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L’Oréal is bringing in one agency to run social across its Maybelline New York and Essie brands for the first time.VML has been named lead U.S. social agency for the brands following a competitive review, the agency told ADWEEK, with a remit spanning social strategy, content production, and community management. The scope does not include influencer marketing.The pitch began in November 2025, consolidating what had been a patchwork of internal teams, according to VML. The move reflects a broader reckoning in beauty, where discovery and purchase are increasingly happening on TikTok and Instagram, making social a key commerce channel. For…
If you’ve never used AirPods before, or it’s been awhile since you upgraded, I’m here to help! Here are some answers to general questions, from what kind of features you can expect to how to clean your buds.Do AirPods work with Android?Yes, you can use AirPods with non-Apple devices, since they use the standard Bluetooth protocol. But you’ll lose out on features like Siri integration, device switching, and the ability to customize shortcuts or adjust software features. In contrast, Beats headphones offer a mix of Apple-friendly features and Android features, including a dedicated Android app and features like one-touch pairing.Can…
Merrell, the footwear brand known for its hiking boots, wants to democratize the outdoors with the first global brand platform in its 45-year history.Its new campaign, “It Starts Outside,” created by new agency partner Uncommon Creative Studio, is based on a simple premise: even one step outside can open the door to possibilities. Merrell’s marketing push comes as it aims to differentiate itself in the crowded outdoor category as a more democratic, culturally rooted brand. The outdoor apparel market is growing, estimated to increase from $174.45 billion in 2026 to $229 billion by 2031, according to Mordor Intelligence. Meanwhile, the outdoor recreation…
Mick Mulvaney wants to be clear: He really likes gambling. “You’re talking to the only former member of Congress who’s won a poker tournament in Las Vegas,” he tells WIRED. When he was representing South Carolina in the US House of Representatives, he pushed for the state to allow sports betting.Because of his background, Mulvaney, a former Trump administration official, says he can tell when something is gambling—and that the sports contracts on prediction markets fit the bill. “You know the old saying, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck?” he asks. “If…
Meta is testing tools designed to improve retail media campaigns that run on Facebook and Instagram, three people familiar with the matter told ADWEEK.Meta did not respond to multiple requests for comment.The first product optimizes ad campaigns around productsThe first tool, called “product set optimization,” would let retail media networks improve ad performance around a set of individual product SKUs on Meta.When retail media networks place ads for specific products on Meta properties, Meta has been limited on its ability to optimize those ads, because its algorithms were built for single-brand retailers. That’s fine for a company like Allbirds, which…
Alaqad says that because traditional media outlets pick and choose what to show their audiences, losing on-the-ground journalists means losing parts of the truth. “When the people are being silenced and censored, and they don’t have a space for them to talk or a platform to express what’s happening, and for us to see what’s happening through their eyes, there will always be limitations [on] how much we know,” she says.In every crisis, when communication breaks down, accountability is lost and injustice becomes easier to ignore. “Injustice is super loud,” Alaqad says. “Justice needs to be louder.”TargetedJournalists are also silenced…
Anthropic’s chatbot Claude seems to have benefited from the attention around the company’s fraught negotiations with the Pentagon. As first reported by CNBC, Claude has been rising to the top of the free app rankings in Apple’s US App Store. On Saturday evening, it overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT to claim the number one spot, a position that it still held on Sunday morning. According to data from SensorTower, Claude was just outside the top 100 at the end of January, and has spent most of February somewhere in the top 20. It’s climbed rapidly in the past few days, from sixth…
Do you like having a second screen with your computer setup? What if your laptop could carry a second screen for you? That’s the idea behind Lenovo’s latest proof of concept, the ThinkBook Modular AI PC, announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Lenovo is never shy to show off wacky, weird concept laptops. We’ve seen a PC with a transparent screen, one with a rollable OLED screen, a swiveling screen, and another with a flippy screen. At CES earlier this year, the company showed off a gaming laptop with a display that expands at the push of a button. Sometimes,…
Honor launched its new foldable, the Honor Magic V6, with a massive 6,600 mAh battery and a new sturdy hinge ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The Chinese company has been obsessed with proving that it makes the thinnest foldables. This year’s version is 4mm thick when unfolded and 8.75 mm thick when folded. Compared to last year’s Magic V5, which was 4.1 mm thick when unfolded and 8.8 mm thick when folded. We are talking very thin shavings here, but that helps the company make those claims. The battery is possibly one of the most impressive…
Social community platform Discord is preparing to require users to verify their age by the second half of 2026, and users are concerned about the privacy of uploading a government ID or face scan to the network. While users can still access most features without verification, many remain uneasy giving more information to a company that suffered a breach last year that exposed the IDs of around 70,000 users. For some users, this is motivation enough to seek out alternative platforms that prioritize security, privacy, or simply offer a different experience. Here’s a look at the most promising Discord alternatives,…
Prediction market users have made — and profited from — big bets around the bombing of Iran by the U.S. and Israeli military. On Polymarket, $529 million was traded on contracts tied to the timing of the attack, according to Bloomberg. An analysis by analytics firm Bubblemaps SA found that six newly-created accounts made a profit of $1 million by correctly betting that the U.S. would strike Iran by February 28 — behavior that could indicate insider trading. The bets might merely reflect broader speculation about U.S. intentions in Iran, but Bubblemaps CEO Nicolas Vaiman said the circulation of information…
Investors have been pouring billions into AI companies over the past few years, as the technology continues to hold sway in the Valley and thus the world. But not all AI companies are grabbing investor attention. Indeed, even as it seems every company these days is rebranding to include “AI” in its name, some startup ideas are just no longer in favor with investors. TechCrunch spoke with VCs to learn what investors aren’t looking for in AI software-as-a-service startups anymore. Popular SaaS categories for investors now include startups building AI-native infrastructure, vertical SaaS with proprietary data, systems of action (those…
More recently, Iran has been a regular adversary in cyberspace—and while it hasn’t demonstrated quite the acuity of Russia or China, Iran is “good at finding ways to maximize the impact of their capabilities,” says Jeff Greene, the former executive assistant director of cybersecurity at CISA. Iran, in particular, famously was responsible for a series of distributed-denial-of-service attacks on Wall Street institutions that worried financial markets, and its 2012 attack on Saudi Aramco and Qatar’s Rasgas marked some of the earliest destructive infrastructure cyberattacks.Today, surely, Iran is weighing which of these tools, networks, and operatives it might press into a…
As persistent spam complaints have clouded Google’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) push in India, the company is turning to deeper carrier integration to bolster protections on the platform. On Sunday, Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator with over 463 million subscribers, said it had partnered with Google to integrate the carrier’s network-level spam filtering into the RCS ecosystem in the country. The move is aimed at strengthening protections against unwanted messages and fraud on the platform, the companies said. India has emerged as a particularly challenging market for spam and fraud across messaging channels, driven by the country’s vast mobile…
By CEO Sam Altman’s own admission, OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense was “definitely rushed,” and “the optics don’t look good.” After negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon fell through on Friday, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology after a six-month transition period, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he was designating the AI company as a supply-chain risk. Then, OpenAI quickly announced that it had reached a deal of its own for models to be deployed in classified environments. With Anthropic saying it was drawing red lines around the use of its…
The analysis company’s Commodities at Sea monitoring also recorded outbound oil and product flows averaging about 20.4 million barrels per day in February to date, slightly below January levels—evidence that geopolitical tension alone can slow shipments before any physical disruption occurs.”Hormuz risk is not only about closure but also fleet productivity. If Iran escalates by seizing tankers or using drones to threaten commercial traffic, voyage times and possibly costs for Middle East oil exports would further increase,” S&P Global CERA analysts said.Multiple shipping companies have already reported that they are avoiding the Strait of Hormuz and expect delays and rescheduling…