Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Thursday, March 30:
Today we’ve got a lot of questions: How much is Donald Trump really worth? Lawmakers in 24 states have a plan that might help us finally figure that out. (See No. 6, below.) How much is Jeff Bezos worth? (See No. 1.) What has Elon Musk been feeding his unicorn? (See No. 4.) Should Congress pass a law “allowing traffic jams to call you during dinner to give you gonorrhea”? (See No. 7.) And so on! Anyway, let’s get started …
1. It’s official: “Jeff Bezos is second-richest person in world — behind Bill Gates,” per The Seattle Times.
2. The big story on the front page of USA Today — the newspaper you glance at when you’re at a Radisson hotel on a business trip you wish you weren’t on — this morning: “Travel ban could cost $18B in tourism.” Per the paper’s Bart Jansen:
President Trump’s temporary travel ban and an inhospitable political climate could punch an $18 billion hole in U.S. tourism by international visitors over the next two years, projections by travel analysts show. Foreign tourism is a $250 billion-a-year business in the United States, and Trump’s original and revised executive orders temporarily banning travel from majority Muslim countries — put on hold by federal courts — have dampened interest worldwide in visiting the U.S., travel and tourism executives told USA Today.
3. An intriguing story by Sapna Maheshwari headlined “A Bank Had Ads on 400,000 Sites. Then Just 5,000. Same Results” (web version: “Chase Had Ads on 400,000 Sites. Then on Just 5,000. Same Results”) fronts the business section of this morning’s New York Times. Maheshwari’s report begins,
As of a few weeks ago, advertisements for JPMorgan Chase were appearing on about 400,000 websites a month. It is the sort of eye-popping number that has become the norm these days for big companies that use automated tools to reach consumers online. Now, as more and more brands find their ads popping up next to toxic content like fake news sites or offensive YouTube videos, JPMorgan has limited its display ads to about 5,000 websites it has preapproved, said Kristin Lemkau, the bank’s chief marketing officer. Surprisingly, the company is seeing little change in the cost of impressions or the visibility of its ads on the internet, she said.
4. An important bit of news from the Twittersphere: Last night Elon Musk shared his drawings of a flatulent unicorn and a miserable Mona Lisa (to show off the hidden sketch pad feature on the touch screens in Tesla cars):
Made today on Tesla sketch pad pic.twitter.com/Z8dFP2NN41
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2017
5. Elsewhere on Twitter, ICYMI, Bernie Sanders has released a snappy little video:
Trump’s position on climate change is pathetic and an embarrassment to the world. pic.twitter.com/K2bspoh28D
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 29, 2017
6. Gosh, this could get interesting. In a Politico Magazine story headlined “How States Could Force Trump to Release His Tax Returns” that went live on Politico.com this morning, Richard L. Hasen writes,
[A] band of state lawmakers is attempting to succeed where so many others have failed. In at least 24 states, legislators have introduced bills that would force Trump (and all other presidential candidates) to disclose their tax returns in order to qualify for their states’ ballots in 2020.
7. And finally, on the “Late Show” last night, Stephen Colbert took on Congress for rolling back planned internet privacy protections: “I can’t believe they’re publicly taking the side of big internet cable companies. Taking the side of a cable company? The only thing less popular would be if they passed a bill allowing traffic jams to call you during dinner to give you gonorrhea.”
Simon Dumenco, aka Media Guy, is an Ad Age editor-at-large. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.
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