mr ivanka trump and those big fat foreign checks
i'm talking about the other Kushner brother
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Sabrina Carpenter is the new face of Prada Beauty. Apparently, she’s been trying to tell us for a while now. Juxtaposing the rise of Chappell Roan to that of Sabrina Carpenter is a fun thought experiment. Literally, I want you to Google each of them and pop over to the News tab. Do you see what I’m saying? Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter represent two sides of Gen Z pop stardom. Right now, they’re equally famous, but far from equally marketable. I’ve lost count of how many brand deals Sabrina has signed in the past few months; and I’ve lost count of how many think pieces about Chappell’s politics or relationship with her fans I’ve read in the same timeframe. I don’t even think she has any brand deals going. People always say they want celebrities to be more political, to be more values driven, more outspoken. But people say a lot of things they don’t mean. We’ve been handed these two women and get to follow their trajectories, observing how culture and Hollywood responds to them in real time. It’s an actual gift.
I need to speak to Zuck’s stylist, just to say I’m a fan. If the goal of his PR team was to get us to forget the massive fumble that was the Metaverse, I fear it’s working.
A new dating app wants to solve ghosting by making users explain why they unmatched someone before swiping again. “Users can choose from a list of reasons to explain why they decided to stop responding… After will then create a kind message and send it to the other person, and remind them that this isn’t a representation of who they are or their worth.” This is so Gen Z coded lol. Sorry, but if an app sends me an automated message saying, "We know you’ve been ghosted, here’s why. But it's not you, it's them, and remember you’re still worthy of love. Let’s try again"—I’m throwing my phone away.
Disney plans to lay off hundreds of corporate employees in the coming weeks. According to Deadline, the positions are all based in the U.S. and includes staff from the legal, HR, finance, and communications teams. The Parks, ESPN, and Disney Entertainment divisions will be unaffected. Meanwhile, Disney+ is trying to pull a Netflix by cracking down on password sharing. This strategy did wonders for Netflix’s growth; hoping it works as well for them.
I promised I wouldn’t write about Open AI this week, but alas here we are! It’s been a big media week for the company that’s set to raise the biggest venture round in history ($6.5bn and counting). First, they’re shaking off the do-gooder shackles and dropping their nonprofit status. I wrote about this before so I shan’t dwell, but by restructuring the company so that the nonprofit board loses control over the core business, OpenAI will become more attractive to potential investors. Bloomberg reported that the board is also considering giving CEO Sam Altman a 7% stake in the new for-profit entity, boosting his net worth by $10 billion. Elon Musk—being Elon Musk—responded with a series of very aggravated tweets. Someone should check on that man. He’s not the only one taking the news badly. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati resigned abruptly on Wednesday, and another top executive, Greg Brockman, has been on an unexplained leave. Open AI’s executive churn is like no other. In an all-hands meeting yesterday, Altman told the company that there are no plans for him to receive a “giant equity stake” in the company. Which should be reassuring, except the man has been known to lie.
Koch Inc.’s private equity arm is in talks to acquire Forbes in partnership with media entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia. Koch Equity Development (KED) already has some successful media investments under its belt, including its 2017 deal to back Meredith's acquisition of Time Inc. with $650 million, and its 2018 and 2019 investments in Getty Images, now worth $550 million. The deal will value Forbes at about $570 million, around 10% less than the $630 million valuation it received for its blank check merger in 2021. Puck reported that Troy Young, the former Hearst Magazines president who co-hosts one of my favorite media podcasts, People vs. Algorithms, is being positioned to run Forbes if the acquisition goes through.
CNN is planning to start paywalling its articles next month. The metered paywall will require regular users to pay after reading a set number of articles, but sources told the Times that initial pricing will be low to gauge demand. This is the first big strategic push by CNN CEO Mark Thompson, who joined the network a year ago with the remit of shoring up the business as cable television falters industrywide. Yes, CNN is the most visited news website in America, but as Oliver Darcy pointed out, its reporting is more on par with NBC News and AP—both free—and certainly not as strong as the paywalled content on The Post or The New York Times. How they plan to reconcile this, I do not know.
I’ve written a lot about Mr. Karlie Kloss, aka Joshua Kushner. Today, I want to talk about the other Kushner brother, aka Mr. Ivanka Trump. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know that Jared Kushner ran his own Miami based private equity firm, Affinity Partners. Earlier this year, the Times published a report on the firm's first three years, focusing on its investments in Belgrade, Serbia—also of interest to Donald Trump. The report triggered an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, which found that Kushner had been paid at least $112 million in fees since 2021 even though as of July Affinity Partners had not yet returned any profits. The issue here is that at least 99% of the roughly $3 billion Affinity Partners has invested came from overseas sources, including $2 billion from the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as a chunk from Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou. There’s also a fifth “mystery foreign investor” Affinity refuses to identify. Senator Ron Wyden, the committee’s chairman, said the new information only deepened his concerns that the firm’s activities creates conflicts of interest, particularly with Trump running for re-election. He, like the rest of us, is wondering why Affinity Partners has not distributed a penny of earnings back to clients. “A potential future Trump administration will have financial motives to make foreign policy decisions that may be counter to the national interest in order to ensure Kushner and Ivanka Trump continue to collect millions of dollars in fees from foreign governments through Affinity,” Wyden wrote.
Donald Trump loves GOLD, he loves DIE-MONDS! I know this because I watched the video introduction for his new line of watches—Trump Watches—priced at $100,000 each. There are only 147 available, and in the words of the man himself, owning one puts you in a “very exclusive club.” While you’re at it, you can get his NFTs and coffee table books too.
NYT Games is expanding its gaming portfolio with a sports version of “Connections.” Sports is bigger than ever; NYT Games has brought in millions of paying subscribers. Smart.
Another one of my favorite substack newsletters is launching a podcast. Madeline Hill who writes sports gossip newsletter, Impersonal Foul, is expanding the brand’s cinematic universe with a new podcast called The Sports Gossip Show. Her co-host will be Charlotte Wilder who writes the substack The Wilder Things, exploring the nature of fandom. Some of my favorite substackers like Jessica DeFino, Casey Lewis, and Hunter Harris have launched podcasts in the last year, all of which I enjoy. I’ve worked in sports my entire (3 year long) career, but still struggle to find sports media that resonates with me. There’s a few recently launched women led media properties I have my eye on, and as women’s sports becomes more mainstream, I’m really excited to see how the current sports media landscape shifts and expands accordingly.
Hearing that Megalopolis could open to a disappointing $5 million to $7 million box office debut feels wrong after reading this Francis Ford Coppola WSJ profile. “People want to see for themselves whether it’s a mess or a masterpiece,” he said, referring to all the controversies and false starts that have plagued the $120 million self-funded project till date. I keep rewatching the trailers and trying to will myself to get excited about the move. Would really love for it to not bomb.
Some people say Lana Del Rey is only a persona. Surely, the real Lizzie Grant must be different. To them I say, do you know any other celebrities dating—and potentially marrying—an alligator tour guide?! I don’t. While I was asleep, news broke that Lana and boyfriend Jeremy Dufrene had recently obtained a marriage license. DeuxMoi has some very grainy pictures of a possible engagement week. I’m so dedicated to this plot.
Update: she actually got married! In a Louisiana bayou!!! Lana Del Rey is exactly who she thinks she is.
Former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief and AirMail CEO Graydon Carter wrote a Condé Nast tell-all memoir. Definitely pre-ordering. When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines reminisces about the days of town cars, townhouses, and seven-figure expense accounts for top editors. “Only when you exit a golden age do you realize that you were in one,” Carter told The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to capture the enterprising spirit and sheer fun of those wonderful years for others.”
The cast of Apple TV’s adaptation Margo's Got Money Troubles includes some of my favorite famous blonde women. Michelle Pfeiffer’s husband, David Kelley, is adapting the project and will serve as showrunner, with A24 producing. Buying the book as soon as I finish typing this. Side note: Nicole Kidman is really getting all the work.
Blake Lively spent seven years working on her haircare line and two weeks promoting it. Which is unfortunate, because after hitting $5 million in sales in just three weeks, making it Target’s “most successful haircare launch,” Puck is now reporting that sales at Target have dropped more than 87% in the last month. “A post-launch hangover is hardly abnormal in beauty, especially in the celeb-fronted brand niche. Generally, however, the dip following a launch is 20 to 30 percent, and so the sheer size of this decline seems alarming.” The internet didn’t give Blake much of a choice about taking a social media break. It would have been ridiculous to keep promoting the brand in the face of all the It Ends With Us backlash. Still, this is a great example of why investors are so squeamish about brand-led acquisitions!
Okay, this might be the most decadent product launch I’ve seen in a while. Or ever, honestly. I wonder what the ROI on these massive launch events are. Still holding out for some solid reviews of Glossier You Rêve + Doux, but in the meantime, I very much want this chrome candle and lighter set they just came out with.
Plastic surgery is apparently tearing friend groups apart.This Dazed article was very strange to read because the gist was essentially, my old friends are jealous of me now that I’m hotter. I mean, maybe. But I swear there are more interesting angles to this conversation.
All that prebiotic soda is probably causing your smelly farts. You’re welcome.
On today’s episode of disappointing, but not surprising, Naomi Campbell has been barred from being a charity trustee after an investigation uncovered evidence of financial misconduct. Over a five-year period from 2016, Naomi’s charity, Fashion for Relief, raised just under £4.8m from a series of fashion shows but paid out only £389,000 in grants to partner charities. Tens of thousands of pounds were spent on luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal security and (crying!) cigarettes for Naomi. She’s barred for five years, should probably stay away for good.
Every tech company is becoming an AI company faster than every company became a web3 company. (Honestly, web3 feels like a fever dream.) I write a lot about these companies and am always looking out for people doing the same. I love Kira Klaas’ substack, On Brand, and after reading her post on AI branding, I reached out to chat about some of the stuff she had written about. Like, what’s the deal with the sparkles✨? Kira is the former Global Head of Brand & Integrated Marketing at Notion, Director of Brand at Brex, and a former brand marketer at Gusto & Redbubble. She recently started a new role as VP of Corporate Marketing at Later.
Does AI scare you?
No. What concerns me is how people might misuse it. We're already seeing issues with deepfakes (now completely realistic and easy to produce) and extreme content generation. The ease of creating convincing scams at scale is worrying. I'm hopeful that the positive benefits, like advancements in clean energy and information access, will outweigh the negatives in the long run. But we can't ignore the very real risks and need for responsible development and use of AI.
You’ve worked at Brex, Gusto and Notion. How are tech companies marketing AI right now?
I've noticed a divide in how companies are marketing AI. So many are going all-in with "AI-powered" messaging, while others are quietly improving their products without the buzzwords. The initial novelty of AI-first marketing has worn off. I think companies focusing on making your user look good, rather than just throwing around "AI" everywhere, will be more successful in the long run.
What’s working and what’s not? Who’s doing it well?
For AI-centric products like Claude or Writer, differentiation is key. They need to emphasize their unique approach or specialization. For companies marketing AI features, it's about considering whether users really care about the "how" behind the improvements. Sometimes it's smarter to stick to the value props you know your audience cares about. It's still early days—some companies who appear to be crushing it now might become commodities tomorrow and fall short of the big revenue or exits we typically use to measure success.
Either way, solid brand principles haven't changed much, even with AI in the mix.
A lot of AI campaigns aren’t landing—HumaneAI, Friend, Google Gemini—why do you think that is?
I see a lot of AI campaigns failing because they're obsessed with the tech and not focused enough on utility. They often don't acknowledge people's underlying emotions about AI—the fear, mistrust, and skepticism. To succeed, companies need to create psychological safety and show how AI fits into people's lives. It's not just about the cool/novelty factor; it's about addressing real concerns and demonstrating genuine value.
I think people have a very different relationship to AI used for productivity vs AI used for creative processes or social interactions. Is this something you’re also seeing?
Definitely. Productivity tools often feel more like support than replacement, which can be more comfortable for our sense of self. Creative AI tools, on the other hand, can challenge our notions of authorship and artistic identity. Social AI tools, today, feel inauthentic. It's a complex issue, though I think our perceptions will shift dramatically as AI becomes more mainstream.
I don’t think anyone is going to care that tech products are AI enabled in like 5 years because everything will be. Thoughts?
I believe AI will become so ubiquitous that explicitly mentioning it will feel unnecessary in a few years. It'll be integrated into everything, like "digital" or "smart" are now. The successful AI brands of the future will likely focus on user empowerment and ethical considerations rather than just touting the technology. If you're already thinking this way, you're ahead of the curve.
see you Monday. XO
🔥🔥🔥 roll into the weekend with as seen on 🙌🏽 #hitseverytime
Loved the interview at the end! Great job Ochuko :)