Fresh off her powerful acceptance speech at the Golden Globes for her role as Renata Klein in HBO's hit Big Little Lies and her part as a leading character in the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Laura Dern wants to play more complex and culturally relevant characters, which is something she says audiences desire....
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Laura Dern Says Creators Need to ‘Catch Up’ With Audience’s Desire for Diverse Stories
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Skittles Wants Its Super Bowl Ad to Be Exclusive. So It’s Showing the Spot to Just One Teenage Fan
Skittles is creating a 60-second spot for the Super Bowl but the ad won't air during the Big Game on Feb. 4. Instead, one teenage fan of the brand--Marcos Menendez from Canoga Park, Calif.--will see the ad and we'll be able to see his reaction to the ad via a livestream on Skittles' Facebook page....
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Got a Desperate, Crushing Love for Plants? Here Are the Juice Ads for You
In case that 8th-grade lesson in photosynthesis didn't stick, premium juice brand Suja kindly gives a modern refresher on the process, calling it "magical witchcraft" in videos that are colorful, visceral, Instagrammable and infinitely more entertaining than a middle-school textbook. In its first digital shorts and integrated marketing campaign, Suja has a simple mandate for...
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Facebook’s News Feed Bombshell Shouldn’t Have Caught Anyone Off Guard
If Facebook's announcement last Thursday that its News Feed algorithm was being altered to favor posts from friends and family over those from publishers and pages came as a surprise to anyone, it probably shouldn't have. A source at the social network even said, "We've been openly discussing the decline in organic reach for a...
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Stella Artois Teams With Matt Damon and Water.org for First Super Bowl Appearance Since 2011
AB InBev is bringing its Stella Artois brand to the Super Bowl for the first time since its Big Game debut in 2011 with a 30-second spot called "Taps," which stars Matt Damon. Created by the agency Mother, "Taps" and the "Make Your Super Bowl Matter" campaign are the latest in the brand's broader "Buy...
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NPR’s New Ads Promise to Help You Become ‘Fully Awake’ to the Truth
NPR is adding its voice to the chorus of ad campaigns from journalistic organizations over the past year that emphasize the importance of the truth, and the search for it, in the age of Trump and fake news. New ads for Morning Edition, NPR's nationally broadcast morning show, were created by MAL\For Good, the social...
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The Ad Community’s Reaction to Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm Change
Facebook's announcement on Jan. 11th about its latest changes to its News Feed algorithm brought swift reaction from social media, agencies and others in the sector--and most of that reaction hasn't been exactly positive. The social network announced in a Newsroom post by vice president of News Feed Adam Mosseri and in an accompanying Facebook...
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6 Ways to Create a Live Event That Encourages Social Sharing
It takes a lot of work to create a live event that will attract the largest attendance possible. Having put the work in, you'll want to pay just as much attention to getting those attendees to share that they are at your event with their social network of potential future attendees. It's at these live...
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Tired of H&M’s Gendered Kids’ Clothes, These Moms Made the Ads They Wanted to See
We like it when people get sick of waiting for change to happen, because then, they often make the change themselves. This is the case for Torny Hesle and Ingrid Lea, a pair of Norwegian mothers who work as creatives at The Oslo Company. Fed up with the subtle stereotypes constantly being imposed upon their...
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Why the Weight-Loss Industry Is Starting to Use More Male Celebs as Spokespeople
Diets: They're not just for gals anymore! And by the way, it's not a diet. It's a lifestyle. There are major changes afoot in the weight-loss industry, with many marketers focusing on health and wellness, rather than calories, scales, inches and tape measures. And two powerful brands, Atkins and Weight Watchers, have recently taken the...
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Meet the Woman Behind Some of the Most Recognizable Brand Typefaces
While art and writing go hand in hand, they're typically thought of separately in the advertising industry. Agencies have copywriters, and they have designers; those roles rarely cross. But that's not the case in Nadine Chahine's world. The U.K. type director at Monotype beautifully combines words and designs to deliver some of the most identifiable...
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This Agency Puts Storytelling First to Connect Brands and Consumers in a Mobile World
When Day One opened its doors in March 2014, its main mission was to "stop the world in its tracks with stories that connect," according to agency CEO Josh Rosenberg. That's happening more and more on mobile for a lot of brands, including some of Day One's clients: American Express, Chipotle, Nike and Victoria's Secret....
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How WWE Raw Turned the Brand Into a Global Entertainment Company
For Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and John Cena, becoming a cultural icon began on WWE Monday Night Raw. It's the longest-running weekly episodic program in TV history, and will celebrate its 25th anniversary live from New York on Jan. 22. Raw consistently ranks as the top cable entertainment show on Monday nights, and is one...
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How Sweet’N Low Taught Americans to Say No to Sugar
Louis Armstrong had two great loves in life--music, of course, and eating. The legendary trumpet player "ate just like a dog," he once said. Armstrong adored soul food and Chinese food, scarfing down so much of both that he'd also swallow antacids and laxatives in an attempt to keep his weight in check. In 1968,...
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BlackBerry Introduces ‘Jarvis,’ a New Security Platform for Connected Cars
At the North American International Auto Show on Monday, BlackBerry CEO John Chen unveiled "Jarvis," a new security platform for connected and autonomous cars. The software scans the cars' inputs and outputs for both standard and manufacturer-defined protocols, and automatically identifies any bugs, potential exploits and nonconforming code. "Future cars will have half a billion...
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The Secret to Retail Tech Success Isn’t the Tech. It’s the Planning and Training
Kicking off the tech industry calendar, the Consumer Electronics Show is a prime opportunity for innovators to make their mark on often-crowded marketplaces, or to introduce their goods to valuable new audiences. So it was surprising to me that this year, retail innovation was a somewhat underwhelming affair in comparison to the buzz around other...
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Voice Reigned at CES 2018, but Diversity Was Still Elusive
Every year, the Consumer Electronic Show sets the agenda for the biggest trends and gadgets. Thousands of marketers descend into the desert to discuss the tech that consumers will soon get their hands on--and what it means for brands. As technology weaves more intricately into our daily lives and consumer adoption continues to grow, CES's...
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YouTube Is Finally Addressing Brand Safety Fears With These 3 Changes
After nearly a year of complaints from advertisers concerned about their ads appearing alongside questionable content and a slew of its biggest influencers going rogue on the platform, YouTube is revamping its policies for how creators make money off of their videos. Over the past year, YouTube has tweaked several of its policies, upping the...
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72andSunny Welcomes New Managing Director From Wieden + Kennedy, Promotes ECD From Within
After strengthening its leadership team in Los Angeles in November, 72andSunny has set out to build up its New York office with some key strategic moves--hiring Jessica Monsey as managing director, promoting Justine Armour to executive creative director and moving its current managing director and partner, James Townsend, into a global role. Monsey is slated...
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Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Media Will Work With Athletes on YouTube Content
Creative development and media company Thirty Five Media, owned by National Basketball Association superstar Kevin Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleinman, announced that it will work with YouTube to help athletes create their own YouTube channels, as well as to create new sports programming, as a YouTube development partner. This partnership follows the launch...
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