In today’s Digest, we cover OpenAI quietly launching an Ads Manager and lowering the minimum spend for its ads pilot, Meta removing ads recruiting plaintiffs in social media addiction lawsuits amid rising legal pressure, and YouTube's 90-second unskippable ads.

OpenAI quietly launches ads manager and lowers minimum spend for ads pilot

OpenAI has quietly rolled out an ads manager, marking a significant step in its rapidly expanding advertising business as it looks to compete with established digital ad giants. The tool, currently in limited testing with a small group of advertisers, is described as broadly similar to Google Ads and introduces self-serve capabilities that allow marketers to track campaign performance in real time and optimise against impressions and clicks without relying on intermediaries. 

Access to the pilot is already widening, with minimum spend requirements reportedly reduced to USD$50,000 (£39,500) from as high as USD$250,000 (£197,500)  in recent weeks, indicating a push to onboard more advertisers quickly.

Meta pulls ads over addiction lawsuits

Meta Platforms has begun removing advertisements across Facebook and Instagram that were seeking to recruit plaintiffs for lawsuits alleging that the company and other social media platforms intentionally designed addictive products for young users. The takedowns come just weeks after Meta and YouTube were found negligent in a landmark California case related to social media addiction, fuelling a wave of legal activity across the US. 

More than a dozen ads have been deactivated across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta-owned platforms. The ads, which highlighted issues such as anxiety, depression, and self-harm linked to youth social media use, were aimed at recruiting plaintiffs for potential class action lawsuits.

The move also follows other legal setbacks, including a New Mexico case in which jurors ordered Meta to pay USD$375m (£296.3m) over claims it misled users about platform safety and enabled harm to minors. 

Meta said the removals are being carried out under its terms of service, which allow it to restrict content to mitigate legal or regulatory risks, even though such restrictions are not explicitly outlined in its advertising policies. A Meta spokesperson commented: “We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful."

YouTube's 90-second unskippable ads amid CTV push

YouTube has denied reports that it is testing 90-second unskippable ads, stating in a post on X that it is not currently running such an experiment and is investigating the matter.  

YouTube’s statement follows posts from several Reddit users posting photos of ‘90+’ second ad breaks, raising concerns about the potential expansion of non-skippable ad formats. 

Officially, YouTube maintains that its maximum non-skippable ad length remains 60 seconds, although it appears to have introduced longer formats specifically for connected TV (CTV) viewing in an effort to compete with traditional broadcasters and streaming platforms.

Despite the denial, the episode highlights YouTube’s broader push to monetise its rapidly growing TV audience, with users now watching more than a billion hours of content daily on connected TVs.