This week, I'm trying something a little different. Same data, same trackers, but instead of leading with what's hot this week in the market, I wanted to sit with one trend a bit longer and write through it. If it resonates, let me know. Feedback genuinely shapes how this newsletter can evolve.

For over two years, AI has trickled, then flooded into media ad buys. It’s taken over copy for SaaS companies, and financial institutions followed. Somewhere along the way, every other HPTO became a variation of “our AI agent will 5X your team’s revenue.”

This week, both Anthropic and Legora (a new sponsor within the space) ran HPTOs, and while they're both AI companies, the way they showed up couldn't be more different. Legora took a more straightforward route, promoting their product as a service, speaking directly to lawyers and making AI feel like an attractive club to join. Anthropic, on the other hand, isn't selling their product directly. We've touched on Anthropic's growing ad presence in past issues, but this week felt worth a deeper look because the strategy has become hard to ignore. They've been running campaigns the past few months focusing on how AI is accelerating science, and their latest, running this week, is on the economic impact of AI and the broader good they believe they're contributing to. It's the same playbook we've come to know from Meta, Google, and Amazon, and with 11 newsletter sponsorships tracked this month alone across policy-facing outlets, it's clearly an intentional one.

What Anthropic seems to understand is that public approval is its own kind of currency. The more people and policymakers associate the company with positive outcomes, the less friction there is down the road. They watched what other tech giants were slow to prioritize and appear to be getting ahead of it. At the end of the day, it's a smart long game.

Ads across the web this week

• Tech: Anthropic (Politico), Meta (Axios), Meta (Politico, Axios), Box (Forbes), Uber (Axios)

• Business/Finance: Legora (NYTimes, Fortune, WSJ), Vanguard (WSJ), CLA Global (Forbes), PwC (WashPo), CFP (Forbes), New York Life (Bloomberg), FTI Consulting (WSJ), ZS (Forbes), U.S. Bank (Puck), Jobs Ohio (Fortune), CoinShares (Bloomberg)

• Healthcare: Bayer (Semafor), Philip Morris International (WSJ) 

• Real-estate: Corcoran (WSJ)

• Non-Profit: Healthcare Distribution Alliance (Axios), Skoll Foundation (Axios) 

• E-Commerce/Retail: Pratt Industries (WSJ), Heritage Steel (Vox), Van Cleef & Arpels (WSJ, The Atlantic), Ralph Lauren (Air Mail, NYTimes), Hermēs (NYTimes) 

• Entertainment: Salesman on Broadway (NYTimes)

Notable Campaigns 

Anthropic ran a HPTO across Politico on 4/13, driving to a blog post on the economic index and how AI is impacting the economy.

Pratt Industries ran a HPTO across WSJ on 4/13, promoting their 100% recycled materials for businesses.

Legora ran a HPTO across NYTimes and Fortune on 4/13 and WSJ today, 4/16, promoting their product as a service—AI for “exceptional” lawyers.

Wells Fargo ran a HPTO across Bloomberg on 4/13, driving to a branded content piece on how they helped PIMCO achieve their mission.

Meta ran a HPTO across Axios on 4/13, driving awareness towards how Meta supports America’s small businesses.

Ralph Lauren is running a week-long HPTO across Air Mail, promoting their Spring/Summer 2026 collection.

New York Life ran a HPTO across Bloomberg on 4/14, promoting the new New York Life Investment Management.

FTI Consulting ran a HPTO across WSJ on 4/15, promoting their services as the expert crisis and transformation firm.

Meta is running a HPTO across Politico and Axios today, 4/16, promoting their Instagram teen account privacy settings.

CoinShares is running a HPTO across Bloomberg today, 4/16, driving awareness to being a global leading asset manager in the digital asset space.

Newsletter Tracker

Here's a link to the full newsletter list

Across the newsletter tracker, this week has a STR of 48%, 3% up from last week 💸

New Branded Content

• Bloomberg: Wells Fargo 

• WSJ: EY (+ extension from event here), American Arbitration Association

• WashPo: Investment Reports

• NYTimes: Rocky Mountaineer

• Axios: Chase

• The Atlantic: TIAA

Here's a link to the full branded content list

Industry News + Product Launches

• A dive into Axios Local and whether it can be profitable.

• The Atlantic has partnered with Kompreno, making their journalism available in French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

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