Episode · 2026-06-05
New York's AI Ad Crackdown
New York's AI Ad Crackdown | Icon's Pivot | Yap Ad Format is Dying?
Rundown
Chris and Colin dig into New York's new law requiring disclosure of AI-generated ad content and the liability risk it creates for brands and agencies, then cover UGC platform Icon's pivot back to human-shot creator content after going all-in on AI UGC. The show also touches on the fading 'yap' content format, a creator using his own 6,000-acre ranch for unrestricted content, Google search strategy, post-purchase surveys, and a profit-first philosophy with guests Alex and Alicia.
Takes from this episode
New York's AI-ad-disclosure law creates existential financial risk for cash-strapped DTC brands if their agency runs improperly labeled AI-generated creative.
if a D2C cash-strapped, cash-flowing, profit-first, forward company gets one of these because their agency happened to keep running with some creative that should have been labeled, etc., then that could mean taking some businesses out
Whether an agency is already complying with AI-labeling rules is a real litmus test of agency quality, and brands shouldn't have to absorb the cost of an agency's compliance mistakes.
it's a great way to find out if your agency is actually good or not, is if they know and are executing on this. And if they're not and you get a fine, that should be immediately passed to them. You as the brand should not be in charge of covering for their mistakes
The rage-bait 'yapper' content format is running out of road because the quality of takes has gotten so bad that it may need a correction, even though it's still fun for now.Prediction
we might need to like potentially figure something out here cuz people can't just keep having these kind of takes... I'm ready for the next format
Owning your own large property gives a creator total creative freedom to produce extreme content without location or permission constraints, which benefits both the creator and brands working with him.
it gives these guys, the creators and brands a freedom of like, well, you can't really tell me what to do on my own property for content
Ecommerce brands should fully saturate existing non-brand Google Shopping and search demand before expanding into demand-generation channels like YouTube.
the number one thing you should do if you're an e-commerce brand is soak up all the saturation of search demand that's out there with your shopping and search campaigns and then you move to opening up these other channels
The DTC industry is healthily moving away from a pure ROAS-driven marketing model toward a profit-first approach.
I feel like we're doing really good as an industry to shift out of this ROAS model