Amazon has dominated the world of e-commerce for decades, offering a wide range of products from thousands of brands and sellers. It’s also been keeping up with AI-powered shopping, rolling out Alexa for Shopping as a recommendation agent in May.

As the fall Prime Days and holiday shopping season draw closer, the time is now for brands to figure out how to stay visible in Alexa’s recommendations—especially since the AI agent presents fewer options than a simple search. I talked to Dani Nadel, president and COO of Feedvisor, an agentic commerce company specializing in Amazon, about how to make Alexa aware of your brand. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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Nike is the latest brand to stumble into racially insensitive messaging. An advertising image for its Converse brand stoked controversy over what looked to many like a Ku Klux Klan lynching. The photo, of a person in a long white skirt, is very dim—except for a bright triangle of light that critics say resembles a KKK hood. The person holds a pair of Converse shoes, but in the lighting, it looks like they are on dangling feet.

This weekend, Nike responded to the criticism by pulling the photo down.

“We’re sorry,” Nike said in a statement, adding, “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared.”

(The campaign, which was part of a photo shoot featuring K-pop star Karina, does not seem to have any other issues. WWD posted the other images.)

It’s never a good time for a brand to face such a controversial issue, but the timing is especially bad for Nike. The brand has been struggling through a turnaround following strategic missteps under past leadership. While Nike is still the athletic apparel market leader, it’s lost market share to competitors, and it’s been an uphill battle getting it back. Nike’s stock is down more than 78% from its 2021 peak, writes Forbes senior contributor Jim Osman, and it lost its spot on the S&P 100 earlier this month.

Further compounding Nike’s problems is another marketing issue. This week, French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé announced he will exit his 20-year partnership with Nike. Instead, Mbappé is taking an equity stake in On, and partnering with the Swiss brand to launch its soccer line. The announcement boosted On’s stock more than 12% on Monday.

Osman writes Mbappé’s move shows how celebrity endorsements have evolved since Michael Jordan became the face of Nike in the 1990s—and the ubiquitous ads showcasing his athletic prowess cemented his legend early on. While athletes are still vital to brands, they now have more power in the equation. Athletes already have their own audiences, and don’t need a brand to showcase their ability........

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