Check out this cool short-form video about our cookie #research in PNAS that @bostonu.bsky.social released! www.youtube.com/shorts/6ZKdp...
youtube.com
Garrett Johnson
@garjoh.bsky.social
Marketing professor @BUQuestrom researching digital marketing: privacy & ad effectiveness. 🇨🇦,🇺🇸. garjoh.com
Check out this cool short-form video about our cookie #research in PNAS that @bostonu.bsky.social released! www.youtube.com/shorts/6ZKdp...
youtube.com
My PSA to all the (big) tech engineers and privacy-pros who are singing the praises of Privacy Enhancing Technologies..... And some great research from @garjoh.bsky.social and @buquestrom.bsky.social!! This week's @monopolyreport.bsky.social monopoly-report.com/p/pets-what-...
PETs! What Are They Good For? (Anything?)
PETs should be tied to specific outcomes and allow for third-party validation of key claims.
monopoly-report.com
New write-up by @bostonu.bsky.social's The Brink of our PNAS paper on the value of cookies & Privacy Sandbox for online publishers: www.bu.edu/articles/202... Work with Zhengrong Gu & @sjkobayashi.bsky.social.
Should You Accept Internet Cookies? BU Researchers Say the Open Web Could Suffer Without Them
New study finds ad revenue that supports digital publishers and content creators tumbles when cookies are removed
bu.edu
Our research on the value of cookies & Privacy Sandbox for online publishers with Zhengrong Gu, & @sjkobayashi.bsky.social is now published in PNAS 🎉🎉. Check out this thread for an overview 👇
🧵1/ Google’s Privacy Sandbox promises to replace third-party cookies with privacy-preserving tech. But does it preserve publisher revenue? We partnered with @weareraptive to analyze 200M+ ad impressions across 5,000+ sites in the CMA-Google field experiment. Here's what we found 👇
Quoted in this Bloomberg Law piece on server-side tracking (a.k.a. CAPI) and its legal risks. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/s...
Server-Side Tracking to Shape Future of Pixel Privacy Litigation
Companies seeking to stem the tide of wiretap lawsuits targeting their use of data analytics tools like tracking “pixels” from Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC are looking to a relatively new way of...
news.bloomberglaw.com
Excited to read DoorDash's blog about how it uses Ghost Ads👻 to measure the incremental impact of its retail ad offerings. advertising.doordash.com/en-us/resour...
How DoorDash Measures Restaurant Ad Incrementality with Ghost Ads
DoorDash introduces ghost ads to measure restaurant ad incrementality — reducing experimentation dilution by 92% and improving iROAS by 35%.
advertising.doordash.com
Quoted in this Marketplace piece on modern price discrimination. www.marketplace.org/story/2026/0...
Different customers, different prices: Companies use data for personalized pricing
Between surveillance pricing and discounting, it's harder than ever to figure out if you're getting the best price.
marketplace.org
Appeared on today's Marketplace Tech podcast to discuss the challenges & benefits of integrating ads in AI search engines. www.marketplace.org/episode/2025...
The challenges of integrating ads in AI search engines
Garrett Johnson, professor of marketing at Boston University, shares his thoughts on the nuanced challenges of adding advertising to generative AI search platforms.
marketplace.org
In honor of #GivingTuesday, my wife & I are matching donations (up to $20K) to the ASFOP Teega Wende Orphanage in 🇧🇫Burkina Faso🇧🇫, which supports over 200 orphans and we have supported for over a decade. 1/2
Quoted in The Wall Street Journal piece on Pinkfong, maker of the most watched YouTube video ever "Baby Shark". 1/2 www.wsj.com/tech/the-wor...
The World’s Most-Watched YouTube Video Hasn’t Made Its Creator Rich
The Korean company behind the ubiquitous song “Baby Shark” is hampered by ad restrictions on children’s content but wants to raise funds for expansion via an IPO.
wsj.com
Gift article: "Europe Begins Rethinking Its Crackdown on Big Tech" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/t...
Europe Begins Rethinking Its Crackdown on Big Tech
nytimes.com
The paradigm shift in performance ad creative is just mind blowing for marketers. open.spotify.com/episode/2BWI...
The Science of Creative (And Other Hot Takes) with Uber and Dr. Squatch
open.spotify.com
Google is largely shutting down the Privacy Sandbox. Surviving: CHIPS, FedCM, Private State Tokens Out 💀 : (Anything you’ve heard of!) Topics, Protected Audience API, Attribution Reporting API, Private Aggregation, Related Web Sites… privacysandbox.com/news/update-...
Update on Plans for Privacy Sandbox Technologies
In this October 2025 announcement, the Privacy Sandbox team shares updates on plans for Privacy Sandbox technologies.
privacysandbox.com
Today, the UK Competition & Markets Authority decided to release Google from its Privacy Sandbox-related commitments. Read more: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68f213...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Quoted in this The Wall Street Journal piece on proposed standards for ad auctions, which are critical to ensuring the efficiency & integrity of modern advertising. www.wsj.com/articles/adv...
Exclusive | Advertisers Push Big Tech to Adopt Standards for Transparency in Ad Sales
A new proposal asks digital ad auctions to voluntarily disclose how they pick winners and set prices.
wsj.com
SOUTH CAROLINA… “Judge Goodstein was walking on the beach when the fire started. Her husband, Arnie, was in the house with children and perhaps grandchildren. The family had to escape by jumping from a window or balcony...” www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...
Opinion | Where’s Your Evidence, Mr. President?
nytimes.com
Horrific. mRNA vaccines have saved millions of lives and could save millions more. “I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said Mike Osterholm, a UMN expert on infectious diseases & pandemic preparations. www.huffpost.com/entry/rfk-va...
RFK Jr. Cancels $500 Million In Funding For Vaccine Development
The mRNA vaccines are credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
huffpost.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he will cancel $500 million in vaccine development projects.
Janet Yellen's husband & Econ Nobel Laureate George Akerlof: "...when presidents flip the board, it’s not just a game that ends. It’s the pieces of democracy that get scattered to the floor." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...
Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, Kirsti Noem, Joseph Mazzara, Emil Bove, Drew Sargent, and everyone else involved in planning, executing, and obstructing justice around the CECOT imprisonments are responsible for Andry's torture and rape. Each bears a share of the blame. Don't ever let them forget it.
Carlos Daniel Terán says he thought he was going to die at the CECOT. Andry Hernandez describes the place as “hell on Earth.” Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse www.npr.org/2025/07/27/n... w/ Manuel Rueda
Industry data shows that from March 5 until April 30, sales of U.S. spirits in Canada fell by 66.3 per cent compared with the same period last year. globalnews.ca/news/1129832...
U.S. liquor sales have dried up in Canada amid trade war, industry says - National | Globalnews.ca
The spirits industry says the sales of American-made products dropped 66 per cent in March and April after several provinces pulled their goods from store shelves.
globalnews.ca
This is Goose. He's here to perform his own rendition of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. 13/10 please enjoy
He lived and worked here for 40 years. My god I am so ashamed at what's happening.
The House approved a Trump administration plan to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Congress rolls back $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid
The House approved a Trump administration plan to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
n.pr
Can Privacy Technologies Replace Cookies? Ad Revenue in a Field Experiment. This study suggests that current #privacy-enhancing technologies fall short of fully compensating for the economic value of cookies. http://spkl.io/63325fCCOL @garjoh.bsky.social @sjkobayashi.bsky.social
Quoted in this Marketplace piece on gen AI ad creatives www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...
Amazon has started selling AI video ads. What does this mean for digital marketing?
Gen AI can quickly customize ads for different audiences, but it remains to be seen if they'll hold humans' attention in the long-run.
marketplace.org
@OSchiffey covered our recent research on the Privacy Sandbox’s performance for publishers and its adoption after Google abandoned its cookie deprecation plans. @AdExchanger www.adexchanger.com/data-privacy...
No Shade, But Does Anyone Still Care About The Privacy Sandbox? | AdExchanger
Despite all the drama, companies haven’t completely abandoned the Privacy Sandbox, and BU's Garrett Johnson has the receipts to prove it.
adexchanger.com
🧵1/ Google’s Privacy Sandbox promises to replace third-party cookies with privacy-preserving tech. But does it preserve publisher revenue? We partnered with @weareraptive to analyze 200M+ ad impressions across 5,000+ sites in the CMA-Google field experiment. Here's what we found 👇