What you need to know in advertising today

Federal judge Richard Leon will issue an opinion Tuesday on the US government's lawsuit to block an $85.4 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner.

The decision will be closely watched by a telecommunications industry in the midst of mega mergers. Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. have a proposed $26 billion merger, and Disney and Comcast are competing for 21st Century Fox.

Its not the first time AT&T sits at the center of industry-reckoning antitrust decisions. In its more than 240 year existence, American Telephone & Telegraph has battled the federal government, splintering, reorganizing, merging anew.

To read more about AT&T's century-long battles with the government, click here.

In other news:

Facebook is cracking down on businesses that lie to customers in their ads. The social network is making it easier for customers to leave feedback on merchants whose ads they saw on the platform.

The ex-Apple superstar who became the face of Uber is leaving after a year. Bozoma Saint John, a marketing expert who was hired by ousted CEO Travis Kalanick to help fix Uber's brand, is leaving the company.

Wendy's and other burger chains are slamming IHOP for its 'IHOb' rebrand. The burger giant tweeted sarcastically, "Can't wait to try a burger from the place that decided pancakes were too hard."

'When we do something that grows, it makes sense to pay attention to it:' Publishers are seeing huge traffic spikes from Flipboard. Media companies are seeing a surprising web traffic spike from Flipboard, thanks to a recent tweak that sends loads of hits to their websites.

US podcast ad revenues hit record $314 million in 2017, reports Techcrunch. That number is up 86 percent from the $169 million in 2016, according to new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by the IAB and PwC U.S.