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Egads.... Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, parent of Facebook, is funding a bare-knuckle grassroots campaign to turn public opinion against TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, according to a breathless report in the Washington Post.

Meta is using Targeted Victory to place articles and op-eds in regional papers promoting “dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook” and working to amplify negative coverage.

Targeted Victory, which WaPo notes is a Republican aligned firm, is lining up “proactive coverage” about Facebook.

The Post put a negative spin on a basic tool of PR: grassroots outreach.

One wonders if the liberal WaPo post took a shot at Targeted Victory because its goal is to bring a “right-of-center perspective to solve marketing challenges.”

Zac Moffatt, who was digital director for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential run, launched Targeted Victory.

He’s been working for Facebook since at least 2016, along with blue-chip clients such as AT&T, Gillette and FedEx for years.

The Post failed to note Targeted Victory is a unit of Stagwell Group.

Mark Penn, who advised Bill and Hillary Clinton, helms Stagwell. His name has graced the pages of the Post for years.

Damn the Oligarchs– Full Speed Ahead, says Alberto Galassi, CEO of Italian yacht maker Ferretti, paraphrasing the command given by Admiral David Farragut, the hero of the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Ferretti has just gone public on the Hong Kong stock in a deal valued at just shy of $1B.

Its prospectus eases the fears of potential investors who thought the sanctions slapped on Russian oligarchs in the aftermath of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine would sink its sale of super-yachts, which are boats from 39 to 95 meters long.

Fear not. Ferretti says sales to Russian and Ukrainian customers only accounted for three percent of 2021 sales.

To its best knowledge, there are no pending sales to Russians or Ukrainians on the books.

And beside the point: “Due to the nature and uniqueness of the luxury industry, we did not experience in the past, nor do we expect to face in the future any material difficulty in selling our yachts to other customers,” Ferretti’s said.

The company, which is controlled by China’s Weichai Group, sees a bright future in the APAC market.

It posted a 63 percent rise in nine-month revenues to $775M. It earned $42M compared to a $12M year ago loss.

Let them eat cake, indeed.