Advertising & Marketing

Google Labs just launched Pomelli Photoshoot, a free tool that turns any product photo into a professional studio or lifestyle shot. Pick a product image, choose a template, generate, and refine. The tool applies your brand's visual identity (what Google calls "Business DNA") to keep everything on-brand across campaigns. The target audience is small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford professional product photography. I tested it. It works as described. Continue Reading →

Google DeepMind just launched Lyria 3 in the Gemini app. Type a text prompt (or upload a photo) and you will get a 30-second track with auto-generated lyrics, vocals, and custom cover art. The model is available in eight languages to anyone 18+. YouTube creators worldwide can also access it through Dream Track for Shorts soundtracks. Every track carries a SynthID watermark. Continue Reading →

An early preview of WebMCP, a standard co-authored by Google and Microsoft that makes it easy for agents to navigate websites, is now available in Chrome 146. This feature was added so quietly last week that a lot of people missed it. Continue Reading →

OpenAI has begun testing ads in ChatGPT for U.S. users on the Free and Go tiers. Sponsored results appear below ChatGPT's responses, clearly labeled and targeted to the conversation topic. Paid subscribers (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Education) see nothing. Continue Reading →

Here's an idea: let's announce that ChatGPT will begin testing sponsored content on Friday afternoon of MLK weekend. Nothing says "people are going to love this" like a holiday news dump. If you use the free tier or the new $8/month ChatGPT Go subscription, you'll start seeing sponsored content at the bottom of answers in the coming weeks. Continue Reading →

CES® 2026 opens in nine days, and for the thirteenth year, the Shelly Palmer Innovation Series Breakfast will bring together C-suite executives from the world's most influential media, marketing, and technology companies. Continue Reading →

Thanksgiving always kicks off the annual flood of promo emails, shipping alerts, loyalty offers, holiday coupons, and "exclusive VIP deals." This year, the volume feels higher and the quality feels sharper because AI tools now generate phishing emails that look exactly like what Amazon, Walmart, Wayfair, UPS, FedEx, or any major brand would send. The old visual tells are gone. The scams and their associated scam websites are practically indistinguishable from legitimate ones. Continue Reading →

Last week, I was facilitating an AI workshop for a group of senior executives at one of our F500 clients. As we explored ways to integrate generative AI into their workflows, the atmosphere was both energized and strangely hesitant. It wasn't explicit, no one raised their hand and confessed to being terrified of AI, but I could feel an underlying tension. I've encountered it before, a subtle yet palpable fear academic researchers call "Identity Threat." Continue Reading →

The controversy over Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated "actor," has exposed something deeper than union postures and moral panic. It forces us to reexamine what acting is, what AI does, and why the usual arguments miss the point entirely. While reading this I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind. I know this will not be a popular interpretation of this issue, but musicians lived this experience during the transition from acoustic to electronic musical instruments, the advent of the digital synthesizer and again at the advent of sampling keyboards. Evolution is an amoral process. We must adapt. Let's explore. Continue Reading →

According to multiple reports, SpamGPT is an underground tool being sold on dark-web forums as a turnkey “spam-as-a-service” platform. Think Mailchimp for criminals. Instead of helping brands send newsletters, it’s designed to help attackers launch large-scale phishing campaigns. Continue Reading →