The Barber's Brief - Sydney Sweeney Is Famous. Novig Isn't.

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Marc and V are back with the Barber's Brief: the good, the bad, and the overhyped, with data, a few opinions, and Great Creative getting the last word.

This week:

• Your marketing team already got smaller. Nearly half of B2B teams have shrunk because of AI, almost none of it through layoffs (Wynter). Meanwhile most execs who cut roles for AI now regret it (Orgvue) and plenty are quietly rehiring (Robert Half, Klarna). If the cuts and the reversals are both invisible, how would anyone know it worked?
• Ads aimed at robots, not people. Brands are now buying ads to influence the AI agents that shop for us. V's take: feed the machine clean facts, sure, but "converts higher, further down the funnel" is the last click song all over again. The agent harvests demand, it doesn't create it.
• Tariffs, margins, and pricing power. Lose a market overnight and no ad fixes it. For everyone else it's margin pressure, and brand strength decides how much you can pass on.
• Meta is grading your creative on how different it looks, and reporting more clicks for it. The problem: memory is built on consistency.

Plus Ad of the Week: Sydney Sweeney made Novig famous overnight. But did anyone remember the brand?

Coming up: Brand Love and Lovemarks, and the agency model with Cossette.

Enjoy the show!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro: Welcome to the Barber's Brief

00:52 Story 1: AI is quietly shrinking marketing teams

03:17 If the cuts are invisible, how do we know it's working?

05:47 Story 2: ads aimed at AI agents, not people

08:02 The two-audience problem, and last click rebuilt for robots

10:31 Story 3: tariffs, margins, and brand pricing power

12:57 Why the reason for a price increase beats the size

15:25 Story 4: Meta's creative diversification best practices

17:47 More clicks, or Meta's win? Distinctive assets at risk

20:18 Ad of the Week: Novig x Sydney Sweeney, "Just Sports"

22:54 Famous, but not famous for you

24:15 The shortcut, and whether it pays off

27:31 Coming up: Brand Love, and the agency model with Cossette

Links:

AI Cut the Marketing Team. Then Came the Rehires.

https://martech.org/ai-is-powering-the-loss-of-marketing-jobs/

https://www.orgvue.com/news/55-of-businesses-admit-wrong-decisions-in-making-employees-redundant-when-bringing-ai-into-the-workforce/

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/01/employers-who-laid-off-workers-for-ai-are-reversing-their-decisions.html

https://www.cioandleader.com/why-replacing-employees-with-ai-backfired-for-enterprises/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-08/klarna-turns-from-ai-to-real-person-customer-service

Some companies are using ads to influence AI agents

https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/optimizing-for-ai-agents-time-magazine-wayfair-strategy

Tariffs Are Squeezing Margins. Your Brand Decides How Much You Can Pass On.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2026/08/list-of-products-from-the-united-states-subject-to-counter-tariffs-effective-september-8-2026.html

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/22/nx-s1-5941584/us-canada-tariffs

https://www.abfjournal.com/the-middle-market-manufacturing-squeeze-tariffs-supply-chains-the-dealmaker-ecosystem-in-2026/

https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/brands/how-to-make-pricing-work-for-your-brand

https://www.marketingweek.com/creativity-pays-les-binet/

https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/ipa-blog/new-evidence-shows-stronger-brands-really-can-charge-more

https://asknigelhollis.com/blog/evidence-that-advertising-increases-demand-at-any-given-price.html

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1177/0092070304269953

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10946705251341080 https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tariffs/2026/09/29/import-ban-on-canadian-goods-in-effect-while-trump-expects-canadians-to-say-sir-we-are-sorry-follow-for-live-updates/

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R49349.html

How advertisers are adjusting to Meta’s ad creative diversification best practices

https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/meta-ad-creative-diversification-best-practices-advertiser-approach

Ad of the Week

Sydney Sweeney Is Famous. Novig Isn't.

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew-tindall_ive-tested-the-sydney-sweeney-ad-males-activity-7505989922999164929-_xcY

Full link list for the ad of the week, in order:

https://deadline.com/2026/09/sydney-sweeney-novig-ad-backlash-female-olympians-1237101507/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-sydney-sweeney-ad-reaction-9.7351851

https://frontofficesports.com/article/novig-ceo-sydney-sweeney-forces-us-into-national-discourse/

https://globalgamblingnews.com/sydney-sweeney-takes-equity-stake-in-novig/

https://contagious.com/io/article/jenni-romaniuk-on-distinctive-assets

https://www.marketingscience.info/brands-need-distinctive-assets

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew-tindall_ive-tested-the-sydney-sweeney-ad-males-activity-7505989922999164929-_xcY

https://system1group.com/creative-dividend

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/28/american-eagle-aeo-earnings-q1-2026.html