Thursday, 8:00 PM. That’s the witching hour.

The laptop is open, my back is screaming, and I’m frantically finishing what should’ve been done by Tuesday.

Most of what I publish goes through days — sometimes weeks — of research, sourcing, rewriting, and internal screaming. But this section? It's written while I’m half-dozing, snacking on wasabi almonds, and muttering, “Who’s still reading LinkedIn on a Friday?”

Honestly, this week felt like a snoozefest — until I realized I wasn’t bored, I was just overshadowed by a bunch of other people yelling louder than me. Ari. Brian. Jeff. The whole DSP-death spiral peanut gallery.

I chimed in, sure — but like a guy yelling into a hurricane and then claiming he started the storm.

Let me have this one, okay?

And now, the “news.”

Kokai was supposed to be The Trade Desk’s shiny future. But like most sequels, it’s taking longer to land than anyone wants to admit. Agencies are still holding on to Solimar like it’s their ex’s HBO Max login — not because it’s great, but because the new thing hasn’t proven it won’t break mid-campaign. Meanwhile, over at WPP, execs are dropping faster than unsold NFTs. Laurent Ezekiel peaced out, Publicis scooped up the Coke account, and Openusd is basically the world’s fanciest ghost town.

YouTube is printing money with AI-generated Ikea ads (yes, that’s a sentence I just typed), and Eyeota is reviving third-party data like it’s a disco trend. Somewhere in that mess, Vaudit raised $7.3M by promising CFOs they’d find lost money, Russian disinfo ops are using adtech pipes built for dropshipping scam razors, and Obele Brown-West has returned to agency life — allegedly happier, definitely bolder, and hopefully surrounded by fewer “people-first” memos written by sociopaths.

Let’s not forget OpenUSD, where Coca-Cola and Nestlé now co-star in an AI fever dream that replaces creative departments with GPU clusters. And PwC? They’re tossing around a $3.5 trillion media prediction like Oprah hands out free cars. Subscriptions are dying, CTV is thriving, and if you’re not monetizing TikTok clips of toddlers falling off couches, you’re basically working at a lemonade stand during a Pepsi IPO. So no — this week wasn’t boring. It was quietly apocalyptic, the kind of week where nothing explodes, but you wake up and realize your entire marketing strategy is built on a foundation of jargon, vapor, and wishful AI prompts. You’ve been warned. Stay bold, stay curious, and please stop pretending Solimar is going to die in August. - Pesach

Jeff Green promised Kokai would be the DSP UI for everyone by year-end. But adoption is lagging — which means Solimar isn’t going anywhere just yet. Turns out, getting agencies to switch their tools is a lot harder when they’re mid-campaign and mid-chaos.

Agencies heard Solimar would stop accepting new campaigns in August. But no dice. Kokai’s still cooking. Internal sources say key features are MIA, and there’s no firm date for pulling the plug on Solimar. Translation? The “future of DSPs” is still on beta mode.

Marketers don’t love switching midstream. Especially not to something that’s half-built. Trade Desk is learning that sexy demos don’t beat stable dashboards when real money’s on the line.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

Laurent Ezekiel is heading back to Publicis after Coca-Cola, Mars, and Paramount dumped WPP like a flat two-liter. It’s more than a talent shuffle — it’s a shift in who’s holding the keys to some of the world’s biggest brands.

WPP once built Open WPP just for Coke. But now the exec who led it is walking away, just after Publicis scored the $700M media prize. That’s like building the wedding hall and skipping the reception.

With CEO Mark Read stepping down, Ezekiel's exit feels more like a trend than a one-off. When the people who built the vision bail, what does that say about the future of WPP?

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

YouTube’s not just about cat videos and beauty tutorials anymore — it’s the engine behind Google’s $9.8B quarter, thanks in part to AI-driven content like that viral Ikea transformation ad.

Google raked in $96.4B in Q2, Cloud grew 32%, and Search continues to print cash. YouTube is now the golden goose in a henhouse filled with AI eggs.

Why pay a creative team when an algorithm can do the same in 15 seconds and under budget? That’s the new YouTube pitch — minus the human touch, plus the ROI.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

Marketers are sick of siloed data and walled gardens that act more like moats. Enter third-party data with actual reach and teeth, because CTV and retail media demand grown-up solutions.

CTV’s ecosystem is more fragmented than a toddler’s Lego bin. Eyeota’s bringing order — offering audiences across 98% of CTV homes and tying that data back to broader ID graphs.

First-party data may be sexy on the privacy slides, but without third-party context, it’s like showing up to a masquerade party blindfolded.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

Ad fraud is like death and taxes — inevitable, messy, and wildly profitable for someone else. Vaudit raised $7.3M to help brands stop the bleeding and send invoices to the platforms.

Their AI platform combs through billions of ad events, surfacing “oops we billed you wrong” moments that add up to 30% overcharges. Cue CFOs foaming at the mouth.

If platforms had a refund button, they’d hide it behind seven dropdowns and a broken CAPTCHA. Vaudit wants to force accountability into the equation — good luck storming that castle.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

State-sponsored disinfo campaigns are using the same dodgy traffic distribution systems that fuel scammy dating sites. It’s like Breaking Bad meets Mad Men, but creepier.

They use hacked WordPress sites, spoofed domains, and affiliate networks straight out of a cyberpunk fever dream. LosPollos isn’t chicken — it’s cloaked malware masquerading as monetization.

None of this tech was built for truth. It was built for scale, anonymity, and plausible deniability. Russia just figured out how to turn that into a geopolitical content weapon.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

After taking a break from agency life, Obele is back. This time, she’s calling the shots, building culture, and actually feeling good about going to work. Miracles happen.

She’s been through the agency parade of “people-first” platitudes. This time, she says, it’s real — she’s using her full toolkit and directly leading teams.

If every agency swears they’re not like the others, why do so many feel exactly the same inside? Obele might’ve found the rare exception. Might.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

What used to take an entire creative department now gets done by AI in minutes. Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Unilever are proving that smart tools eat timelines for breakfast.

OpenUSD + Omniverse is the AI content engine of record. We’re talking 3 million global variations, 70% cost savings, and imagery so consistent it could pass a branding polygraph.

At this pace, art directors might want to learn Python. Or pray that their aesthetic judgment still beats a prompt-fed GAN.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

Forget premium. Forget ad-free. PwC says the future of media is ad-supported, AI-generated, and borderline omniscient. Subscriptions are so 2022.

CTV, games, and live events are expected to carry the next wave — mostly funded by ads slotted between highlight reels and TikToks.

Consumers don’t want to pay — and don’t need to. AI personalization and ad funding are covering the bill while we binge and pretend we’re in control.

This isn’t just a footnote — it’s the headline. Behind the scenes, platforms fumble, execs jump ship, AI automates everything but your existential crisis, and marketers pretend they have control. If you didn’t read the whole thing (shame on you), at least know this: the ad industry is on fire — and depending on where you’re standing, it’s either a bonfire of vanity metrics or a fireworks show of innovation.

Every once in a while, something drops into my inbox that makes me sit back, lower the blinds, and wonder aloud: “Have we lost the plot entirely?” This is one of those moments. It turns out, while you were busy optimizing CPMs and debating the finer points of clean rooms and attention metrics, Russian state-backed trolls were using the exact same adtech pipes to wage information warfare. Not with tanks. Not with spy movies. With LosPollos and TacoLoco — and if that sounds like the world’s worst QSR combo meal, buckle your seatbelt. Because this isn’t just a glitch in the system. This is the system.

The Kremlin didn’t need to build a new propaganda engine — they just piggybacked on the same shady affiliate networks that run spammy dating ads, fake antivirus popups, and phony sweepstakes.

LosPollos, that innocuous-sounding network, is a masterclass in weaponized monetization. It offers “smartlinks” that route users through hacked WordPress blogs, past cloaked redirects, and into the sticky arms of scams, malware, or full-blown Russian disinformation.

TacoLoco ups the ante by tricking users into push-notification hell, where you get barraged with sketchy content like it’s 2016 and you just installed a Chrome toolbar called “HOTBABE.EXE.”

All of it is run on VexTrio, a criminal traffic distribution system so big it makes the Lumascape look like a local plumbing directory. This isn’t fringe anymore. These operations clone real news sites, build AI-generated fake content, and buy ads on social platforms to push this sludge directly into people’s feeds. They geo-fence, redirect, and cloak like seasoned programmatic traders. The only difference? Their KPIs aren’t sales or brand lift — they’re chaos, polarization, and undermining Western democracies one spoofed LeMonde article at a time. The media strategy is tight. The goal is subversion. And the pipes they're using? They're yours.

Here’s the part that should give every CMO and CTO a migraine: none of this is accidental. The ad industry built an infrastructure designed for scale, speed, and plausible deniability — and now it’s being used exactly as intended, just by people who aren’t trying to sell toothpaste. From auto-refreshing pages to zero-transparency affiliate payouts, the same tools that helped you juice a few extra impressions are now distributing Kremlin memes in six languages with better targeting than your DTC skincare client.

The Doppelganger campaign — the most recent, most horrifying iteration — is cloning legitimate domains (think le-monde.ltd instead of .fr), pumping them full of fabricated quotes, AI-generated videos, and deepfake headlines. The bots pushing it? They’re running ad campaigns. Sponsored. Boosted. You’ve probably seen one, shrugged, and scrolled past. That’s the genius of it. It’s mundane. It’s monetized. And it works.

And because the adtech ecosystem is allergic to accountability, the cleanup is impossible. Attribution is obfuscated. Inventory is “brand safe” until it isn’t. And mainstream DSPs are still monetizing this garbage because the filtering systems treat it like just another CPM opportunity. This isn’t a bug. It’s the logical conclusion of an industry that prioritized scale over scrutiny, clicks over context, and revenue over reality.

So let’s stop pretending this is someone else’s mess. Russia didn’t build a digital disinfo empire out of thin air. They rented space in ours. They hijacked our TDS systems. They cloned our UIs. They gamed the very auction mechanics we praised as “democratizing media.” And most of us — platforms, brands, agencies — either looked the other way or just didn’t bother to look at all.

Let’s be crystal clear: this is not just a cybersecurity issue. It’s not a fringe edge-case buried in some IT guy’s threat log. This is adtech being turned into a geopolitical weapon because we’ve spent a decade building tools without brakes. Every time we prioritized optimization over verification, every time we let another junky “affiliate network” onboard with zero due diligence, we greased the rails for this exact moment.

If someone tells you this is the cost of innovation, tell them no — it’s the invoice for negligence. And we’ve been compounding interest for years.

The TL;DR (but you better read it anyway):
Russian disinformation campaigns aren’t sneaking in through the back door. They’re buying media, running smartlinks, spoofing domains, and scaling like your average DTC growth hacker. The adtech industry built the roads — and now they’re being driven by propagandists who know the map better than you do. The next time someone at a conference says “AI and media scalability will shape democracy,” ask them: who’s democracy?

Because right now? It isn’t yours.

Let’s cut to it: if you read our breakdown of how Publicis is not only eating everyone’s lunch but also picking the restaurant, you already know we’re not here to coddle holding companies. While WPP’s busy swapping out CEOs and Omnicom’s playing acquisition roulette, Sadoun is quietly building a tech empire wrapped in a creative agency. We broke down how they swiped Coca-Cola, Mars, Spotify, and half the menu without even flexing. That piece? It's not something you’ll find in sanitized trades.

And if you really want to see where the money’s going, our deep dive into Netflix’s ad-fueled profit machine is the blueprint. We unraveled how they’re not just streaming your nostalgia—Happy Gilmore 2, anyone?—but transforming adtech with in-house AI, programmatic pipes, and the kind of targeting that makes even Meta nervous. Both stories go beyond headlines. They’re investigative, irreverent, and exactly what this industry needs more of.

By subscribing to ADOTAT+, you’re backing independent journalism that doesn’t flinch. The more of you that join us, the deeper we dig—and the more uncomfortable truths we’ll publish.

Stay bold. Stay curious. And know more than you did yesterday.