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A civil litigation case against eBay, filed by the founders of a Massachusetts-based news site that covers ecommerce, has just been settled. The gist of it: The company and former execs have to own up to—and pay up for—perhaps the most disturbing harassment campaign ever led by a giant tech company against its critics.Back in 2020, six former eBay employees and one contractor were charged with participating in a horrifying campaign—featuring doxing, threats, and deliveries of live pests—against David and Ina Steiner, the husband-and-wife founders of the Massachusetts-based news site EcommerceBytes. The Steiners wrote about eBay regularly, often not in…

During the week I spent at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one thing stood out: creativity goes way beyond the Palais—from the beach and the villas to every block of the waterfront. This year, it was impossible to walk past Salesforce Beach, the Journal House, or the DoorDash activation without stopping. It proves how the festival has become something bigger than anyone originally imagined.It’s time we talked about what that means.Cannes Lions started as an awards festival for the advertising industry to celebrate craft and creative excellence. That’s still true and valuable, but something shifted. When the festival introduced The…

Ozlo, the sleep earbuds startup from former Bose engineers, is launching its next device. On Tuesday, the company unveiled Sleepbuds 2, an updated version of its original product that tackles key areas of improvement, including battery life, connectivity, and sound quality. The new model costs $279, a 12% increase from its predecessor. The launch marks Ozlo’s first major update since the release of its original device and reflects the company’s evolution from a continuation of Bose’s brand into its own sleep platform. Image Credits:Ozlo The original Sleepbuds, launched in late 2024, were meant to fill the hole left by Bose’s…

For years, Laura Loomer’s position on Ukraine was crystal clear. It was “a country full of Nazi apologists” led by “a Jihadi apologist.” Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and avid Trump supporter, called American politicians who supported Ukraine in its war against Russia “traitors.”But Loomer, who traveled to Ukraine last week, has changed her tune. She has posted a seemingly endless stream of content from the country, including a sit-down interview with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and pictures of her eating McDonald’s surrounded by bombed-out buildings in the capital, Kyiv.Earlier this month, hours after news broke of Senator Lindsey Graham’s death,…

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Jamie Warner sits down with Trent Thacker, senior director of market and customer research at Cox Automotive and currently senior director of industry intelligence, to explore how iconic brands like AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book consistently produce high-performing creative in an increasingly competitive media landscape. Trent shares Cox Automotive’s research-first approach to campaign development, revealing how consumer tracking, competitive intelligence, and multi-stage testing help reduce risk while improving results.The conversation dives into why automotive advertising demands a different playbook, with consumers spending up to 100 days researching vehicles and relying heavily on informative content. Trent…

One of the most bizarre episodes in e-commerce history has come to a close. eBay and several former eBay employees have agreed to pay $56 million to a newsletter-writing couple that was targeted by the company’s former executives in a horrific targeted harassment campaign that took place in 2019. Ina and David Steiner, a married couple and the co-authors of EcommerceBytes, inspired the ire of high-level eBay executives after occasionally criticizing the company in their newsletter. In 2019, a plot was concocted to intimidate the couple into halting their negative coverage. Executives used sock puppet social media accounts to harass…

The perception of gaming as a niche hobby is rapidly fading as it transforms into a dominant force in global culture and connection. In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Matt Britton welcomes Claire Nance, senior director of marketing communications at Microsoft’s Xbox Media Solutions.Claire highlights the staggering reality of billions of active participants and the technological advancements that have turned every smartphone into a high-powered gaming device. This conversation reveals why immersion is the ultimate superpower for brands looking to build authentic relationships with an audience that is already deeply engaged. Claire provides a look at how Xbox is…

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, has purchased a 5% stake in Lucid Motors, increasing the Kingdom’s overall ownership of the electric vehicle company. A new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published Tuesday shows that the billionaire prince recently purchased a little more than 19 million shares. In a post on X, he wrote that his investment office made the purchase when Lucid’s market cap was below $2 billion. That happened on July 14, when an electric vehicle blog published a report claiming that Lucid was considering either filing for…

The Cannes Lions 2026 series of Marketing Vanguard continues as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Uzma Rawn Dowler, CMO & SVP of global corporate partnerships at Major League Baseball. In this conversation, Uzma shares why fandom is not a behavior but an identity, and why that changes the entire MLB marketing equation. She gets into how baseball’s eight-month season creates a daily storytelling engine, why partner integration needs to feel organic to the fan experience and how MLB thinks about brand building through commercialization, culture and community. This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes…

PayPal is seemingly still open to Stripe’s $53.4 billion takeover bid, just not at the price the latter had offered. On the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call on Tuesday, PayPal CEO Enrique Lores didn’t fully shut down the idea of a deal, saying the company would consider a path that created “superior value” for its shareholders. While that’s not the same as saying, “PayPal’s not for sale,” it still suggests the company doesn’t believe Stripe and Advent International’s current offer of $60.50 per share values it correctly, especially after the company reported better-than-expected profit and revenue, and said it had…

A couple months after completing detox for alcohol in June 2023, Cam got into a brutal motorcycle accident.The 36-year-old upstate New York resident woke up hospitalized in late September after a month in a coma. “I broke every rib, every vertebrae. My pelvis was completely shattered,” says Cam, who asked to be identified by his first name because he is discussing drug use. He needed a spinal fusion and was unable to return to his job in car parts manufacturing.“I was in pain 24/7,” Cam says.He needed serious painkillers, and he says the 15 milligrams of oxycodone a day he…

The largest electrical grid in the U.S. has struggled to cope with an onslaught of data centers. Now, after an auction to add more generating capacity fell short, the grid’s operator, PJM Interconnection, has said it will cut off data centers and other large users during power shortages. The decision arrives as the breakneck pace of data center construction has grid operators scrambling to generate power. Data centers are expected to use four times more electricity as they do today by 2035. PJM won’t start curtailing supply until June 2027, and the cuts will only apply to data centers that…

Before you start mopping, you’ll need to roll the Submarine head back and forth for 10 to 20 seconds to make sure it’s damp enough to work. You’ll know it’s ready when you see consistent water trails. Before mopping, I also recommend using the Fluffy Optic head to pick up dust in the area, because the wet head’s debris tray looks smaller than those on the dedicated wet cleaners. You’ll thank yourself for pre-vacuuming when the mop cleanup is less disgusting. Though the debris tray is small, I do like that it is fully plastic, since the mesh on my…

Brands must once again reinvent the wheel for young audiences, who consume so much content daily that they have a renewed and fierce desire for physical connection.Eighty-two percent of Gen Z and Millennials want brands to bring people together in spontaneous ways, and 76% say the best social media trends are those that show up in real life, according to data from The Harris Poll. Marketers must also evolve as basic audience profiles and content delivery no longer suffices. Active listening and co-creation are steps in the right direction, but brands must translate these insights into real-world action.Listening is a structure,…

The market for AI-generated voice models is massive. Creative use cases require AI voice models to be more expressive, while enterprises looking to automate customer support and sales ops need them to be more steerable. Palo Alto-based Fish Audio wants to cater to all of those use cases with its library of more than 15,000 natural language controls. Since launching last year, the startup today has more than 8 million people using the open-source or hosted versions of its models, and now generates annual recurring revenue of $21 million. To continue building on that traction, the startup on Tuesday said…

Rideshare micromobility vehicles are a common sight in major cities around the world, whether that’s a bicycle program or electric scooters. Now, a company called Veo is introducing electric tricycles into the mix.Announced Tuesday at an event in Denver, the company showed off the Rover, a three-wheeled, sit-down electric vehicle designed for anyone to ride on the streets. They are available in Denver for now, but Veo plans to expand the vehicle to cities across the US.The Rover works like a shared bike or e-scooter. Sign up for the Veo app, pay a fee to unlock the trike, and then…