Yikes.... WPP is to be demoted from the FTSE 100 after its share price has fallen to levels last seen in the 1990s. It's currently the lowest-valued company in the FTSE 100 with a market cap of £3.2b, and is lower valued than more than a dozen FTSE 250 companies. www.thetimes.com/business/com...

New from 404 Media: ChatGPT told a violent stalker to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women. The man stalked women in multiple states, including touching and following from work www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...

I see Brewdog are back with what they think is 'edgy' Advertising, using a word that evokes a lot of pain/anguish for many people, and being quite rightly being called out for it

A good take on the Omnicom & IPG merger by @nandoodles.checkmyads.org - Brand Safety is indeed a huge Ad Industry challenge, especially with free-for-all content on social platforms nowadays. Such a huge amount of job losses impacted by this merger also.

Watched a bit of this documentary on the way home on Phone-snatching in London, and it is a huge issue (I know so many who it's happened to, and it's almost happened to me countless times) but can't help think that stuff like this glamorizes it a bit too much... www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sop...

We’re removing entry level jobs, devaluing what used to be well paid jobs, and charging people stupid amounts just to live. And yet they’re spending less money. Stupid selfish people

This is what I love about social media. A story in a paper that you know doesn't add up, but you dont know how to work it out. So along comes Emma and explains it all for you. Yet again sterling work and much appreciated.

Went to Wimbledon Theatre last night to see 'Sunny Afternoon', a musical telling the story of The Kinks and it was *outstanding* An incredible cast of actors and I haven't stopped humming their tunes afterwards - highly recommend catching it if you can 🎤🎸

Lying in politics is wrong and should never be rewarded, says newspaper which pays Boris Johnson £1 million a year to be its star columnist

AI-generated prompts such as 'Beautify this slide' on Google Docs are getting ridiculous now - there doesn't need to be so many every time you work on something 🤦

So in the Media/Advertising world the Omnicom & IPG merger is now finalised - The 'Big six' Agency groups now become the 'Big five' - I can see in 5-10 years time that there will be much further consolation happening www.businessinsider.com/omnicom-ipg-...

Love to be trying to work out if the entire budget just leaked on a financial newswire that I'm reading via a knock-off third party aggregator so can't tell if it's real.

I was excited to play 'Project Motor Racing' this evening on its release, but left hugely disappointed 🙁 Lacklustre AI, graphics and handling are all really poor for a 2025 game. I'm not the only one annoyed, and looks like it's going to take months of updates to fix/sort. #ProjectMotorRacing

The key thing for you to remember this Black Friday…

Turns out interest in Metaverse had about a ~9 month half life.

The more I see the John Lewis Christmas Ad on TV, the more it comes across better and better I think, especially against other Christmas Ads running (and not because I love 90's Dance Music) The full 2min version carries more emotion with it too www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1bR...

One of the most heavily-promoted Formula 1 races of the year yet shocking to see on Live TV that there are Marshalls on track while the cars are coming up to Turn 1 at some speed, is not a great look at all. What a lack of communication, my goodness. #F1 #LasVegasGP

Went to a small Arts & Crafts place in Covent Garden this evening called 'Brush & Bubbles', that teaches you how to paint cool landscapes (with prosecco!) Highly recommended that's a bit different with friends/or for a date - My one turned out a bit decent, even if paint went all over my shirt 😂🎨

Daily Mail's parent company agrees a deal to buy Telegraph for £500m! Media consolidation, let's go, ya gonna blink and stop this competition regulators? Over to you, Nandy? Strong potential everyone just waves the sale through to STOP HAVING TO READ OR THINK ABOUT IT. www.ft.com/content/cd8e...

Billionaire-owned GB News doing their bit to make sure that the billionaires' perspective doesn't go under-represented in the UK media...

Quite a fascinating interview with BBC & Google's CEO - Faisal Islam is such a good interviewer, asking great questions - Around AI development (admitting "prone to some errors") says that both uptick in AI & Climate change crisis can "both be solved" with technology www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Sky Sports shutting down their TikTok channel 'Halo', aimed for young female audiences, was inevitable. The posts were quite cringe & condescending, when the target audience calls this out you know it's bad. Reeked of a boardroom-level idea. Great summary here👇 www.marketingweek.com/sky-sports-f...

just saw the worst gaming ad ive ever seen

Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we? After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism. Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨 🧵 1/22

I was going to go to bed, but when GoldenEye is on TV I have to stay up to watch it. 🍿 Definitely one of the better James Bond films, and such a significant film of the 90s, a classic

This week's newsletter starts with a recipe recommendation and ends with corporate meeting counsel. Definitely a more marketing/advertising focused edition this week covering a bunch of stuff BUT purposefully avoiding Christmas. Because it's November x www.fivethingsonfriday.com/archive/five...

Pressure had been building for days... "BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness resign following criticism that a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump." Live coverage: www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...

JD Sports' new holiday ad doesn't just switch the traditional dynamic, it's part of a wider journey to get closer to the audience you serve. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCsv...

Outstanding investigative reporting from Sky in the UK. The X algorithm feeds users right wing material from the moment they join the site. Much of it extremist.

Which one is more English?

What many people don't understand is that they should be using AI to reduce the length of their documents not increase it.

Reluctantly had to go on 'X' today to do some research. My inactive account's feed is full of misinformation & rage-baiting on all kinds of things. But tons of Ads for blue-chip Brands now appearing on there. Baffles me how the platform is still part of media plans, no matter how 'cheap reach' it is

Since Musk is attacking Wikipedia once again: I love Wikipedia. A little unreliable, very occasionally hilariously inaccurate, but such a rare thing: something on the Internet that's mostly positive, inspiring & mindbogglingly useful. I've donated & will keep doing so. An appreciation 🧵 . 1/

Cant believe Bob Seconds won the Mexican Grand Prix. Well done Bob

The same way you need to let your muscles recover after a workout, sometimes you need to rest your brain. Otherwise, the writing might suffer...

An elected MP, Reform’s Sarah Pochin says there are too many Black and Asian people on TV - so plain racism - and the coverage of it is buried. Silence and ignorance is complicity, causing lasting damage. When we see racism it’s what we do next, individually and collectively, that matters.

If only everyone could have predicted this www.thegamer.com/ea-generativ...

WPP Exec thinks middle-aged creatives only know how to make "posters." I offer my thoughts. www.linkedin.com/posts/johnal...

Böcker, the Germany company that made the ladder lift used in the Louvre robbery has produced this ad which loosely translates as When Something Needs Doing Fast.

"AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat" is something from a Final Destination pre-production brainstorming session www.dexerto.com/entertainmen...

I suspect a lot of people will be the 'everything is fine' fire emoji this morning - AWS powers a lot more websites and applications than you might think www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I would laugh if this wasn't so true 😭

A lot that could be said about this but if you look on Twitter it’s noticeable that the replies and quote tweets are *overwhelmingly* telling him he shouldn’t have apologised and even attacking him for doing so. That’s the feedback loop certain users are plugged into now, and it has consequences.

My first article for @newstatesman1913.bsky.social is about what Ricky Hatton’s death meant to me personally www.newstatesman.com/culture/spor...

"Sometimes you have to ask yourself: How did I get here—sitting in Saudi Arabia, listening to Louis C.K. do jokes about Barely Legal magazine?" I went to Riyadh to see the transformation of a country with the world's biggest cultural chequebook. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

So sad reading that a person died after finishing the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday, that I took part in 😔 Should note that it was such a well-organised event with lots of Medical staff along the route, so really sad this occurred www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

Watching Splinter Cell Deathwatch on Netflix and it's really, really good - Proper action/thriller with a decent plot - and I'm someone who was is massive fan of the games too. One episode in and eager to keep watching 👏 #SplinterCell

Yes

This 👇 is really, really good work by Transport for London and VCCP. When you've taken the Tube, Overground and Buses as often and as long as I have, you do see stuff like this & is the best way to defuse a potentially scary situation www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw76...

tfw you’re launching state of the art trains with no USBC, even though it would cost a few quid per train to change the faceplate at this stage