Would spend £2,400 on an app?

Google's £2.1 billion bad week, the £2,400 app (that's just in year one, it's another £2,000 per year after that), WPP's ransomware attack, the trainers de rigeur in Cannes and how to fix online advertising

Is digital advertising a ‘nightmarish joke’? Cory Doctorow has an idea to save online advertising, which he says is difficult but not complicated. Get the publishers to serve the ads themselves. The piece also gives an excellent overview of the display market as-is.

Google was this week hit with a £2.1 billion antitrust fine by the EU for unfairly promoting its own price comparison site ahead of rivals. Charles Arthur has followed the case for years and takes you through the timeline of events and suggests the EU machine moves far too slowly. The time it has taken to bring the fine has effectively crushed the opposition already. With appeals, this case has a long time to run yet.

Google has also pledged to stop scanning personal emails for data they used to serve targeted ads. Could these stories be somehow connected?

Dave Trott compared advertising to a salad. Now what if you removed the 'boring' bits (lettuce, tomato, onion) and instead just ate a mayonnaise dressing? Well it's not much of a salad any more. But Trott says this is exactly what modern advertising is like, eating mayonnaise, and just mayonnaise.

WImbledon is about to begin - here's the BBC's intro:

Facebook is in talks to produce original scripted TV with a budget of $3 million per episode. To put this into context, high budget costume dramas like The Crown can cost in the region of $10 per episode. Less expensive dramas with less faff like Bloodline or Better Call Saul remain expensive, at around $7 million per episode.

The Facebook costs are around half this, suggesting a semi-scripted format perhaps like The Only Way Is Essex? The report claims shows will have a focus on dating, with a relationship drama and a game show planned already.

Wondered about good Facebook ads? Here’s an entire gallery of award-winners.

Amazon bought super premium supermarket Whole Foods for £13 billion. The future of commerce is at stake.

Cannes – from the playground of creativity to the adtech playground. Plus, 51 random things learnt at Cannes, including what the agency footwear de rigeur is (Adidas Los Angeles). Critical, self-critical and full of insight from ex-NME editor and AllTogetherNow boss Conor McNicholas.

The real reason for Travis Kalanick’s departure from Uber (remember – he’s still on its board) and it’s to do with Uber’s valuation (and the pay out for investors) rather than the behaviour of its founder.

Are you a freelance? What’s your contract like? Take a look at this ulta-minimal one and see if it could work for you.

An enquiry into humour and Twitter. Perhaps you knew this already, but the two don’t mix terribly well, particularly when the Bee Gee’s Barry Gibb is the subject.

If AI can manage repetitive or mundane tasks, then what are people for? Being ‘smart’ (he means 'clever') will mean going against processes.

Now the story of a young wizard named Harry is 20 years old, here are 20 things we have learned from Harry Potter. But before you even start check your edition of the first book. It could be worth as much as a new car.

VCCP wins Cadbury's. Former agency Fallon made a huge splash with the drumming ‘Gorilla’ ad. But VCCP have a great track record for big brand campaigns, with O2 and Compare the Market prime examples.

Is it the end of the jpg? Introducing the HEIF, or High Efficiency Image File, which crams better resolution into a smaller file size. It's now the file of choice for Apple, so will most likely take off quickly.

What is Publicis up to now it’s not going to Cannes next year? Well here’s the answer. Was this video directed by David Lynch?:

Sainsbury’s may take away its combined Sainsbury’s and Argos media from WPP's M/SIX and give it back to incumbent PhD.

Not the first time these giant, sudden reversals have happened. O2 took the rug from under Zenith Optimedia in 2014 when the client pulled and handbrake turn, giving its media to Havas, reputedly due to board-level intervention.

Morrisinghs 1 Singhsbury’s 0.

Negotiation tips: Ask for the highest number you can say out loud without laughing, plus more.

Was ‘Meet Graham’ inspired by an FCO spot from 1985?

Droga5 founder David Droga on getting inside your head and annoying Donald Trump.

Catnip for brands – how Adidas made their ad buying transparent.

Oath (the new Yahoo company) reveals its plans.

Harbour – a half-way-house between being an indy and being a network launched this week by Chiel’s former CEO Ben Hammersley. Analysis here suggests the idea has legs.

If you absolutely must have a pint, an interactive map of every Weatherspoon pub in the UK.

Velocity black. The ‘coolest’ app ever? But how should expectations be set when the app costs £400, with a £2000 annual fee on top?

The app is suppsed to be for travellers who want the inside track on wherever they are. The accompanying promo suggest life could be something like a 1990s R&B video: