- Johnnie Walker strikes a bolder note with Sabrina Carpenter partnership: Announced around the release of the singer’s new album, the multiyear pact is part of the whisky maker’s efforts to better appeal to young consumers.
- Depop eyes larger US presence with ads touting style ‘Depopelgangers’: The online fashion reseller’s “Where Taste Recognizes Taste” campaign spotlights the emotional connection tied to secondhand shopping.
- Jägermeister defends ice-cold shots with arcade-inspired video game: Alongside the brand’s Stag mascot, players of the web-based game must defeat “anti-fun bad guys” looking to impede on a night of drinking.
- New Details Emerge About Meta’s ‘Hypernova’ Smart Glasses: Meta is planning to make a major wearables announcement at its Connect conference later this month.
- Instagram Adds More DM Management Options: Some new filters for your IG DMs.
- xAI Is Back in Contention for Government Contracts: That could lead to new opportunities for Elon’s X Corp empire.
- TikTok Adds Audio Messaging, Audio and Video Attachments for DMs: TikTok has been gradually building out its messaging options to meet user demand.
- Threads Tests In-Stream Text Expansion for Longer Updates: The option will enable you to create longer text updates in-stream.
- YouTube Expands Gift Goals To Drive More Livestream Donations: Another option to help livestream creators generate more money.
- Claire’s scales back store closures to 300 following $140M buyout offer: The bankrupt mall chain had moved to shutter 700 locations and was mulling the liquidation of its entire 1,500-store fleet in North America.
- Nike to lay off less than 1% of corporate team: The cuts come after CEO Elliott Hill unveiled a strategy a few months ago to realign the company’s teams around key sports.
- Sycamore Partners closes Walgreens acquisition, splits retailer into 5 companies: Mike Motz has been named the CEO of Walgreens. He was formerly the chief executive of Staples U.S. Retail, a Sycamore portfolio company.
- Tariffs cast a shadow over Gap Inc.’s progress: With renewed cultural relevance at Gap and Q2 strength at its biggest brands, the retailer “should remain in growth territory” this year, according to GlobalData.
- Ulta raises full-year sales outlook amid category resilience: The beauty retailer saw Q2 net sales increase 9.3% with growth across both mass and prestige beauty.
- Huge new theme park planned for UK after massive success in Europe.
- Google Ads quietly added a couple of new features that may make your day-to-day a bit more efficient: You can now select multiple campaigns at once from the overview section in the Google Ads screen. This lets you see performance data on those campaigns quickly and also makes managing them a bit easier. Google also added a way to search by Google Maps when managing your location assets for your Google Ads.
- Google Ads enhances campaign filters with new checkboxes: These simple checkboxes should make it much easier to filter and manage your campaigns.
- Google Ads select location assets using Google Maps: This new feature should help you find locations to target with ease.
- Google AI Mode model improved for complex STEM questions, says Google: Just in time for school, Google updated its AI Mode model.
- Global expansion and hyperlocal focus redefine the next chapter of retail media networks: As retail media networks mature, success hinges on mastering both global scale and neighborhood-level precision.
- Search optimization has a new playbook: Master the shift from keyword rankings to AI-driven discoverability with Uberall’s Location Performance Optimization framework.
- Google’s Danny Sullivan: ‘Good SEO is good GEO’: Google’s former search liaison says SEO is still about doing good things for people. He also addressed concerns about clicks dropping.
- GEO and SEO: How to invest your time and efforts wisely: GEO is rising, but SEO remains essential. Invest your time and efforts wisely to prioritize what matters now – and prepare for what’s next.
- Looking beyond AI: 9 marketing principles that will always matter – AI is reshaping search and discovery, but the fundamentals of marketing remain. Learn nine timeless principles that still drive growth.
- Google won’t have to sell Chrome, after ruling in search antitrust trial.
- Kraft Heinz will split into two companies, one for groceries and the other for sauces and spreads.
- Scary cute! Sweethearts drops blank “Ghosted Sweethearts” for Halloween.
- The latest brand to win a Sabrina Carpenter collab? Johnnie Walker.
- TJ Maxx has Maxxinistas. Now Depop has Depopelgangers.
- Ho-ho-hold up. Gen Z starts holiday shopping in June.
- Recession-proofing your brand starts with listening, and nowhere is consumer sentiment louder or faster than on social media.
- FableCRM for Gmail is a Chrome extension that turns your inbox into a sales hub: It’s currently ranked as the #1 CRM for Gmail by ChatGPT. It eliminates the constant back-and-forth between apps by embedding pipeline management, lead tracking, and deal insights directly into Gmail.
- Boost Mobile is joining forces with the campaign kings at Liquid Death to take on one of the scariest villains in consumer life: bloated wireless contracts.
- Williams-Sonoma scales AI customer service assistant across portfolio: The company is also launching an AI “culinary companion” that will help customers with product discovery and offer advice on topics like holiday entertaining.
- CX leaders expect self-service and live chat to overtake phone, email by 2027: Customer experience executives, however, are skeptical that AI agents will significantly expand and improve self-service, according to a Gartner survey.
- How DSW’s new brand platform showcases the fun of in-person shopping: Created with Crispin, “Let Us Surprise You” celebrates the in-store experience, as the shoe retailer does 70% of its business in person.
- Google is positioned to keep its Search business running largely without interruption. The company will have to share more of its data with competitors and create an oversight committee to monitor its business practices, but it can continue many of the operations that the government challenged in the antitrust lawsuit, including its payments to Apple. Google sharing its data could help its competitors improve their search products. The company will not be forced to divest its Chrome browser.
- Anthropic has closed a $13 billion funding round at a $183 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by Iconiq, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Anthropic will use the fresh capital to deepen safety research, meet growing enterprise demand, and support international expansion. The company’s run-rate revenue recently reached more than $5 billion, up from roughly $1 billion at the beginning of the year.
- Starship’s scale dwarfs that of other rockets. It has a capacity for more than a million gallons of super-cold liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants. While SpaceX aims to eventually be able to launch at least one Starship a day, there are numerous bottlenecks to achieving such a fast launch cadence. One of these is simple logistics: it takes more than 200 tanker trucks traveling from distant refineries to deliver all of the fuel needed for a Starship launch, which takes time, emits pollution, and clogs roadways.
- OpenAI for Science is a project within OpenAI aimed at building an AI-powered platform to accelerate scientific discovery. It aims to prove that AI models are ready to accelerate fundamental science and research all over the world. This thread shares several examples of how GPT-5 has helped and advanced science. More about OpenAI for Science will be unveiled in the coming months.
- Some people may find it difficult to get the results they see others getting with AI tools. This article discusses several tools and specific techniques that have helped developers increase their productivity. These techniques are scattered across documentation, blog posts, and threads, so finding them requires knowing what to look for. The article covers requirements and planning, UI, prototyping, coding, debugging, testing, QA, and cross-stage techniques.
- Viewing CPU utilization is easy – just pull up a system monitor tool. However, trying to project these numbers is a bit more difficult – whenever people try, they find that CPU utilization doesn’t increase quite linearly. This happens because of hyperthreading (the cores on the machine are sharing resources with other cores) and Turbo, a dynamic processor frequency adjustment technology used to increase performance. Reported utilizations are usually an underestimate, sometimes significantly so.
- Google has been mandated to share certain search index data and user interaction information with competitors. While many are celebrating this as a win, it could be a mistake. The decision means that Google must now share its hard-earned knowledge with competitors who haven’t made the same investments or taken the same risks. These companies should succeed by creating superior experiences, not by getting a free ride on Google’s research and development. Sharing this level of behavioral data also creates new opportunities for misuse. A better option would address specific anticompetitive behaviors while preserving incentives for innovation.
- Programmers have their own form of elitism. The industry is not that different from all the other industries that judge people based on appearance. Instead of going after ‘the best’ programmers, hire undistinguished workers and set them up for success. This is a lot cheaper and can produce better results.
- TikTok Expands DM Features with Voice and Media Sharing: TikTok is enhancing its direct messaging experience by introducing voice notes and the ability to share up to nine images or videos in chats. These updates allow users to record 60-second audio messages and either capture or upload photos and videos with optional editing. To maintain user safety, new protections prevent unsolicited media from unknown contacts and automatically block nude images for users aged 16–18. Adults can customize these protections in their settings. The rollout, which brings TikTok’s messaging features closer to those of other social platforms, will occur over the coming weeks.
- Instagram Is Growing at 10X the Rate of Facebook in EU
- Meta’s latest EU usage data highlights some key trends in social platform engagement.
- TikTok Continues To Grow in EU, Reduces Moderation Staff
- TikTok’s latest DSA disclosure data shows how it’s growing its audience and shrinking its headcount.
- Meta Will Enable Users To Exclude Terms From AI Copy Outputs.
- Meta is building in more options to manage AI generated ads.
- YouTube Updates Community Post Sharing, Livestream Donations.
- LinkedIn Continues To Expand Its Presence in EU: LinkedIn saw a 14% increase in EU users during the first six months of 2025.
- WhatsApp Adds AI-Generated Backgrounds for Video Chats: A new way to spice up your WhatsApp chats.
- Pepsi’s latest NFL blitz underscores larger marketing shift at soda giant: New ads star Josh Allen and Justin Jefferson as Crashers who swap rival sodas for Pepsi, a concept that will be translated to real tailgate experiences.
- Keurig Dr. Pepper bets big on college football with help from Disney: Mixed reality elements from the Dr. Pepper “Fansville” episodic campaign will be integrated into live college football broadcasts on ESPN and ABC.
- Cracker Barrel: Another case of the blanding of branding: Restaurants must engage core and growth audiences to understand what they value and which brand equities to protect, evolve or retire.
- How DSW’s new brand platform showcases the fun of in-person shopping: Created with Crispin, “Let Us Surprise You” celebrates the in-store experience, as the shoe retailer does 70% of its business in person.
- Givsly Appoints Industry Veteran Stephen Strauss as Head of Brand Partnerships Amid Surging Demand for Values-Driven Marketing.
- The Last Days Of Social Media: Social media was built on the romance of authenticity. Early platforms sold themselves as conduits for genuine connection: stuff you wanted to see, …
- Chinese social-media firms rush to label GenAI content: China was once a hotbed of music-downloads piracy, until the government cracked down – and very suddenly it wasn’t.
- MSU study: Screen time aids learning, but gender gaps remain: MSU study finds digital media can boost academic skills – but the benefits are more significant for boys than girls.
- How Trump health conspiracy theories went wild on social media: So his recent absence from public view provoked all sorts of speculation – fed by social media algorithms that promoted conspiracy theories and …
- Social Media Evidence Admissibility Is Reshaping Litigation: For attorneys, social media can serve as powerful, real-time evidence that challenges or confirms claims made in court.
- Broncos star in social media scandal: Brisbane Broncos fullback Reece Walsh has landed in controversy for his third problematic social media post this year, described as a ‘sickening …
- Has social media killed romance?: Columnist, Sydney Cummins believes that social media can seriously harm relationships if activity becomes obsessive.
- ‘Black girl showertok’: Diving into the latest social media trend: Alex Lewis breaks down the latest TikTok trend of Black creators showing their multi-step shower process.
- Donald Trump says he was unaware of viral social media rumours about his death: In another example of a false conspiracy rapidly spreading on social media — fuelled by algorithms that reward hysteria over accuracy — hashtags …
- Four phones, three weeks: Teen self-esteem and social media’s distorted mirror: Teenagers say they feel ‘bombarded’ by body image content on social media – and that it can lead to a darker side of the algorithm.
TLDR: Social Media Headlines – 3 September 2025
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Vicious Street
An retired elderly couple visit London..
They get picked up from the airport in a london black cab and head off into the city for some adventure.
The cab driver say \”where you from guvnor?
Husband. \”we\’re from South Africa\”..
The wife is a little hard of hearing asks her husband.
\”What did he say?\”
The husband turns to his wife and says louder \”the cab driver asked us where we were from, I told him South Africa!\”
The cabbie continues \”I was in the merchant navy years back… I got to drop anchor down your way, a few times in Johannesburg\”
The husband replies \”oh wow that\’s where we\’re from originally, now we\’re in Cape Town.\”
The wife asks the husband again \”what did he say?\”.
The husband again relays the unheard conversation \”the cab driver says he spent some time in the navy and went down to joberg\”.
The wife smiles and nods.
Swan Mustang
Did you know that another country lies within the borders of South Africa? The Kingdom of Lesotho is a sovereign state that is located in the Drakensberg Mountain area. The mountainous country has been nicknamed “the Kingdom in the Sky” thanks to the magnificent scenery and landscapes!