplaces, financial-services companies, airlines, and more enter the high-margin business of selling advertising on their apps and websites.

The research company EMARKETER estimated last year that US retail media spending would grow by 26%, to $54.85 billion, in 2024.

Mohegan exclusively told Business Insider that it partnered with the data company LiveRamp to launch what the companies described as the "industry's first casino media network."

The network would let advertisers target visitors to its resorts in the US, Canada, and South Korea across kiosks, slot machines, and other digital signage, as well as users of its app and Momentum loyalty program. Mohegan also owns the Connecticut Sun WNBA team.

The companies said this real estate — which includes its Mohegan Sun arena, casinos, hotel rooms, restaurants, and retail stores — equated to 200 million potential ad impressions each month.

While Mohegan already runs some advertising — on its slot machines, for example — the partnership with LiveRamp would help advertisers identify data attributes about its players so they can more precisely target their desired audiences, said Rich Roberts, the president of Mohegan Digital.

Roberts said gamblers tend to have the kind of disposable income that's appealing to high-end restaurants or car dealerships.

"Our customer base has grown significantly from a digital perspective with hundreds of thousands of players who do spend a considerable amount of money on the site," Roberts said.

LiveRamp works with many retail and commerce media networks, such as those operated by Albertsons, Dollar General, and United Airlines.

Initially, Mohegan will pitch its ad network to its existing vendor partners, such as the entertainment companies that stage events at its venues, restaurants, retailers inside its malls, and other local businesses.

Later, LiveRamp aims to extend the data offering so that advertisers can target Mohegan's audiences across other websites, apps, and properties that it doesn't own — known in the industry as off-site media.

"What we have learned across the industry is that you start with your owned and operated inventory, but very quickly you fill out most of the inventory — that's where collaboration comes into play," said Vihan Sharma, LiveRamp's chief revenue officer.

Marc Goldberg, the CEO of the media advisory and consulting service Stages Collective, said Mohegan would need to focus heavily on pitching advertisers on its audience's unique assets.

"The math and margins are attractive to a lot of companies as they see what a retail media network can deliver at scale," Goldberg said. "The problem is that not all businesses have a unique enough audience to attract both the attention and the ad dollars."

• Elon Musk's X plans to add more defendants to its lawsuit against advertisers.
• The lawsuit centers on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and its advertiser members.
• A new legal filing says X wants to add "multiple additional defendants" to the suit.

Elon Musk's X is getting ready to add more defendants to its lawsuit that accuses advertisers of illegally conspiring to boycott the platform.

X initially filed its lawsuit in a Texas court in August. The complaint alleges that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a now defunct initiative from the advertiser trade body the World Federation of Advertisers, colluded to "collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" from X, formerly Twitter.

The current defendants in the case are the WFA, CVS Health, Mars, the energy company Orsted, and Twitch. (Twitch was added to the lawsuit later than the other defendants. Unilever was initially named as a defendant but reached an agreement with X and was dropped from the suit in October.)

A joint filing from X's legal representatives and counsel for the defendants said X planned to file a second amended complaint "in which it will add multiple additional defendants."

The filing said X would share a draft of its second complaint with the current defendants by January 20 and file it with the court by January 25.

Reps for X, CVS, Mars, Orsted, and Twitch didn't respond to requests for comment.

A WFA spokesperson declined to comment. The WFA has previously said that it intends to defend itself in court and that it is confident the outcome will demonstrate that it adhered to competition law.

'Brand safety' is a growing political flash point

News that X could add more defendants to its suit comes at a fraught time for marketers and for the practice of "brand safety."

Much of X's lawsuit against GARM and its members was based on an investigation by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, into whether advertisers were illegally banding together to demonetize conservative platforms and voices in violation of antitrust law. Jordan continues to investigate advertisers' and agencies' work with GARM.

The Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee published their own report last month accusing Jordan of abusing his oversight power.

Their report argued that Jordan and his allies' goal was "not to conduct antitrust oversight as they claim, but rather to silence criticism of harmful online content and those who promote it."

Russell Dye, a spokesperson for the committee, said its investigation proved the collusion of left-wing advocates to secretly censor conservative speech.

"Those in the media and elsewhere that deny the collusion supported by clear documentation are themselves pushing disinformation," Dye said in a statement.

GARM discontinued operations after X sued it, saying that as a small, nonprofit organization, it lacked the resources to fight the lawsuit.

The WFA is also facing a separate lawsuit from the video site Rumble, which accuses GARM, drinks giant Diageo, the ad agency holding company WPP, and its media arm GroupM of collectively agreeing to restrict advertising on social platforms including Rumble. In November, Texas' attorney general, Ken Paxton, launched an investigation into the WFA over advertiser boycotts.

This month, Meta announced plans to shake up its content-moderation policies in the US, which had some advertisers worried that the tech giant was loosening its brand-safety standards. But unlike in the past, there hasn't been any public suggestion that brands intend to pull ad dollars from Meta in response. Advertising insiders told BI that it was partly a reflection of how reliant marketers had become on Meta, but also that advertisers had become more cautious about publicly criticizing or boycotting platforms and media given the political environment.

• Influencers have filed a lawsuit against Capital One.
• They allege its Shopping extension hurt their earnings by unfairly claiming credit for sales.
• Capital One said it disagreed with the premise of the lawsuit.

First, the influencers came for PayPal's Honey. Now, Capital One is under scrutiny.

Capital One is the subject of a lawsuit filed this week by creators who allege the company's Shopping browser extension hurt their affiliate-marketing commissions by stealing credit for driving sales.

"We disagree with the premise of the complaint and look forward to defending ourselves in court," a Capital One spokesperson told Business Insider.

Capital One Shopping is a free browser extension that searches for discount codes and coupons, compares prices across about 30,000 online retailers, and lets users earn rewards that can be exchanged for gift cards. It makes money by earning a commission when its users purchase an item from its merchant partners.

In a class-action lawsuit filed on Monday in a Virginia court, two creators who promote products on social media allege the browser extension is designed to "systematically appropriate commissions that belong to influencers."

The lawsuit alleges Capital One Shopping "stole credit" by swapping out influencers' affiliate-marketing browser cookies with its own. Cookies are small data files stored on a user's device that help companies track users' browsing history.

The war for the last click

Much like recent lawsuits filed by influencers against PayPal over its Honey browser extension, the Capital One Shopping case homes in on the marketing practice of "last-click attribution."

In this model, cookies, unique web links, promo codes, and other analytics tags are used to determine the last piece of content a user engages with before they make a purchase. That entity, be it a YouTube video or an ad, gets credit for the purchase.

The practice has fallen out of favor in some marketing circles because it doesn't consider the full cycle of persuading someone to buy a product. There are also concerns that an intermediary may try to game the system to unfairly claim last-click credit for purchases that they had little to do with.

Companies in the affiliate-marketing industry often seek to adhere to "stand down" practices, where they won't override another affiliate's cookies.

In their lawsuit, the content creators Jesika Brodiski and Peter Hayward allege Capital One Shopping took credit for sales and conversions that were originally derived from affiliate-marketing links they shared on social media.

Brodiski shared affiliate-marketing links on social media for products on Walmart.com, and the lawsuit claims that — if a user had the Capital One Shopping extension activated during the checkout process — Capital One would remove her associated cookie and replace it with its own. The lawsuit says Brodiski earned about $20,000 through affiliate marketing in 2024 but that her earnings were hampered by Capital One Shopping.

Hayward is part of the Amazon affiliate-marketing program and similarly alleges Capital One would replace his referral tag with its own.

The lawsuit also says Brodiski and Hayward "face future harm in the form of stolen referral fees and sales commissions because the Capital One Shopping browser extension continues to steal affiliate marketing commissions with each passing day."

A court will need to certify the class action in order for the case to proceed

The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial. If the case is certified as a class action, other influencers could join the suit.

Christopher Roberts, a partner and class-action attorney at the law firm Butsch Roberts & Associates, told BI the most difficult part of such cases is getting the class certified. The court will need to rigorously analyze various factors, such as whether the class is big enough and whether it would make more sense to litigate complicated cases individually.

Certification aside, Roberts said he felt the case would come down to what discovery showed.

"This case, on its face, is very well pled," Roberts said, "and it's pretty specific as to the code for this app being supplanted on the computer so that they can get the affiliate payment."

• The advertising giant WPP is telling workers to come to the office four days a week from April.
• Business Insider obtained the internal memo sent to the company's 114,000 employees.
• "I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," CEO Mark Read said in the memo.

The advertising giant WPP has told its workforce of more than 100,000 employees to return to the office at least four days a week.

"From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office," WPP CEO Mark Read wrote in a memo sent to staff on Tuesday and seen by Business Insider.

The Financial Times first reported the move.

The policy is set to go into effect in April to give staff time to make adjustments and to "address capacity requirements" in offices, he wrote.

The CEO said in-office attendance was associated with "stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance."

"I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," he wrote. "It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team."

Under the new policy, WPP will allow staff one flexible working day a week and consider individual circumstances through a formal approval process, a person familiar with the matter told BI.

One WPP employee, speaking with BI on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on company policy, said they still had questions about the return-to-office plan's practicalities. They said that in some offices, there were already issues with securing enough desk space or meeting rooms, for example.

AT&T this week began implementing a staggered five-day RTO mandate, and workers told BI that limited available desks and elevators at some offices complicated their return.

Amazon encountered office-capacity issues last year, which, as BI previously reported, delayed its full return-to-office plan for some employees.

Another WPP insider said they felt the move would be positive for younger staff and help them network and learn from colleagues, while allowing flexibility for those who required it.

WPP's announcement follows that of its fellow advertising giant Publicis Groupe, which last year told employees to return to the office at least three days a week. The company later fired hundreds of employees for noncompliance with the mandate, Ad Age reported in October.

Bruce Daisley, a workplace-culture consultant and former Twitter vice president, said WPP's return-to-office policy would be an employee-morale gamble because advertising jobs already aren't as lucrative and aspirational as they once were.

"Working in an advertising agency used to be gloriously paid, now those who work in the field squint into spreadsheets all day earning salaries that are often substantially lower than the clients and media owners they deal with," Daisley wrote in his Make Work Better newsletter.

Read the full memo CEO Mark Read sent to WPP employees:

To everyone at WPP

I hope you had a restful holiday season and the chance to recharge over the break.

As I wrote to you in December, 2025 is going to be a year of opportunity for WPP — a year when we can win through a relentless focus on our clients.

With that in mind, I wanted to share our priorities for the next 12 months, as well as a change we are going to make in the way we work.

Clients, creativity and our work

WPP's mission is to deliver creative transformation for the world's leading brands. This means not only producing exceptional work in every discipline of modern marketing, but helping clients transform how they operate for a very different world. This is ever more true of our largest and most important clients, who come to us for the quality of what we do, the breadth of our skills, and our ability to prepare them for the future.

While industry mergers and jostling for status may distract our competitors, focus will be paramount for us in 2025. We have the opportunity to stand out by being more obsessed than ever with serving our clients. In every single decision we make, we should ask ourselves "how will this help us do even better work for our clients?" Those companies who embrace this philosophy will be those who emerge on top.

Technology, data and AI

Demand from clients for creative ideas, effective media plans, brilliant PR campaigns and outstanding design remains constant, but the way in which we deliver our work is changing faster than I have ever seen. That's why technology, data and AI are at the heart of our plans for the future, and why adoption of our AI-driven marketing operating system WPP Open has grown so quickly. Keeping up that momentum is another key objective for 2025.

WPP Open helped us win a number of 2024's biggest reviews and we are going to increase our investment in Open this year to build on the success it has brought us. It will be central to how we bring an integrated, AI-enabled offer to market, with the goal of producing better results for clients and winning more than our fair share of pitches in the year ahead.

A culture of winning, together

Finally, we are going to focus on the culture of our company. For all our technological sophistication, we remain a people business. Across everything we do, our success still relies on the fundamentals of human connection, creativity and relationships. Teams of talented individuals, working towards common goals, are what drives growth for our clients and our agencies.

I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person. It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team. The data from across WPP agencies shows that higher levels of office attendance are associated with stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance. More of our clients are moving in this direction and expecting it of the teams who work with them.

For all these reasons, spending more time together is important to all of us, and we are making a change to help that happen. From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office.

This doesn't mean we're going back to old ways of doing things. During the pandemic we all learned the value of greater flexibility in our working lives and of being trusted to balance work and personal commitments. We need to keep that spirit of flexibility and trust, and will approach this transition with pragmatism and an understanding of people's different circumstances. There will be a clear process to request additional flexibility — including for those with caring responsibilities, health issues and other considerations. Some roles that have always been fully or largely remote will continue as they are.

We know that for some colleagues this new policy will require adjustments to their routines and arrangements, which is why it will not come into effect until April — giving people time to make any changes they need to. There is also work to do between now and April to ensure we make the best use of our workspaces. Our WPP campuses offer superb working environments in beautifully designed buildings with leading environmental credentials. But it will take detailed planning in the coming months to address capacity requirements and other related areas, and I'd like to thank the teams who are already hard at work figuring that out.

Your leaders are working closely with the WPP People and Real Estate teams, and will follow up with next steps for your part of the business. It's important that we take a consistent approach across our agencies, who will communicate the requirements to you in detail. In the meantime, visit insideWPP for FAQs, details of the policy, and an AI-powered chat agent to help answer your questions.

A collaborative, winning culture is what makes WPP and our agencies a great place to work, and it's the key to our future growth and success. I firmly believe this change we are making will protect and enhance that culture, for the benefit of everyone.

As always, if you want to get in touch, email me.

Mark

• Some advertisers are expressing concerns about Meta's commitment to brand safety.
• Meta this week unveiled a new approach to content moderation, removing third-party fact-checkers.
• Many ad industry insiders doubt it'll lead to major spending shifts, however.

Meta's new plan to shake up its content-moderation policies has some advertisers worried about the social giant's brand-safety standards. Despite that, ad insiders who spoke with Business Insider generally didn't expect the changes to hurt Meta's business.

"It's the final nail in the coffin for platform responsibility," an ad agency veteran told BI. They and some others interviewed asked for anonymity to protect business relationships; their identities are known to BI.

The industry reaction — or lack of it — reflects both advertisers' reliance on Meta and the shifting conversation around how brands should approach "brand safety" or "suitability," which refer to when marketers try to avoid funding or appearing next to content they deem unsuitable.

"A lot of brands have shied away from platforms that are too tied to news or controversy, mostly out of fear of cancel culture," said Toni Box, EVP of brand experience at the media agency Assembly. "But at some point, we have to ask: Are we missing opportunities to connect with people during meaningful moments because we don't trust audiences to tell the difference between a news story and an ad?"

The brand-safety tides are shifting

Meta used to bend over backward to address advertisers' brand-safety concerns. But brands weren't mentioned in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's video announcing the changes or in policy chief Joel Kaplan's interview on Tuesday morning with Fox News' "Fox and Friends."

Instead, their pitch was about preventing the censorship of speech. Meta said it plans to replace third-party fact-checkers with a community-based fact-checking program, addressing criticism that the previous system was too partisan and was often overcorrective. The company also said it would loosen some content moderation restrictions on topics that are "part of mainstream discourse" and be more open to reintroducing political content to people's feeds.

Meta did give a very brief public nod to advertisers. A Meta spokesperson pointed BI to a LinkedIn post from Meta ads exec Nicola Mendelsohn that said the company continued to be focused on ensuring brand safety and suitability by offering a suite of tools for advertisers. In an email from Meta account reps to ad buyers, copies of which were viewed by BI, the company said it knew how important it was to continue giving advertisers transparency and control over their brand suitability. And in an interview with BI, Meta's chief marketing officer Alex Schultz said advertisers' primary brand safety concerns were around hate speech and adult nudity and that its tools would focus on "precision and not be taking down things we shouldn't be taking down."

Despite private grumbling from some advertisers about the changes, and how they appeared to be timed to appease incoming President Donald Trump, industry insiders said they don't expect much public blowback on Meta.

Advertiser boycotts and similar actions were once seen as a point of leverage for marketers. One high-profile example was the 2020 #StopHateFor Profit movement when hundreds of major brands protested Meta's policies on hate speech and misinformation.

But brand safety has recently become a political hot potato and been a flash point for some influential, right-leaning figures.

Last year, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, began investigating whether advertisers had illegally colluded to demonetize conservative platforms and voices. Elon Musk's X went on to sue the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, the brand-safety initiative at the center of Jordan's investigation, and some of its advertiser members after they withdrew ad dollars from the platform. GARM discontinued activities days later. Jordan has continued to press advertisers about their involvement in GARM, and X's litigation against it and some of its members is ongoing.

A media agency employee told BI that they had clients who were now more cautious about criticizing platforms in public or saying they would pull spending.

Industry analysts also said that — politics aside — many marketers would likely continue to spend with Meta so long as it delivered them the audiences and ad performance they had come to expect. Meta commands about 21% of the US digital ad market, behind only Google, according to data firm EMARKETER.

"For us, after Google, Meta is the next-best performer as far as ROI is concerned," said Shamsul Chowdhury, VP of paid social at the digital ad agency Jellyfish, referring to the return on investment advertisers get from their campaigns.

Advertisers are split on whether the changes will improve Meta's platforms

Some advertisers who spoke with BI said they had outstanding questions about the new thresholds Meta would apply to removing posts, what's on the road map for monitoring trends around misinformation, and whether they would still be able to effectively apply their own third-party brand suitability software to content on Meta's apps.

Advertisers said they would pay close attention to how Meta's Community Notes-like feature would work in practice, especially as some hadn't been impressed with X's performance in this area with a similar feature.

"This is a major step back and likely going to result in serious issues where social platforms, not just Meta, are going to hide behind the notion that their users do the moderation and fact-checking for them and they are free speech platforms," said Ruben Schreurs, CEO of the marketing consultancy Ebiquity.

It's not entirely clear how effective X's Community Notes have been. A study published last year by researchers at the University of Luxembourg, University of Melbourne, and JLU Giessen concluded that X's "Community Notes might be too slow to effectively reduce engagement with misinformation in the early (and most viral) stage of diffusion." Still, a separate study from the Qualcomm Institute within UC San Diego found Community Notes helped counter false information about Covid vaccines.

Some advertising execs supported Meta's announcement. Two media agency reps said increasing the number of conversations people are having on the platform could benefit Meta and advertisers alike by boosting engagement.

"I think the best news is free speech and mitigation of harmful or dangerous content remains the primary focus of this maturing program, and Meta has taken a forward position here," said John Donahue, founder of the digital media consultancy Up and to the Right.

Mike Zaneis of the ad initiative the Trustworthy Accountability Group said Meta's announcement should be seen as an evolution of the platform's brand-safety standards and not a retreat from protecting users and marketers.

"The speed and accuracy of the Community Notes tool is impressive and it's the increased transparency that makes a fundamental difference for users and marketers alike," Zeneis said of X's implementation of the concept so far. "If something seems to be working, we shouldn't discourage others from adopting the approach just because it hasn't been precisely tested."

• Instagram has shut down a program that paid creators for ads placed on their profiles.
• Meta began testing the program in 2022.
• Instagram has launched several creator-monetization tests since 2020 — and some haven't survived.

Instagram has ended a program that allowed creators to earn money from ads placed between content on their profiles, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

The Meta-owned platform began testing the program with US creators in 2022 and expanded it in 2024 to eligible profiles in Canada, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

Meta will continue to place ads in between content on nonteen public Instagram profiles. Businesses will still be able to prevent their ads from running on specific profiles.

According to court documents filed in 2024, Instagram has generated billions in ad revenue for Meta. In 2022, when the platform began testing the ads-in-profile program, it generated $16.5 billion, the same court filing said.

This isn't the first creator-monetization program that Meta has tested and shuttered.

Other programs you may remember include:

• IGTV (Instagram's now defunct YouTube competitor) shared ad revenue with creators from 2020 to 2022.
• Instagram briefly had a native affiliate program between 2021 and 2022 that allowed creators to earn revenue from shopping tags on their posts.

The Instagram Reels Bonus, which paid creators a sum of money based on how their reels performed, was paused in 2023. It was reintroduced in 2024 as a series of limited-time bonuses.