Kendra Barnett

I see her everywhere

X Will Penalize Creators Who Share AI-Generated War Videos Without Disclosure X will boot creators off of its revenue sharing program for failing to disclose when videos depicting war are made with AI.

Breaking: X will suspend creators from its revenue-sharing program for failing to disclose when war videos are AI-generated. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/x-war-...

EXCLUSIVE: A New Pitch Deck Reveals X Is Using Grok to Sell Brand Safety X is courting advertisers with brand safety assurances as it pushes to recover ad revenues it’s lost since Musk’s 2022 takeover

X is pitching advertisers on Grok for brand safety just weeks after the chatbot flooded the platform with nonconsensual deepfakes of real users. I have the leaked pitch deck exclusively for @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/exclus...

EXCLUSIVE: FTC Probe Expands to IAS Over Alleged Ad Boycotts, Lawsuit Reveals Disinformation research group says the FTC ordered it and IAS to hand over business records.

SCOOP: Ad verification firm IAS is part of the FTC's probe into media credibility orgs over alleged advertiser boycotts of conservative outlets, according to a lawsuit against the FTC from another group under investigation. For
@adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/exclus...

Please, my magic bean, it is very sick

EXCLUSIVE: Scope3 Cuts Engineering and Sales Staff in Second Round of Layoffs in 5 Months Engineering and commercial staff were affected in a round of layoffs in late January.

Scoop: Scope3, the adtech emissions quantifier-turned agentic media startup, cut portions of its sales and engineering teams last week in its second wave of layoffs in the last five months. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/programmatic...

EXCLUSIVE: X's Memelord Product Chief Has a Plan to Save the Platform—If Grok Doesn't Destroy It First X’s head of product Nikita Bier is releasing a suite of new tools to lure creators and advertisers back, even as Grok runs amok.

Excellent story from @kendrabarnett.bsky.social about the guy who's really steering X's business (edited by @tekendra-parmar.bsky.social) www.adweek.com/media/x-year...

EDO Found Liable for Contract Breach as Jury Awards iSpot $18.3M in Damages The TV measurement firm co-funded by actor Ed Norton plans to appeal

BREAKING: A jury in a federal court Thursday found TV measurement firm EDO liable for breaching its contract with iSpot—awarding $18.3M in damages while rejecting iSpot’s trade-secret claims. EDO says it will appeal. More details in my story for @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/edo-fo...

EXCLUSIVE: X Restricts Grok’s Ability to Generate Explicit Images Following Deepfake Scandal The Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot had been blocked in parts of the world in response to the platform producing nonconsensual, sexually suggestive and “nudified” images of real people, including minors.

NEW from @kendrabarnett.bsky.social —
X is restricting the image generation capabilities of Grok after its deepfake scandal. A spokesperson told ADWEEK that X premium subscribers will still be able to produce and edit explicit images and deepfakes
www.adweek.com/media/x-grok...

EXCLUSIVE: X Restricts Grok’s Ability to Generate Explicit Images Following Deepfake Scandal The Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot had been blocked in parts of the world in response to the platform producing nonconsensual, sexually suggestive and “nudified” images of real people, including minors.

EXCLUSIVE for @adweek.bsky.social: After Grok flooded X with sexualized deepfakes real people—including children—xAI has introduced new limits to the chatbot's ability to produce images, the company told me exclusively. www.adweek.com/media/x-grok...

EXCLUSIVE: WPP Media Lands $102M U.S. Media Account for Norwegian Cruise Line The account win arrives at a pivotal moment for WPP, which is under pressure to prove out value after months of worse than expected financial performance.

SCOOP: WPP Media has won Norwegian Cruise Line’s $102M U.S. media account from Publicis. The victory adds to recent wins from Jaguar Land Rover, Reckitt and the U.K. government—key momentum as WPP attempts a high-stakes turnaround. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/agencies/exc...

EXCLUSIVE: The Trade Desk Cuts Dozens of Roles, Impacting Sales and Client Services Teams The popular demand-side platform said less than 1% of its staff was impacted in layoffs Tuesday.

Scoop: On Tuesday, adtech giant The Trade Desk axed swaths of its sales and client services teams. The company confirmed that just ~1% of global headcount was impacted. Leadership is expected to address employees in an all-hands meeting today. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/the-tr...

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

@kendrabarnett.bsky.social and @audreygkemp.bsky.social at @adweek.bsky.social have done some great reporting this week.

‘There Are a Lot of Haters’: Inside Omnicom Media’s First Town Hall Post-IPG Takeover Adweek was able to access Omnicom Media’s first post-consolidation town hall via an unencrypted Vimeo link.

SCOOP: Inside Omnicom Media’s first town hall post-IPG takeover: new structure, bullish tone, and CEO Florian Adamski frustrated with recent headlines. @adweek.bsky.social was able to access the (mistakenly) unencrypted livestream while it was briefly open. Full story: www.adweek.com/agencies/the...

‘There Are a Lot of Haters’: Inside Omnicom Media’s First Town Hall Post-IPG Takeover Adweek was able to access Omnicom Media’s first post-consolidation town hall via an unencrypted Vimeo link.

Oops! Omnicom Media's first all-hands meeting post-merger was livestreamed on a public Vimeo feed.

ADWEEK found the public link. @kendrabarnett.bsky.social reports what happened.
www.adweek.com/agencies/the...

The Trade Desk Pushes Buyers to Kokai Interface in Sign of Solimar End Advertisers say they can no longer create campaigns in the Solimar interface as The Trade Desk looks to sunset it

SCOOP: Some media buyers on The Trade Desk say they're being "forcibly migrated" to Kokai, and, for the first time, locked out of creating new campaigns in Solimar—while bugs and UI hiccups pile up in Kokai. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/trade-...

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Offers Free DSP Face-Off for Media Buyers, Leaked Slides Show The retail giant is offering to foot the bill for advertisers to engage in head-to-head tests between Amazon DSP and rivals.

SCOOP: Amazon is pushing ad agencies to try its DSP by offering head-to-head tests against rivals—covering all costs in some cases in an effort to prove performance. Tensions with @thetradedesk.bsky.social are heating up. See the leaked pitch deck @adweek.bsky.social 👇 www.adweek.com/programmatic...

Inside the Closed-Door Meeting Where Marketing’s Power Players Map The Future ADWEEK gained first-time access to a private meeting among marketing executives who collaborate to set growth targets for their sector.

On Monday @adweek.bsky.social was granted exclusive access to @anamarketers.bsky.social's closed-door CMO summit, where select brand execs mapped marketing’s AI-driven future and established around 20 industry-wide growth proposals for 2026. Here's what happened: www.adweek.com/brand-market...

Meta Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Audits, Loses Accreditation Just Months After It Was Issued The social giant no longer wishes to be audited for brand safety by the media industry’s leading accreditation firm.

👀 important update from @kendrabarnett.bsky.social at @adweek.bsky.social:

#Meta will no longer subject itself to annual #BrandSafety audits from the Media Rating Council ( #MRC ).

Read more 👉 www.adweek.com/media/meta-w...

Meta Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Audits, Loses Accreditation Just Months After It Was Issued The social giant no longer wishes to be audited for brand safety by the media industry’s leading accreditation firm.

SCOOP: Meta has lost its MRC brand safety accreditation for Facebook & Instagram feeds just months after earning it, after opting out of annual audits, @adweek.bsky.social has learned. The company says it will opt for 3rd party audits instead. www.adweek.com/media/meta-w...

The Trade Desk Execs Share New Details About How Sell-Side Solution OpenAds Will Work CEO Jeff Green admits the DSP is edging into sell-side territory, but says it’s for the benefit of all players in the adtech ecosystem

NEW: TTD execs Tues shared new deets about OpenAds, its publisher product debuted this month in the wake of Prebid's Transaction ID shakeup in Aug. After some pushback, CEO Jeff Green admitted OpenAds marks TTD's encroachment into the sell side. For @adweek.bsky.social www.adweek.com/programmatic...

EXCLUSIVE: Mobile Adtech Giant Verve Lays Off Part of SSP Team The Swedish company gave impacted staffers little explanation for the reorg, according to sources.

Scoop: Mobile adtech company Verve laid off parts of its staff in late Aug and early Sept, @adweek.bsky.social has learned. Cuts primarily affected the marketplace team. The reorg came ahead of the announcement of Verve's €16.2M acquisition of Captify this month. www.adweek.com/media/exclus...

Business Insider Accuses Google of Suppressing Publisher Ad Revenue in Federal Lawsuit Business Insider joins a growing roster of publishers and publisher-adjacent tech companies suing Google over its ad practices.

NEW for @adweek.bsky.social: BI accuses Google of rigging ad auctions & suppressing publisher revenues in new federal lawsuit. Latest in a wave of antitrust cases against the tech giant, many of which have been levied by publishers & publisher-adjacent tech firms. www.adweek.com/media/busine...

Execs Allege Racial and Gender Discrimination Against Agency Horizon in Federal Lawsuit Horizon Media is facing allegations of racial and gender discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed by one current and one former executive.

NEW: A federal lawsuit accuses indie agency Horizon Media of race & gender discrimination, retaliation & a hostile workplace. Plaintiffs say leaders marginalized Black execs, restricted resources & undermined DEI efforts. Horizon denies it. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/agencies/hor...

EXCLUSIVE: Scope3 Lays Off Staff as Part of Shift Toward Agentic Advertising Scope3 is cutting some jobs as part of what it characterizes as a strategic restructuring.

SCOOP: Scope3 laid off some of its sales team last week—part of what the firm describes as a "strategic shift" toward agentic ad solutions. One affected staffer said some other employees quit after the reorg was announced. Details in my story for @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/media/scope3...

EXCLUSIVE: Media Buyers Block Publicis’ Epsilon SSP Over Data Leakage Concerns WPP, IPG, Havas, and others sent media dollars and data to a rival—via Epsilon’s SSP

SCOOP for ADWEEK: Top agencies mistakenly bought ads through Publicis' Epsilon SSP via opaque reselling—sending money & valuable data to a rival. Some are now blocking the platform over concerns that Publicis—the only holdco with an SSP—could gain a competitive edge. www.adweek.com/media/public...

EXCLUSIVE: Media Buyers Block Publicis’ Epsilon SSP Over Data Leakage Concerns WPP, IPG, Havas, and others sent media dollars and data to a rival—via Epsilon’s SSP

NEW INVESTIGATION from @kendrabarnett.bsky.social:
Because of the murky nature of digital ads, major advertising companies have been unknowingly sending their data to a direct competitor.
www.adweek.com/media/public...

The Trade Desk Shareholders Will Vote Whether CEO Jeff Green Should Keep Supervoting Shares The company’s board is urging investors to maintain its current stock structure for another 10 years.

NEW: Shareholders of the The Trade Desk will vote Sept 16 on whether to change the voting structure of the company, potentially imperiling CEO Jeff Green’s control, according to an SEC filing. The board recommends keeping Green in power. For @adweek.bsky.social: www.adweek.com/programmatic...

Google Has Been Quietly Using Gemini AI to Weed Out Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic Google researchers have been using Gemini models to identify deceptive and disruptive ad serving techniques in mobile apps and across the web.

EXCLUSIVE: Google has been testing ways to mitigate invalid traffic using Gemini-powered AI tools over the last year and a half, the company told @adweek.bsky.social. Google claims to have stemmed "deceptive or disruptive" mobile ads by 40% during a 14-month period. www.adweek.com/media/google...