The Daily Carnage Show

Apple is quietly blocking ad tech companies from Safari — and the implications could extend far beyond tracking cookies.Here's what we're covering:🔒 Apple's secret blocklist: How Safari's restrictions work and which ad tech companies have been affected.📉 The impact on advertisers and publishers: Why disruptions to ad delivery and audience signals could affect campaign performance, publisher revenue, and programmatic advertising.📊 The measurement problem: Why winning an ad auction doesn't always mean an ad actually appeared on a user's screen.⚖️ Privacy vs. platform power: What happens when the company controlling the browser also operates an advertising business?🛠️ What marketers should do next: Audit your ad tech dependencies, verify campaign delivery, strengthen your first-party data strategy, and ask vendors about their contingency plans.Apple's approach raises a bigger question for the open web: How do we protect user privacy while maintaining the infrastructure that supports digital advertising?

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If AI handles the research, first drafts, reporting, keyword research, and routine execution, how are the next generation of marketers supposed to gain the experience they need to become senior marketers?

In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon explores AI’s impact on entry-level marketing jobs—and the potential talent pipeline crisis that could follow.

Companies are already hiring fewer junior employees as AI takes over foundational tasks. But those “boring” tasks are also where marketers develop judgment, critical thinking, strategic instincts, and creative voice.

So what does an entry-level marketing job look like when AI can handle much of the routine work? And how do we make sure we aren't optimizing ourselves into a future shortage of experienced marketers?

Shannon breaks down the entry-level talent crisis, the rise of AI-native marketers, the importance of mentorship and apprenticeship, and what young marketers can do to build real expertise in an AI-first world.

Brands are spending big to turn TikTok scrollers into soap opera addicts.

Microdramas — short, episodic video series built around characters, cliffhangers, romance, plot twists and ongoing stories — are becoming a serious marketing format. And brands like Crocs, JCPenney, Bilt, P&G and Dr Pepper are already experimenting with them.

But there's a big question: do microdramas actually drive business results, or are brands just buying views?

In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon breaks down the rise of branded microdramas, the biggest brand examples, how the format is different from traditional advertising, and what marketers should consider before turning their next campaign into a soap opera.

Have you worked on a microdrama or branded limited series? Let us know in the comments.

Meta just launched Muse, an AI agent designed to do more than answer your questions—it can actually take action for you.

Muse can clean out your inbox, shop for products, book travel, make reservations, fill out forms, negotiate on your behalf, and even work in the background while you're away.

But there's a catch: the more useful Muse becomes, the more access it needs to your digital life.

In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, we break down how Meta Muse works, why people are already adopting it, what information it can access, and what its rise could mean for the future of digital marketing.

Because if AI agents start doing the searching, comparing, and purchasing for consumers, marketers may have a very different problem to solve:

How do you get recommended by the AI agent instead of getting the click?

And maybe there's an even bigger question: how much of your digital life are you actually willing to outsource?

What would you let an AI agent control—your email, shopping, travel, calendar, or bank account? Where's the line? Let us know in the comments.

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AI’s biggest players want to slow down the AI race. But there’s one problem: nobody wants to lose.Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is calling for the AI industry to “pace the frontier,” arguing that AI capabilities are advancing faster than safety research can keep up. At the same time, the U.S. and China are competing for technological leadership, investors want companies to keep building, and AI infrastructure is expanding at a massive pace.So what would an AI slowdown actually look like? And can the world coordinate on AI safety when every major player has an incentive to keep moving?In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon breaks down the growing debate over AI safety, recursive self-improvement, the U.S.-China AI race, AI regulation, and the geopolitical stakes of slowing down frontier AI.

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💌  ⁠Subscribe to The Daily Carnage⁠, the marketing newsletter beloved by marketers and advertisers

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Reddit has evolved from an internet forum into an increasingly important part of the search ecosystem.

Today, Reddit threads appear in Google results, product researchers are actively adding “Reddit” to their searches, and AI platforms are pulling Reddit conversations into their answers.

So what does that mean for marketers?

In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon breaks down Reddit’s emerging role in SEO and AI visibility — and why your brand’s most influential search content may be content you don't own or control.

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💌  Subscribe to The Daily Carnage, the marketing newsletter beloved by marketers and advertisers

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What happens to video game marketing when physical media disappears? In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon sits down with Dwayne Waite Jr, Associate Director of Marketing at Schell Games, to talk about how the video game industry is changing and what marketers in every industry can learn from it. Following Sony’s announcement that it will discontinue physical production for new PlayStation games after January 2028, we dig into what the shift toward digital ownership means for game marketing, community building, creators, VR, and the customer journey. Dwayne shares how Schell Games approaches creator marketing, Reddit and community engagement, experiential marketing, VR marketing, and measuring creator campaigns—plus why he believes the gaming industry may be ahead of the broader marketing world when it comes to treating creators as business partners. We also talk about why people watch other people play video games, how creators have become part of the customer journey, why discoverability is getting harder, and what marketers outside the gaming industry can steal from gaming marketers.

What does the future of video game marketing look like when physical media starts disappearing?

On this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon Sankey talks with Dwayne Waite Jr., Associate Director of Marketing at Schell Games, about the rapidly changing world of video game marketing—and what marketers outside the gaming industry can learn from it.

They discuss Sony’s move away from physical PlayStation game production, the shift toward digital ownership, and how marketers can build demand around more than just the game itself.

Dwayne shares his perspective on creator marketing, community building, VR and experiential marketing, Reddit, AI search visibility, and the evolving gaming customer journey. He also explains how Schell Games measures creator campaigns across awareness, consideration, and conversion—and why gaming marketers may be ahead of the broader marketing industry when it comes to working with creators.

Plus: Why do people love watching other people play video games? What makes a game especially suited to creator marketing? And what can marketers in other industries steal from gaming?

Guest: Dwayne Waite Jr., Associate Director of Marketing at Schell Games
Host: Shannon Sankey, The Daily Carnage Show

#VideoGameMarketing #CreatorMarketing #GamingMarketing

Dark patterns are a UX problem—but increasingly, they’re becoming a legal one.

In this episode of The Daily Carnage Show, Shannon breaks down the growing legal scrutiny around Meta’s Facebook and Instagram products and what it could mean for marketers, designers, and anyone building digital experiences.

We’re talking about deceptive design (aka dark patterns): the interface choices that steer users toward decisions they may not have otherwise made. From pre-selected marketing permissions and difficult-to-cancel subscriptions to buried privacy settings, infinite scroll, autoplay, and misleading urgency, these tactics can shape user behavior without an outright lie.

Shannon explores:

• What dark patterns and deceptive design actually mean
• Why Meta is facing increased scrutiny over how its products are designed
• How defaults, friction, and engagement metrics influence user behavior
• Where the line between persuasion and manipulation gets blurry
• Why children and social media make these issues even more complicated
• What marketers should consider when building forms, landing pages, subscriptions, and campaigns
• How the legal landscape around digital product responsibility is changing

The takeaway? Marketing doesn’t have to stop being persuasive. But persuasion shouldn’t come at the expense of an informed choice.

🎧 Listen now—and let us know: Where do you think the line between persuasion and manipulation is?

A brand apology is a lot more than just a statement designed to respond to audience reaction, soothe the situation, and calm the backlash. The best brand apologies acknowledge what went wrong, provide specifics on how the internal process broke down, and detail the corrective actions the brand is currently taking to address it.Let's dissect some recent brand apologies from Neutrogena, Target, Good Good Golf, and Callaway to understand what worked and what backfired.