Advertising & PR
Where the money goes, who moves it, and what happens when a brand’s story gets away from it.
Advertising and PR follows the spend and the reputation it buys. Ad budgets and media buying, agency news, programmatic, and crisis and reputation are the beats, and the Funny lane keeps the campaigns that earned a laugh. Three stories each weekday at 11, summarised in our own words with a link to the publisher who broke them. We choose for the reader who plans, buys or defends: the head of media watching a platform change its rules, the agency lead deciding which team owns a new channel, the communications director reading someone else’s crisis for the lesson. Under the day’s lead the editor’s note explains the choice and names the thing to watch. Sponsors and advertisers on The First Click are disclosed on every story they touch and have no say in this page.
Every story we have kept in Advertising & PR, newest first. Headlines link to the publisher; the tags below narrow the list.
The Scoop: DoorDash bluntly admits ‘we screwed up’ in $131.5 million settlement
DoorDash agreed to a $131.5 million settlement with New York City over wrongfully underpaying delivery workers due to operational errors, the company admitted.
The Scoop: 3 national news outlets sue after being denied access to the White House
CNN, Politico and MS NOW filed suit after the White House revoked their journalists' press credentials without explanation, alleging retaliation for critical coverage and violation of due process protections.
Editor's notePress-credential fights usually stay procedural, which is why this one matters: three outlets going to court together turns an access dispute into a due-process record. For communicators the practical read is that White House access can no longer be assumed in a plan. Build briefings that survive losing the room.
What we’ve learned from the creator snafus at this year’s US Open
Credentialed creators disrupted play at the 2026 US Open, including flash photography during Naomi Osaka's match, prompting USTA scrutiny; marketers say better credentialing and briefing are needed.
Editor's noteCreator credentialing has been a quiet operational detail for years. It stopped being quiet when a flash went off during a point at a grand slam. The lesson brands should take is not that creators are a liability, but that nobody briefed them, and briefing is cheap.
BMW's controversial Spider-Man advert could be even more damaging than the Jaguar rebrand
BMW's Spider-Man advertisement draws criticism and comparison to Jaguar's recent rebrand controversy, with both facing customer backlash over surprising creative decisions.
Editor's noteTwo premium brands, two creative decisions that surprised their own customers, and a comparison that is fairer than it looks. Jaguar changed its identity; BMW borrowed someone else’s. We led with it because the second mistake is easier to make and harder to notice from inside a marketing department. Watch the dealer reaction.
