It seems like everyone’s a founder these days, but not all founders are writing novels in their spare time. PJ Pereira is.

Pereira, founder and creative chairman of ad agency Pereira O’Dell, started studying AI about seven or eight years ago, he told us, with the intention of writing a book about it. It became clear to him even back then that the tech was “going to transform the agency business,” he said.

His research on AI from both a fictional and real-world perspective has given him a unique take on the topic—or takes, plural, considering he has different philosophies on its future.

“There’s a lot of fiction and reality [content] on AI, and I’ve been dabbling with both,” Pereira told Marketing Brew. “The fact that I’m both an executive and a writer allows me to fearlessly dive into both with no prejudice. Because fiction is drama, people read the fiction and get afraid, and they don’t go into the reality of it and the professional side of it.”

Meanwhile, professionals can “ignore the fears” and “become irresponsible” with AI, he said. “I think it’s actually important that we look at both sides without prejudice, without anything. Don’t rush to form an opinion.”

Continue reading here.—AM

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Google is stepping up AI regulation ahead of next year’s presidential election in the US.

Political ads will be required to disclose when they feature “synthetic” content, such as AI-generated visuals or sounds, per an update to the company’s political content policy.

According to the policy, which will roll out in November, advertising that “inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events” will need to disclose that it’s been synthetically altered in a “clear and conspicuous” fashion “where it is likely to be noticed” by viewers. The update applies to audio, image, and video advertising across Google’s platforms, ad display network, and YouTube.

Synthetic content that has been edited in ways “inconsequential to the claims made in the ad,” such as image cropping or color correction, will be exempt from the disclosures.

Some AI-generated content has already appeared in political ads ahead of next year’s presidential election. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign posted a video on X that appeared to include AI-generated deepfakes earlier this year, while the Republican National Committee released an ad that was “built entirely with AI imagery,” per an on-screen disclaimer.

The update to Google’s policy comes after the Federal Election Commission began exploring regulation of AI-generated deepfakes in political ads. In July, Google was one of a handful of tech companies—including Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI—to agree to AI safeguards proposed by the Biden administration.—JS

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

Kerry Bennett is marketing partner at Upfront Ventures, a VC firm based in LA that specializes in technology businesses.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I don’t think traditional advertising is all that interesting anymore—even the concept of a Super Bowl ad feels outdated and bloated. I’m much more compelled by holistic efforts; here in LA, Angel City Football Club has done an incredible job at building a brand with and through its passionate community, not on top of it. Every touchpoint, from social to merch to events to content to comms to mission, feels authentic and fresh.

That said, I think this summer’s Barbie movie blitz is the most delightful old-school campaign, in the best possible way. A real-life Barbie dream house? C’mon! The marketing is so fun, so over-the-top, and so dialed in.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? I’m a real introvert whose favorite pastime is reading. Last year, I read 147 books, virtually none of which were about business or marketing.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m actually really interested in the trend toward smaller in-house marketing teams with external partners. Unlike almost any other team in the org, great marketing specialists aren’t interchangeable; a full-stack dev can work on most any product, but you can’t swap your editorial lead for your growth lead—at least not successfully.

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

Put it in perspective: These search advertising benchmarks can help you analyze metrics like clickthrough rate and cost-per-acquisition.

Up to speed: Digiday put together an advertiser’s guide to the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google, which begins today.

Lemme search it: An overview of social media search, including optimization tips.

Table for views: Cooking up an influencer marketing strategy for your restaurant? Learn about the pair of apps streamlining influencer marketing in hospitality, sponsored by Tagger.*

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• J.M. Smucker acquired Hostess Brands in a $5.6 billion cash-and-stock deal that will put brands like Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee into the same portfolio as Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, and Twinkies.
• Babybel cheese and Candy Land teamed up on a sweepstakes for a limited-edition cheese-themed version of the Hasbro board game.
• Disney and Charter reached a carriage deal to bring channels like ESPN and ABC back to around 15 million households after an extended blackout.