Welcome back. Today, AI could catapult small businesses into binge-watch ad breaks; “The Studio,” “The Pitt” and the Boys & Girls Clubs win big at the Emmys; Coke makes a “Made in Germany” appeal; and you answer my question on the fate of pharmaceutical ads.

TV commercials might soon look a lot like the ads you see on  Instagram and TikTok, Patrick Coffee and Katie Deighton report: scrappy, niche and often obscure.

Media conglomerates like Comcast and hardware makers including Roku are developing self-service platforms and AI tools to make streaming-TV ads affordable for small and midsize businesses.

Comcast next week will release an AI Video Generator assistant, for example, to help potential advertisers create commercials that once would have been too costly to produce.

They envision enabling a flood of TV commercials from direct-to-consumer brands, apps, mobile games and others that hadn’t considered themselves ready for prime time.

“I don’t think people understand how many more TV ads are about to be created,” said Universal Ads exec James Borow.

Emmy Awards host Nate Bargatze shook up last night’s ceremony—and created a cliffhanger comedy bit for the whole evening—by promising to deduct $1,000 from a gift to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for every second that winners went long in their speeches, John Jurgensen writes.

Genre-busting HBO Max medical show “The Pitt,” won best drama series, causing an upset by beating “Severance,” Apple TV+’s corporate dystopia, which went into the night with more nominations than any series.

But Apple flexed with Hollywood satire “The Studio,” which topped the evening’s field with 13 wins.

Bargatze’s ploy had mixed results on speech times in the end, with the running total for the donation dipping into negative territory, but he and CBS ultimately gave $350,000.

See the full list of winners here.

Go longer: The tuxedo that “The Pitt” star Noah Wyle wore to the Emmys was made by scrubs brand Figs. [THR]

Stephen Colbert got a big standing ovation at the Emmys after CBS canceled his “Late Show.” [Variety] 

The tax on long thank-you speeches wasn’t worth it. [Vulture]

American brands in Europe sometimes seem to be playing down their national origin at a time of geopolitical tension, Bertrand Benoit writes.

In German campaigns this year, Coca-Cola emphasized a “Made in Germany” identity, McDonald’s trumped local ties and Procter & Gamble showed off its 10 plants and R&D centers in the country.

“Maybe the aura around America has dimmed a little bit,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNBC, citing global surveys by the company.

But the brands say ad campaigns focused on local ties are nothing new.

Nor do they necessarily have anything to worry about. Swiss e-commerce platform Galaxus said in June that its data showed European consumers continued to buy American products at about the same rate as last year.

“It’s the old attitude-behavior gap,” said Jan Dirk Kemming, a professor of marketing strategy and the head of sustainability consulting at communications agency Weber Shandwick. “Professed intentions often don’t necessarily translate into action.”

After the Trump administration said it would try to close the 1997 “loophole” that set off the boom in drug ads on TV, I asked you whether this was the end of pharma commercials running wild or…something short of that. Here’s a selection of your replies:

“I would love to see some companies getting ahead of this by making their ads so honest that they all seem like SNL parodies….Though, more seriously, my guess is that all the big pharma companies, with their deep pockets, will tie this up in court as long as they can hoping to run out the clock on this administration.” —Alli Meyer

“Not a chance that pharmaceutical ads will go away. People may find them annoying or educational but they are not cigarette advertising. They actually add value and increase awareness of some diseases. Of course, things like restless leg syndrome would never be in the consumer consciousness without pharmaceutical advertising. As dubious as some conditions are, it is now a business model that is baked in.” —Michael Sneed

“As a U.K.-expat who has worked in the U.S. media industry for over a decade, I have always been shocked by how many ads pharma run on broadcast media for prescription drugs. Most of the world (bar New Zealand) bans it, and for very good reasons. It’s time to push for what’s good for us as human beings, not what’s good for marketing and ad revenue.”
                                                                                 —Sheryl Zhong

S4 Capital lowered its full-year forecast for its key top-line metric for the second time in the past three months, citing market uncertainty and volatility triggered in part by U.S. tariffs. [WSJ]

Comcast called Matthew Dowd’s comments about Charlie Kirk on MSNBC “unacceptable and insensitive,” and asked staff “to do better.” [WSJ]

Former MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd said he didn’t know Charlie Kirk had been shot when he made the on-air remarks that cost him his job. [TheWrap]

Why ad agencies aren’t getting in trouble for brand controversies any more. [Ad Age] 

R/GA named Ren Rigby its first global chief brand officer as it sets out to establish its identity as an independent agency. [Little Black Book]

Suave tailored its new body care products to meet the criteria in product safety apps like Yuka. [Glossy]

Prerecorded shorts still get better traction with U.S. shoppers than live streams. [Modern Retail]

The massive turnout for a Sincerely Yours mall event shows that teens and tweens are hungry for in-person experiences. [Ad Age] 

Creatine drinks are here, packaged in flavors like Sour Grape and Crisp Blueberry. [Snaxshot]