This week: Meta, Google & Microsoft are trading Adtech for AI, TikTok denies rumours with no explanations, Grok goes rogue and apologies and the mega acquisitions + trends.
It's sad how this "Marketing" newsletter has become a "Political" newsletter. This used to be a good source of information but now it's just a person pushing more left wing ideologies. Example, this week's letter has great things to say about Google (who is abusing everyone's ad dollars) and even Pinterest (which really gets no usage) but not 1 good thing about X or Grok (not even a platform update which there was a major update). This trend has been continuous since the start of the year. If you want to have a Political newsletter, then you should, but don't call it a Marketing newsletter.
Hard disagree. Don't blame Jaskaran that most perceptions and news about X & Grok are not positive. There are numerous reasons why the platform is still far behind others in terms of ad spend. Grok literally referred to itself as Mecha Hitler last week.
It also feels like you're glossing over the many negative articles about international court cases, privacy problems, layoffs, and AI developments Jaskaran has definitely published about Google and Facebook over the last 1-2 years.
I actually don't gloss over that and said that he does include negative articles about other platforms, I'm saying that he is mostly negative about X and Grok. I have a strong feeling that it is because he is located in Germany and the media in the EU is very negative about Elon. But just because the EU's media is negative about Elon doesn't mean that 1. the world agrees with Germany & the EU and 2. there hasn't been great advancements and greatly increased usage on both X and Grok that are being largely ignored. If you review the last 4 Social Juice email newsletters (and probably further back than that), it's 90%+ negative about anything Elon while being mostly neutral or positive about Google or Meta. It shows bias and that's what I am pointing out. I read this newsletter because historically, it's been a good source of marketing news. Lately, it's been skewed.
I like this newsletter and would like to continue to receive it. I just wish it wasn't so bias towards Elon (or towards any other company but X is what we are talking about today) and we could get some more news about the positive things that are going on with the X platform, which is outpacing all other social media platforms other than Meta. There always seems to be 5-8 articles about advancements on Meta platforms but maybe 1-2 about X and/or Grok. If Jaskaran can find all these advancements on Meta platforms, how come he can't seem to find them about X? This last newsletter had 7 negative articles about X/Grok and only 2 about any sort of update to the platform, and there wasn't even anything about Grok 4 Heavy.
Like I said, I like this newsletter. I don't disagree that there should be well rounded information about all platforms. I only reached out to point out that bias is showing in hopes that a critical review of what is being disseminated occurs to improve and keep the direction of the newsletter to being about Marketing and not Political leanings.
This is a marketing newsletter, and I cover the news around marketing, not just copypasta press releases and product launches. If regulatory investigations, AI controversies, or platform behavior are shaping how marketers operate (and they are), then yes, I’m going to cover that.
You say I’m ignoring X and Grok? That’s just false. I’ve reported on:
Grok 4’s launch, Tesla integration
Grok using Elon’s own X posts as source material
X landing Serena Williams and making a big push into video
xAI’s $2B investment and major platform updates
And yes, I reported on the antisemitic responses generated by Grok, because a platform’s AI casually praising Hitler isn't something you just skip over. If you think acknowledging that is “political,” you might want to reevaluate what you consider bias.
This newsletter doesn’t exist to promote or defend companies. It exists to report what’s actually happening. If that includes hard truths, so be it.
And let’s not pretend the platforms haven’t become political themselves. When the people running them inject their ideologies, policies, and controversies into the product, that’s not me "being political." That’s them shaping the narrative you and I work in.
If that feels biased to you, maybe you’re only comfortable when your side of the story gets uncritically amplified.
No one’s forcing you to read this. But if you're here, know this: I'm not here to coddle brands and platforms, I'm here to cover them fully!
If you exam your previous newsletters, your coverage about X and Grok is way more negative than it is informative or positive. Especially when you compare your coverage of X versus Google, Meta, or other platforms.
Yes, having a full view of companies is important (and you do include other negative articles about other platforms) but your bias against X, Elon, and Grok really shows. I don't love Elon and at the same time, I know X is the 4th most used platform in America and Grok is way better than Gemini, yet you would never know if from your newsletters.
It's sad how this "Marketing" newsletter has become a "Political" newsletter. This used to be a good source of information but now it's just a person pushing more left wing ideologies. Example, this week's letter has great things to say about Google (who is abusing everyone's ad dollars) and even Pinterest (which really gets no usage) but not 1 good thing about X or Grok (not even a platform update which there was a major update). This trend has been continuous since the start of the year. If you want to have a Political newsletter, then you should, but don't call it a Marketing newsletter.
Hard disagree. Don't blame Jaskaran that most perceptions and news about X & Grok are not positive. There are numerous reasons why the platform is still far behind others in terms of ad spend. Grok literally referred to itself as Mecha Hitler last week.
It also feels like you're glossing over the many negative articles about international court cases, privacy problems, layoffs, and AI developments Jaskaran has definitely published about Google and Facebook over the last 1-2 years.
I actually don't gloss over that and said that he does include negative articles about other platforms, I'm saying that he is mostly negative about X and Grok. I have a strong feeling that it is because he is located in Germany and the media in the EU is very negative about Elon. But just because the EU's media is negative about Elon doesn't mean that 1. the world agrees with Germany & the EU and 2. there hasn't been great advancements and greatly increased usage on both X and Grok that are being largely ignored. If you review the last 4 Social Juice email newsletters (and probably further back than that), it's 90%+ negative about anything Elon while being mostly neutral or positive about Google or Meta. It shows bias and that's what I am pointing out. I read this newsletter because historically, it's been a good source of marketing news. Lately, it's been skewed.
I like this newsletter and would like to continue to receive it. I just wish it wasn't so bias towards Elon (or towards any other company but X is what we are talking about today) and we could get some more news about the positive things that are going on with the X platform, which is outpacing all other social media platforms other than Meta. There always seems to be 5-8 articles about advancements on Meta platforms but maybe 1-2 about X and/or Grok. If Jaskaran can find all these advancements on Meta platforms, how come he can't seem to find them about X? This last newsletter had 7 negative articles about X/Grok and only 2 about any sort of update to the platform, and there wasn't even anything about Grok 4 Heavy.
Like I said, I like this newsletter. I don't disagree that there should be well rounded information about all platforms. I only reached out to point out that bias is showing in hopes that a critical review of what is being disseminated occurs to improve and keep the direction of the newsletter to being about Marketing and not Political leanings.
What exactly are you talking about?
This is a marketing newsletter, and I cover the news around marketing, not just copypasta press releases and product launches. If regulatory investigations, AI controversies, or platform behavior are shaping how marketers operate (and they are), then yes, I’m going to cover that.
You say I’m ignoring X and Grok? That’s just false. I’ve reported on:
Grok 4’s launch, Tesla integration
Grok using Elon’s own X posts as source material
X landing Serena Williams and making a big push into video
xAI’s $2B investment and major platform updates
And yes, I reported on the antisemitic responses generated by Grok, because a platform’s AI casually praising Hitler isn't something you just skip over. If you think acknowledging that is “political,” you might want to reevaluate what you consider bias.
This newsletter doesn’t exist to promote or defend companies. It exists to report what’s actually happening. If that includes hard truths, so be it.
And let’s not pretend the platforms haven’t become political themselves. When the people running them inject their ideologies, policies, and controversies into the product, that’s not me "being political." That’s them shaping the narrative you and I work in.
If that feels biased to you, maybe you’re only comfortable when your side of the story gets uncritically amplified.
No one’s forcing you to read this. But if you're here, know this: I'm not here to coddle brands and platforms, I'm here to cover them fully!
If you exam your previous newsletters, your coverage about X and Grok is way more negative than it is informative or positive. Especially when you compare your coverage of X versus Google, Meta, or other platforms.
Yes, having a full view of companies is important (and you do include other negative articles about other platforms) but your bias against X, Elon, and Grok really shows. I don't love Elon and at the same time, I know X is the 4th most used platform in America and Grok is way better than Gemini, yet you would never know if from your newsletters.