Happy Friday.
Today’s Squad
Rabah Rahil (CMO, Tie) → 12PM CT
Brandon Harrar (Founder & Creative Director, HRVST) → 12:40PM CT
AJ Anderson (Founder, FAST PICKLE) → 1:10PM CT

Top Stories
TikTok Shop Tightens AI Livestream Rules - TikTok Shop is strengthening enforcement of its ban on AI-generated voices and prerecorded audio in shopping livestreams. Violations will now affect sellers' Account Health Rating, which can limit account privileges and access to platform programs. Perhaps “always on” liveselling is going the way of the dinosaur.
Kimi K3 Edits its Own Launch Video - New AI model Kimi K3 edited its own teaser video from 56 clips, completing work that would typically take an experienced editor one to two days. Are we closer to video editors becoming obselete?
Beehiiv Platform Update - Beehiiv has launched a major product update featuring Community, a new subscriber chat feature, Copilot, an AI assistant for newsletter creators, and programmatic advertising that automatically fills ad inventory. Incredible for creators.
Greatest Offer of All Time? It’s a Rerun
By Colin Dougherty
Olive Garden is bringing back the Never-Ending Pasta Pass: $100 for 13 weeks of unlimited pasta, soup, salad, and breadsticks. Some are calling it the greatest offer of all time.
I think it backfires.
Everybody I floated this to thinks I'm crazy. Hear me out.
The pass drops today: 10,000 of them, usable August 31 through November 22, unlimited visits. And of course it sold out. Scarcity plus nostalgia plus a number that absurd is guaranteed headlines. But selling out 10,000 passes is not the same thing as the offer working, and the second part is where I get off the train.
Look at who the 2026 customer is becoming: protein-maxed, GLP-1'd to the gills, counting grams, skipping the bread bowl. Attention is not appetite. The pasta that's winning right now is the artisan, treat-yourself, $24-a-plate kind, a category having a genuine moment. Unlimited trough pasta is the opposite bet: volume slop for a country actively medicating its appetite away.
And this isn't a new play. Olive Garden has done this dance before. Everyone knows the stunt, the news cycle. A rerun of 2013 meal meeting a 2026 stomach.
Here's what I’m looking for: the creator who buys one and documents 30 straight days of never-ending pasta. If that series ends with a glowing love letter to carbs, I'm wrong.
My money says it ends like every Super Size Me sequel ends.
I'll happily eat the L in November if the shoe’s on the other foot. Just not the pasta.
Featured Sponsor: ROKT AFTERSELL
Make more profit from the orders you're already getting.
Most DTC brands are obsessed with getting the next customer. But the real lever? Making more profit from the orders you already have.
If you could add $3–4 to every order without touching your ads, would that be worthwhile? That's exactly what brands like OluKai, Cozy Earth, and GrooveLife are doing with Rokt AfterSell.
Adding post-purchase upsells and downsells from cart through the thank-you page and stacking an extra 30 to 50 cents per order just by showing premium offers from brands like Disney+, HelloFresh, and Venmo — it’s high-margin revenue straight to your bottom line. No hit to conversion, no impact on LTV, and you can be live in minutes.
If you're already getting orders, you should be getting more out of them.
→ Go to aftersell.com/offers and start monetizing what you've already built.
Highlight Reel: Cody Schneider’s (Co-Founder, Graphed) New Paid Ads Strategy
Timeline: Town Square
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Made Possible By:
Seguno - the Shopify-native marketing suite for brands that run it themselves.
Insense - The all-in-one UGC and influencer marketing platform.
Postscript - Make more money from every SMS message.
Proxima - Use real conversion data to power your creative briefs.
Northbeam - Measure the “unmeasurable,” make your marketing profitable.
Rokt Aftersell - More profit from the orders you’re already getting.
Universal Ads - TV ads that deliver for performance marketers.
Richpanel - The AI helpdesk that saves you headaches (and money).
SATHI - Affiliate attribution beyond last-click commissions.
Slash - A better business banking platform.
Trendtrack - Track competitors' winning marketing strategies daily.
Tie - The internet’s #1 shopper ID platform.
See you live,
Ecomm Cowboy Team




