Brookfield Oaktree Holdings, LLC

BJ’s Uses Tariff Refunds to Lower Prices

BJ’s Wholesale Club told investors that it applied recent tariff refunds to reduce overall retail prices by roughly 0.5 percentage point, widening its price advantage over competitors, CEO Bob Eddy said on a May 22 Q1 earnings call. CFO Laura Felice said tariff-related benefits lifted merchandise margin by about 50 basis points last quarter, roughly $20 million. BJ’s expects to receive additional tariff dollars and will monitor the refund process. Separately, Oaktree Capital Management filed a New York Supreme Court lawsuit alleging BJ’s breached an agreement to sell its claim for about $29 million in tariff refunds. The article notes other retailers, including Walmart and E.l.f. Beauty, plan to use similar tariff rebates for price cuts following a February Supreme Court ruling invalidating certain Trump-era country-specific tariffs.

GE Aerospace Built Brand Before Product Existed

GE Aerospace, an independent public company since April 2, 2024, used deliberate brand-building to win long-term commercial commitments for engines that will not fly for years. Melissa Washko, chief brand officer, described at the ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference how the company rebuilt its visual identity and produced two films featuring employees to establish trust and familiarity. That trust underpinned customer willingness to commit to decades-long service relationships and contributed to a reported $210bn backlog of engine agreements. The company’s next-generation open fan engine targets roughly 20% improved fuel efficiency, but commercial service is years away; GE positioned brand work to make that technical promise credible well before product delivery.

Publishers Weigh Paid Traffic vs. MFA Arbitrage Risk

Publishers are increasingly buying paid traffic to offset declines in referral and organic search traffic, treating paid acquisition as a necessary audience-growth tool. The practice divides the industry: some see paid clicks as legitimate reader-acquisition costs that can lead to subscriptions or direct visits, while others warn it easily slides into made-for-advertising (MFA) arbitrage that agencies and DSPs now block. The 2023 ANA report on MFA prompted a crackdown that still looms over publishers, and vendors that maintain MFA blocklists sometimes keep red-line thresholds ambiguous. Concerns include inflated ad loads on paid visits, poor engagement from paid-heavy audiences, and the risk that generative AI will make low-quality MFA content harder to distinguish from premium sites. Industry voices cited include Chris Kane (Jounce Media), Justin Barton (Black Enterprise), Elli Papadaki (Onetag), and Alessandro De Zanche (ADZ Strategies).