At an Ikea in Bahrain, a storefront ad read “Create your perfect night’s sleep” in English. Directly below was what was presumably the same phrase in Arabic—except the “translation” reads “The same as written, but in Arabic.” Locals spotted the sign, which made local news, after which Ikea updated it while implying that it was an intentional joke.

What do you think? It seems likely that it was a mistake, but the brand’s response was quick and clever.

Global privacy laws are forcing the world's biggest digital media players to overhaul their data-sharing practices—and U.S. data laws may soon start looking more like the European Union’s GDPR, which is even more stringent than the CCPA. To add to the complications publishers face, Google has now signed on to the second iteration of the IAB’s Transparency Consent Framework, which “standardizes the process of gathering, managing and communicating user permissions for how their information may be used in the advertising supply chain.” 

What will happen next? After a November vote, California’s privacy laws may look more like the GDPR. That and the death of the cookie make 2022 the deadline for publishers to sort out their next moves.

Also in publishing news: Defector Media—an online publication made up of former Deadspin writer and editors who quit en masse last year after the parent company told them to “stick to sports” and avoid politics and culture—is taking a subscription-first approach. Plus, each founding employee now has a 5% stake in the company, and the writers will hold their own intellectual property rights.

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• Dentsu Aegis Network has hired Christena Pyle in the new role of chief equity officer, Americas.
• Zambezi, the Los Angeles-based agency that has worked with clients including Beats by Dre, TaylorMade and Venmo, has hired Norm Brown as design director.
• After more than a year, WarnerMedia still hasn’t filled its ad sales chief position, but Joe Hogan, evp of sales and marketing, is now overseeing Xandr’s ad sales team on an interim basis.
• Fred Bucher has been named svp and CMO of The Weather Channel.

As consumers prepare for the new school year, they’re embracing entirely new behaviors that go beyond a simple shift toward online shopping and store pickup:

• Analysts are describing the 2020 season as “diffuse,” meaning it’s both delayed and extended as parents have been either shopping much earlier or waiting until start dates are nailed down.
• Consumers are spending more, but not buying more—instead, they’re buying big-ticket items for remote learning.

Take a closer look: These spending trends could result in people sacrificing the purchase of notebooks and crayons to buy laptops.

With its first foray into shoppable video content, TikTok is also taking the opportunity to strike another blow at Donald Trump, who is two executive orders deep into an ongoing battle with the app and its parent company ByteDance. The shoppable show, created in collaboration with mobile-first video shopping platform Ntwrk, will star artist and designer Joshua Vide, who will debut a limited-edition apparel collection featuring the TikTok logo and phrases like “not going anywhere” and “here to stay.”

Check out the designs and learn how the project came together (and why it’s taking jabs at Trump).

More of Today’s Top News & Highlights

• The World’s Biggest Brands Are Spending More in Programmatic
• What Media Buyers Think About Print Cuts at O, The Oprah Magazine
• IPG’s Kinesso Is Launching a Developer Community
• Whatsapp’s Head of Brand on Shamelessly Chasing Your Passions

The Pay Cut Whopper campaign, introduced at Burger King locations in the United Arab Emirates, takes a percentage (up to 30%) of a person's pandemic-induced salary loss and creates a bespoke discount for up to three months. The campaign, launched by Wunderman Thompson Dubai, was created for the launch of Burger King’s app in the country.

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