Vincent van Gogh had his stars, Claude Monet had his water lilies, and Noah Verrier has his snacks.

Verrier’s still-life oil paintings often center around everyday food and beverage items, like burgers and light beers, and posts of his paintings frequently go viral on platforms like X, Instagram, and Reddit. In recent weeks, paintings featuring pairings like “Wine and Dino Nuggs” or “Espresso Martini and Uncrustable” have performed particularly well.

“There’s a little bit of comedy in it, and it’s kind of funny,” Verrier said of his painting style, which he described as “highbrow-lowbrow.” “I tend to like the more funny, serious-but-not-serious subjects.”

Those serious-but-not-serious subjects often feature packaging and logos front and center. Smucker’s, the maker of Uncrustables, was not involved in his Uncrustable painting, Verrier told us, but he has worked with brands over the years. His first official collaboration was with Popeyes in 2022, and since then, he’s worked with other brands like Cinnabon, Dunkin’, Little Caesars, Olipop, Reddi-wip, and Slim Jim.

While he relies on collaborations for part of his income as a full-time painter, Verrier told us that he doesn’t think about potential deals when coming up with subject-matter ideas.

“You don’t want to go down a road where you put yourself in a trap and now you’re creating things you don’t like,” he said. “I’ve always tried to be authentic with the things I’ve done and pick the things that are the most fun to see where it goes.”

Continue reading here.—KH

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The kids ain’t alright—or at least, advertising to the kids might not be.

This week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed two bills that could affect how advertisers interact with children online, if they become law.

Minor threat: The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), an updated version of the 1998 bill of the same name, would effectively ban targeted advertising to and collecting personal information on anyone under the age of 17. It would also allow parents to delete any personal information a company may have collected about their child. Contextual advertising, though, would still be allowed.

Meanwhile, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would require tech companies to take “reasonable measures” to mitigate harms against minors, including cyberbullying and mental health conditions like eating disorders and depression.

What exactly is considered a “harm” has been hotly debated, as opponents of the bill, including the ACLU and LGBTQ groups, have raised concerns that it could be used to police and censor online content.

“An attorney general can simply argue, ‘I believe that LGBTQ content makes kids depressed, or makes kids anxious,’” Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy nonprofit Fight for the Future, told Marketing Brew last year when KOSA was gaining steam.

Though its future in the House is uncertain, President Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled that he supports strengthening privacy protections for children. After the bills passed, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is currently mounting her own presidential campaign, voiced support for the legislation.

Read more here.—RB

Reddit is acquiring the ad creative optimization company Memorable AI in a bid to give advertisers more tools on its ad-supported platform, the company announced on Thursday.

As part of the acquisition, advertisers on Reddit can use Memorable AI’s tech, which uses AI to help advertisers plan and optimize creative assets for their campaigns. According to Memorable AI’s website, advertisers including L’Oréal and Unilever have used the platform in the past.

The acquisition could bolster Reddit’s pitch to performance-oriented advertisers, which COO Jen Wong recently said was a focus for the company.

“This acquisition allows Reddit to accelerate our work in optimizing, generating, and selecting ad creative to deliver even better results for advertisers,” Wong said in a press release.

So what? Since going public in March, Reddit is getting serious about its advertising business. The platform, which is competing against established advertising giants like Facebook and fast-growing platforms like TikTok, recently struck a number of partnerships with advertising vendors to bolster its offerings to brands. In June, the company inked deals with brand safety vendors Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify in an effort to alleviate long-standing brand safety concerns about the platform.

Read more here.—RB

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Stories we’re jealous of.

• The Atlantic wrote about AI-powered search engines, generative AI’s reliance on journalism, and the future of sponsored search results.
• The New York Times wrote about Brat green and why the chartreuse color seems to be everywhere this summer.
• Bloomberg explored the marketing behind indie movies like Longlegs.