Be A Bear's Max Maharajh joins ExchangeWire CEO, Rachel Smith, and COO, Lindsay Rowntree to discuss all the latest from the worlds of media, marketing and commerce. This week's stories covered Google's Chrome cookie deprecation, the ASA's ad censorship, OpenAI's launching its GPT store, as well as what the future could hold for GPTs.

Cookies deprecation begins (Campaign) 

What’s next? How do you see the year taking shape with the gradual deprecation? How are brands and publishers preparing?

Google’s plan to eradicate third party cookies on Chrome has commenced. The first phase out began on 4th January, which affected 1% of users – the estimated number of people immediately affected by this could be up to 30 million.   

UK watchdog rules Eurostar’s £39 seat sale advert was misleading (The Guardian) 

Brands continue to push the limits in their ads - can we expect to see more crackdowns? Are claims such as Eurostar’s causing brand damage in the long-term?

Eurostar is one of the latest companies to be censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for an ad misleading consumers about the cost of seats during its sale last summer. The company’s ads claimed that customers could purchase seats from £39 each way, however, only a “very small percentage” of tickets were available at that price. The advertising watchdog warned Eurostar not to make similar price claims in the future. 

OpenAI’s app store for GPTs will launch next week (TechCrunch) 

Should brands rush to get involved? What will be the benefits? How is AI impacting Max’s work?

After its launch date was delayed in December, next week OpenAI will finally be opening its app store for GPTs – custom apps based on its text-generating AI models. The store launch was initially announced in November at DevDay, the company’s first annual developer conference. Developers creating GPTs will have to review OpenAI’s updated policies and GPT brand guidelines to ensure their GPTs are compliant before they are eligible to be listed in the store.