The New Attribution
Kraft Heinz owns iconic American grocery brands – but it’s in a slump. Now it’s betting on new marketing flagships for a turnaround.
To that end, the company signed a multiyear deal with Disney to put its food inside Disney parks, resorts and cruises, while also securing the right to use Disney characters and storylines in its own marketing, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Kraft Heinz has been down this road before – with mixed results. Heinz is still smarting from losing its place as McDonald’s default ketchup provider after the chain brought ketchup in-house in 2013.
But this latest round of deals is more ambitious. They include co-produced Disney streaming content, as well as product integrations. Jet-Puffed brand marshmallows, for instance, is cited by Nicolas Amaya, head of Kraft Heinz’s North American business, as a product that’s practically crying out for a tie-in with Olaf, the snowman from the Frozen movies.
Meanwhile, in other news, Kraft Heinz recently landed a similar deal with the NFL, making it the condiment provider in stadiums in exchange for use of NFL imagery in its marketing.
According to Steve Cahillane, who took over as Kraft Heinz CEO in January, more and more food trends are being driven by entertainment – from TikTok, streaming shows and YouTube to in-restaurant creations like Taco Bell’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast.
“A lot of the things that happen here actually translate to retail,” Cahillane says.
Bill Of Rights
US law prohibits government agencies from compelling companies to share location data on Americans for the purpose of surveillance.
In 2018, the Supreme Court found that a week’s worth of location data from cellphone towers is “deterministic” enough – as in, specific enough to identify an individual – and so law enforcement needs a probable-cause warrant to compel a telecom provider to release it. In a separate 2026 case, the Supreme Court extended that ruling to cover location data from even short time spans.
But while forcing a business to release location data is illegal without a warrant, simply buying that data from a commercial brokerage is apparently A-OK. And the growing use of AI tools that can find connections across commercial data sets is a threat to the privacy rights of Americans, according to Just Security, a journal published by the NYU School of Law.
For example, government agencies can use AI tech to construct timelines for an individual’s movements and draw conclusions about their political affiliations without running afoul of the law. Problem is, although AI outputs are far from foolproof, officials may still overrely on them and use them as the basis for legal action – a textbook case of automation bias.
It’s an interesting twist on the ad industry’s “value proposition” for data sharing. But behind the promise of better ad targeting is a trade-off most people never see – their basic freedoms on offer to the highest bidder.
That’s CapGPT
Analysts aren’t buying OpenAI’s lofty and self-imposed revenue goals.
After launching ChatGPT ads in February, OpenAI said it expects to see ad revenue spike from $2.4 billion this year to $100 billion by 2030. On paper, that kind of growth makes chatbot ads look like a big, inevitable market. But analysts are calling B.S.
“I don’t think there’s any chance they hit that goal,” eMarketer Analyst Nate Elliott tells Business Insider. For context, OpenAI’s eye-popping $100 billion prediction far surpasses eMarketer’s forecast for the entire US chatbot ad market in 2030, which is just $5.4 billion. For OpenAI to come even close to its goal, Elliott says, it would require steep pricing, an “unbearably” high ad load and other drastic measures.
While it does make sense for OpenAI to aggressively push its new advertising biz, a slick sales pitch to marketers isn’t enough to move media dollars. Brands also need to see ad capabilities that are better than basic.
To its credit, OpenAI introduced location-based targeting in the US this month so marketers can tailor their ads to particular regions. But the company has a long way to go to satisfy marketers.
And, hey, it isn’t easy building an ads business from scratch for a media environment where ad intolerance is notably high. Just ask Netflix.
But Wait! There’s More!
Apple is showing renewed interest in growing its ads business. [Digiday]
And in other Apple news, the company fixed a vulnerability in its Hide My Email feature that could be used to reveal a user’s email address. Despite Apple reportedly knowing about the vulnerability for a year, the issue was only addressed after being exposed by reporters. [404 Media]
Anti-AI sentiment is on the rise, and businesses should take note. [WSJ]
Meta uses an AI tool to flag fraudulent or inappropriate Instagram and Facebook accounts – but the results aren’t always accurate. [NYT]
German snack company Intersnack Group acquires Utz for roughly $2.9 billion. [release]
You’re Hired!
Paint brand Behr promotes Andy Lopez to CMO. [Adweek]
VideoAmp hires former T-Mobile and WBD exec Andrea Zapata as SVP of agency partnerships. [Variety]
Thomas Morningstar joins Dentsu-owned agency Carat as EVP and head of activation. [LinkedIn]
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