ChatGPT uninstalls surged 295% after the Department of Defense deal, the Pope told priests to stop using AI for sermons, and Netflix just opened its ad inventory to Amazon audiences. We break down all of it. Disney/Hulu's marketing mess, Claude's new community ambassadors program, Timothée Chalamet's hot take on ballet and opera becoming irrelevant, and Twitter's new exclusive threads feature.

Plus filmmaker Nina Lee (@NinaSerafina) joins to go deep on the Sinners marketing campaign, from Ryan Coogler's viral IMAX/Kodak video to fan cams, crew spotlights, and the social strategy behind one of the year's biggest films.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

00:16 ChatGPT uninstalls surge + the Pope vs. AI sermons

02:43 Netflix opens ad inventory to Amazon audiences

04:29 Disney/Hulu marketing problems and new CEO

06:32 Claude's Ambassador Program and organic growth strategy

18:28 Timothée Chalamet vs. ballet and opera / Marty Supreme campaign

30:58 Twitter exclusive threads and creator monetization

38:30 Sinners marketing deep dive with Nina Lee

1:00:19 Outro

ABOUT THE GUEST Nina Lee is an award-winning filmmaker and social media strategist who worked on campaigns for Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler) and HBO Max. Find her on Twitter @NinaSerafina and Instagram @NinaSerafinaaaa.

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW YouTube: @MemeTeamPod Spotify & TikTok: @MemeTeamPodcast Host Sonia Baschez: @soniabaschez everywhere.

The McDonald's CEO posted a video eating the Big Arch burger and couldn't bring himself to swallow it. Sam Altman publicly backed Anthropic's stance against the Department of War, then swooped in to take the same contract hours later. And Friend AI released an ad so bleak it made loneliness look like a feature. This week was rough for brands.

Sonia Baschez and guest Nic Allum (founder/CEO of Cultureland, an LA-based cultural strategy consultancy) break down five marketing moments that went sideways, what went wrong in each case, and the lessons brands should actually take from them.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro + Friend AI necklace ad controversy

5:30 OpenAI vs Anthropic: the Department of War contract and 1.5M user exodus

18:00 AMC Theatres premium seating backlash and the future of cinemas

32:00 McDonald's CEO Big Arch burger video fail (vs. Burger King's response)

42:00 H&M "New York" campaign: multi-generational casting and what's missing

49:30 Key takeaways and lessons for marketers

About the guest: Nic Allum is the founder and CEO of Cultureland, a cultural strategy consultancy based in Los Angeles that helps brands understand and connect with cultural moments.

Subscribe to The Meme Team Podcast for weekly breakdowns of the marketing strategies creating breakout cultural moments.

Connect with Nic Allum: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nicallum | Substack: cultureland.substack.com Connect with Sonia Baschez: @SoniaBaschez everywhere | @MemeTeamPod on YouTube | @MemeTeamPodcast on Spotify and TikTok

ChatGPT launched ads this week and they're underwhelming. No personalized targeting, no memory integration, just basic in-line search ads that feel like Google in the 90s. Meanwhile, OpenClaw is setting the internet on fire as the first AI agent that actually works—controlling your browser, joining meetings, managing calendars, and doing everything a computer can do autonomously. Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, it's the most famous open source project of all time with 200,000 GitHub stars and sparked a bidding war between Meta and OpenAI. It's getting normies excited about AI in a way nothing else has, with people buying Mac minis and naming them like employees.

We're talking about:

• ChatGPT ads: Why they're underwhelming, lack of memory integration, missing personalization opportunities, and how they compare to Facebook's data trove

• F1's Netflix crossover: Damson Idris (star of the F1 movie) appearing in the Driver to Survive promo, Apple taking over F1 broadcasting, and Carlos Sainz acknowledging Thea (the girl who created Sparkles the unicorn mascot)

• Google Pomelli Photo Shoot: AI tool turning basic product photos into studio-quality marketing images, targeting e-commerce sellers, integrating with Google Ads and Merchant Center, and competing with Amazon and Shopify

• Why AI product photography risks: Reverting to the mean, losing brand differentiation, DoorDash's AI food photos looking too clean, and why craft + prompting beats automation alone

• Real estate using AI: Justine Moore's observation that realtors are early adopters, creating multiple views of homes (day/night/sunset/party mode), and why it works (showing aspirational living without hiring drone operators)

• OpenClaw phenomenon: Austrian developer Peter Ticksteinberger's open source AI agent, 200,000 GitHub stars, bidding war between Meta and OpenAI, normies buying Mac minis as "employees," and why it's the first AI tool exciting people outside the tech bubble

• How OpenClaw works: Persistent memory across conversations, soul.md and identity files for customization, integrations with Slack/WhatsApp/Telegram/Gmail, and why it's a chief of staff + EA + COO combined

• Designing for agents vs humans: Websites optimized for AI scraping (pricing, specs, structured data) vs brand storytelling, billboards becoming prompts for humans to prompt their agents, and why real-world activations (Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup) will matter more

• Spotify's Bad Bunny Billions Club Live: Invite-only Tokyo show for top listeners, leveraging Bad Bunny's 28 tracks in the Billions Club, rewarding actual fans instead of gating for clout, and why more brands should use their CRM data this way

• CRM data goldmines: Banks, cable companies, phone companies rewarding new customers over loyal ones, why discount codes only support churners or new users, and flipping the model to reward top fans with exclusive experiences

• AMC AI film controversy: Igor Farov's Thanksgiving short made with Gemini Nano Banana Pro, Screen Vision competition, backlash over AI-generated work in cinemas, and the craft vs livelihood debate (echoes of Snow White in 1937, animation not in Oscars until 2002, Luddites protecting livelihoods not rejecting technology)

• Sam Altman's bad week: Responding to Anthropic's Super Bowl ad with an essay (if you're explaining you're losing), saying humans need training too (tone-deaf in America), and why OpenAI needs a designated hater

• The designated hater thesis: Every company needs someone independent and well-paid whose only job is to say "do not release that crap" (McDonald's AI Christmas ad, Coca-Cola AI disaster, Mount Rushmore metaphor)