Ever wondered if your favorite podcast host really made the HelloFresh meal they’re gushing about, or actually slept on the $2,000 mattress they claim fixed their back problems?

In the world of podcasting, personal endorsements via host-read ads are everywhere. And they seemingly haven’t been subject to much regulatory scrutiny: To date, the FTC has never sent warning letters or handled cases involving podcast ads, according to spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Henderson. It also doesn’t comment on “investigatory targets,” she wrote in an email to Marketing Brew, so it’s hard to tell if podcast advertising will eventually be subjected to more scrutiny.

The agency has, however, rubbed elbows with the audio world:

• In 2021, it sent a “Notice of Penalty Offenses” to hundreds of companies, including iHeartMedia, SiriusXM, and Stitcher, to warn them against using “endorsements to deceive consumers.”
• Late last year, it reached a settlement with Google and iHeart involving on-air radio personalities who allegedly made “deceptive endorsements” on the radio.
• Though the FTC’s guidelines for endorsements and testimonials in advertising don’t mention podcasts, the agency proposed a change last May that if approved, would add an example concerning a podcast host related to disclosing material connections.

Big picture: Between these developments, and the fact that several celebrities have recently been in hot water over allegedly unlawful or misleading ads, some in the podcast industry are on alert to make sure brands and hosts are acting within bounds.

Keep reading here.—AM

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Patrick Holly is executive creative director at freelancing platform Upwork. Throughout his career, he’s held creative roles at companies including Harley-Davidson, Uber, and Apple.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? It’s a tie between our most recent brand campaign, “This Is How We Work Now,” and “The No-Show,” a Covid relief Instagram motorcycle show we did at Harley Davidson.

A declarative statement of a new reality, “This Is How We Work Now” encourages viewers to reinvent the way they work as the world around them changes. It launched in October and introduced a new tone for our brand, marking a major shift from Upwork’s flagship campaign in 2021. The central spot is a two-minute musical, wherein a CEO named Jack McDichael rises from the grave to share his realization that, just because the old rules of work were a good idea in the past, it doesn’t mean they serve the needs of businesses and workers today.

Before Upwork, I was at Harley-Davidson as global brand director for over a year. During lockdown, we wanted to get creative around how to engage motorcycle enthusiasts and rally them around our brand. We landed on a week-long, Instagram-based custom motorcycle show. With more than 60 builds from 10 countries, many builders displayed bikes from postponed events like Mama Tried, Born-Free, and The Congregation vintage car and bike shows, providing them some recognition for their hard work despite the state of the world at the time.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least?

I’m optimistic about the trend of letting the idea shine and going for impact over just making a beautiful, shiny object. The Tito’s canned-cocktail campaign that launched back in August exemplifies this shift perfectly. It lets the creativity and message shine and pokes fun at how the canned-cocktail craze leads to creative work that often gets lost in the sauce of highly produced spots and celebrity partnerships.

I’m less optimistic about how certain brands are approaching social-impact efforts. It feels like more and more folks are making ads about causes or cultural issues without finding a way to put their money where their ads are. I’d love to see more of a shift toward brands contributing to those causes and creating value for others as a result. The gold standard of this work can be found in the form of REI’s #OptOutside or Patagonia suing the president. It seems like a lot of great work being done in the great outdoors.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? As a writer, I’m a sucker for well-executed long-form copy. While it’s a rarity these days, this kind of writing had its heyday in the car ads of old. One of my favorite things to do is scroll through @MakeCarAdsGreatAgain to find some gems from yesteryear.

TikTok subculture DermTok has given makeovers a makeover, ditching frizzy hair-straightening and bushy eyebrow-plucking for the clearing of severe acne, wrinkles, or eczema.

Murad, the over 30-year-old Unilever-owned skin care brand, has found a new life on TikTok by leaning into this “real explosion and interest in dermatologist-based services,” according to CEO Paul Schiraldi, a beauty industry vet who spent 17+ years at L’Oréal and joined Murad from fellow Unilever brand Dermalogica in 2021.

• The company was founded in 1989 by pharmacist and board-certified dermatologist Dr. Howard Murad.

Its recent product launches have lent themselves to a more visual before-and-after experience that its previous skin care products didn’t always offer. Its Targeted Wrinkle Corrector (TWC)—an “instant filler” for wrinkles that the company claims creates an effect similar to Botox “without being so invasive,” according to Schiraldi, debuted in December—followed by a cystic acne treatment called Deep Relief Acne Treatment in July. Read the full story from Retail Brew here.—EC

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Drab to fab: Design tips to help your posts stand out in the endless scroll.

Maybe, maybe not: Here are some factors to consider when evaluating potential programmatic partnerships.

Just don’t: Print out these tried-and-true dos and don’ts of social media and laminate them to keep on your desk—or get them tattooed onto your arm.

The royal oui: Looking to translate its luxury brand to younger shoppers, storied French jeweler and watchmaker Cartier selected a winning student marketing campaign from the Design Management & Communications master’s program at Georgetown University. Learn more.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

We’re sending a token of appreciation to our beloved marketing community this Valentine’s Day: Enjoy exclusive, all-star content from The Brief through our On Demand resource!

Don’t know where to start? Check out McDonald’s Secret Marketing Sauce, a sit-down convo with the fast-food giant’s Jennifer Healan (vice president of US Marketing, Brand Content, and Engagement) and Wieden+Kennedy NY Managing Director Brandon Pracht. Learn how to inspire cultural shifts and challenge your peers to show up.

Find it all here.

Apple officially took over as sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday night after Pepsi held the rights for a decade. Which brand sponsored the halftime show prior to Pepsi’s 10-year reign?

1. Bridgestone
2. Progressive
3. Oscar Meyer
4. E-Trade

Keep scrolling for the answer.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• How an intern helped the Savannah Bananas become TikTok famous
• During big moments like the Super Bowl, brands don’t always want to go it alone
• Why the fractional CMO position seems to be catching on