Good morning. WSJ Leadership Institute's Katie Deighton reports on the resurrection-sort of-of a much-missed social network: Remember Vine, the six-second Twitter-owned video app partially responsible for Logan Paul's career?
Twitter discontinued the app in 2017 after a four-year run, but its weird and wonderful videos have lived on in the collective memory of the Very Online ever since. Nostalgia grew to a crescendo last November, when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced his backing of Divine, a new social-media app with no affiliation to the original Vine, Twitter or X, but still filled with more than 2.4 million archived original Vine videos.
Set to go live to the public on Thursday, Divine has been built to tackle the issues and debates that engulf internet culture in 2026. AI-generated content is banned, and the platform has been built without an algorithm for advertising placement. Divine has pledged to close down accounts if they're found to be solely operated by users under 13. And creators have been promised an environment free from the pressure of optimizing content for engagement. "Creative power belongs?in human hands," is the company's mission statement.
Still, no social-media startup can survive without brand support. Divine on Tuesday named Taco Bell as its first commercial partner, with the fast-food chain's customers receiving early access to the platform as part of its new, 2016-inspired Decades #TBTB menu. Taco Bell's account and its campaign hashtag have also been given pride of place in Divine's "featured" feed until Sept. 16.
Alice Chan, Divine's chief marketing officer, said the deal "sets the standard for how we want brands to show up in Divine-in ways that are joyful, creative and a natural extension of the community, not an interruption to it."
Divine plans to offer other brands spotlights in certain feeds, the option to create sponsored lists of content, and the ability to create and give out badges to fans in recognition of their content and engagement, Chan told CMO Today.
Machine Age
Consumers aren't a monolith when it comes to AI in advertising, The WSJ Leadership Institute's Patrick Coffee writes for the newsletter:
Older, politically conservative Americans are generally more open to AI-generated ads than younger, more liberal consumers, according to a new Gallup survey.
Marketers won't be surprised to learn that only 19% of respondents in the web survey of 3,250 adults, conducted by Gallup and Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., said they're somewhat or very excited about AI-generated ads. The research does, however, add some nuance to the picture.
While 66% of survey participants from 18 to 29 years old reported negative opinions of AI ads overall, only 38% of respondents 45 to 59 years old felt the same way, Gallup found.
Seventy-three percent of the younger cohort called it unacceptable for brands to use AI to simulate people or human voices in their ads, but that figure fell to 53% among the 45-to-59-year-olds.
Why the disparity?
Younger consumers spend more time online, see more AI ads, and have more on the line in terms of how the tech will affect their lives and careers, said Noah Giansiracusa, an associate professor of mathematics at Bentley University who led the research. This proximity likely feeds greater skepticism, he said.
In political terms, more liberal consumers, who also tend to skew younger, are less accepting of AI as well, the survey found.
Sixty-three percent of respondents who identify as Republican said it's fine for brands to run ads entirely created by AI, for example, while only 50% of Democrats agreed.
The difference may have something to do with contrasting views on regulation, as elected Republicans tend to be more hands-off, according to Giansiracusa. "If I am a more laissez-faire, 'We need more AI accelerationism' kind of person, I could see expressing a more comfortable view," he said.
The survey's most intriguing results, however, concern the creative process.
Seventy-five percent of all respondents said AI is acceptable for brainstorming or making early versions of ads, but just 38% approved of using AI to simulate people or human voices in ads.
"The ideas are the ideas. But once you go down to creating likenesses, you know, people, faces, voices, that's where people really get alarmed," said Giansiracusa.
The Magic Number
Pre-tax tariff refunds during the second quarter for Target, which suggested that the benefits would help the retailer's continuing efforts to lower prices.
Appetite for Reduction
Conagra is hunting for ways to entice customers taking GLP-1s, for whom the traditional food-business levers of salt, sugar and fat don't work.
The maker of Banquet, Healthy Choice and Hungry-Man meals has been combing through credit-card data, social-media posts, fast food menus and late-night delivery orders to decipher what food might still appeal to GLP-1 users, Amira McKee and Jesse Newman report in a deep dive for The Wall Street Journal.
One project in the works: a buffalo mac and cheese packing 40 grams of protein for GLP-1 users trying to stave off muscle loss. (A prototype for a frozen burrito with the same protein load was scrapped when the tortilla couldn't hold the filling.)
To refine its packaging copy, Conagra is running word-association studies to test phrases like "good source of fiber" and "high in protein"-seeking claims that grab attention without sounding too clinical.
The company is also counting on cozy and nostalgic flavors. "Everyone has their mom's meatloaf or grandma's roast chicken," company chef Holly Faivre said, "but how can we make this fit all of the boxes for GLP-1s?"
One notable aside for marketers: Conagra now tests new creations on its own employees, having abandoned focus groups after several products soared with panelists but flopped in market.
Quotable
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