Walgreens' Media Chief Calls TikTok Virality 'All a Lie'

Walgreens' media chief James Lerner does not trust what's going viral on TikTok. “Can we trust what’s going viral on TikTok? Absolutely not. It's all a lie. It's all an illusion,” said Lerner, senior director of media strategy & planning at Walgreens. "It’s always somebody like me in the background saying, ‘I need just a little bit more traffic to prove this ad out. TikTok guys, if you can help me out?'” Speaking at Mediaweek in New York, Lerner said that TikTok's AI media buying tool Smart+ offers advertisers ways to boost visibility if goals aren't being met. If the tool isn’t delivering as expected, TikTok has a “back door” approach to increase traffic, effectively "throttling up" engagement to meet ad performance goals. TikTok did not respond with an official statement in time for publication. A Walgreens spokesperson told ADWEEK that the company "did not authorize James to make comments about TikTok’s platform, and his views do not reflect those of Walgreens Boots Alliance." Lerner was joined by Andrea Abrams, CEO and founder of consortium Phygicode, and Elizabeth Brooks, co-founder and managing partner at Better Angels Ventures on the panel about how AI is impacting media buying. Advertisers have long grumbled about the lack of transparency of walled gardens' set-it-and-forget-it AI-media buying tools, like Google’s Performance Max, Meta’s Advantage+, and TikTok's Smart+. Pulling levers in the background to enhance engagement leaves little insight into what it is about an ad or post that resonates or performs well. If a company spends $100,000 a month on Pmax, marketers can track impressions by domain, but they struggle to understand where the ads appear and what drives revenue, according to Lerner. “Obviously, Google doesn't want to tell you that because it's sucking up all your budget [and] giving you some type of efficiency curve and your ROI is decent, so you're not going to question that,” he said. “For a large Fortune 500 company with 8,000 stores, that's not a very acceptable answer.” Lerner added that Walgreens is trying to break down some of the walled gardens, and small doors are opening. Lerner is particularly keen to get impression logs to show to the CFO that Walgreens is getting the best possible price for the media it's buying. But there's evidence that these AI tools are slowly improving. Google is testing Search Bidding Exploration with buyers that target smaller pockets of search traffic, going against the criticism that these tools target audiences that would have converted anyway. Recent updates to Pmax boost transparency on where ads are served, while Meta has recalibrated its conversion metrics to raise the performance benchmark. "The claims made about TikTok's advertising solutions at MediaWeek are ridiculous and lack any truth," said a TikTok spokesperson. "We prioritize integrity and transparency across the entire TikTok platform and have clear policies that govern advertising on TikTok. We continue to work with our advertising partners to build tools and insights that help them drive success." Frustrations with over-attribution Walgreens serves around 8 million customers daily, generating around $30 billion in quarterly revenue, and a nine-plus figure ad budget and tech resources, said Lerner. While AI buying tools offer some efficiency, Lerner voiced frustrations over platforms' claiming over-attribution. “They do come back to me and say, ‘Yep, you’re right, there might be some over-attribution—we’re claiming too much credit,’” he said. Armed with extensive first-party data, Walgreens has the insights needed to target consumers, especially lapsed customers. “If I know who is buying my products, why can’t a platform serve ads to the right person at the right time?” he said. Navigating AI media buying and compliance challenges But compliance and procurement challenges make it tough for companies like Walgreens to balance effective advertising with regulatory requirements. Walgreens has rules about using AI tools, enforcing strict policies in its contracts, particularly against using AI for content creation since some tools are trained on copyrighted data. But the rules get fuzzy around everyday tools like Photoshop and media-buying solutions that have AI features. “My procurement and privacy team say ‘you're using AI, we're not supposed to use that,’ said Lerner. “[But] I don't have a business if I can't let the agency use Photoshop.” This article has been updated to include TikTok's statement.

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Walgreens' Media Chief Calls TikTok Virality 'All a Lie'

Walgreens' James Lerner raises red flags on muddled AI media buying tools at Mediaweek

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