Hasta La Creative!

Squatty Potty knows some fantastic beasts and where to find them. That would be on the toilet, of course. The brand, known for its candy-colored fever-dream viral videos, has added a sweet-faced purple dragon, a contorting centaur and a ginger merman to its stable of oddball spokescharacters. The latest mini-movie, from agency Harmon Brothers, features…

New installments of “Upstanders,” Starbucks’ series of good-news videos, has penetrated the upper reaches of brand videos, at least in terms of views accumulated in our most recent weekly chart. The campaign, whose first iteration was introduced last fall, is designed to highlight positive stories rather than directly shill for Starbucks productsalthough any new shine for the Starbucks brand halo would certainly be welcome.

As always, the view counts below reflect both organic views initiated by interested consumers and paid ad placemewnts.

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In the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign, voters in swing states including Nevada and North Carolina saw ads appear in their Facebook feeds and on Google websites touting a pair of controversial faux-tourism videos, showing France and Germany overrun by Sharia law. French schoolchildren were being trained to fight for the caliphate, jihadi fighters were celebrated at the Arc de Triomphe, and the “Mona Lisa” was covered in a burka.

“Under Sharia law, you can enjoy everything the Islamic State of France has to offer, as long as you follow the rules,” intoned the narrator of one ad.

Unlike Russian efforts to secretly influence the 2016 election via social media, this American-led campaign was aided by direct collaboration with employees of Facebook and Google. They helped target the ads to more efficiently reach the intended audiences, according to internal reports from the ad agency that ran the campaign, as well as five people involved with the efforts.

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Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from more than seven million smart TVs. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.

A few highlights: T-Mobile says it will donate $10,000 to hurricane recovery efforts for every home run hit during the 2017 MLB postseason. Samsung shows off all the ways you can use its new Gear Sport smartwatch. And Nike tells the epic tale of a boy named Dante who dreams of playing pro basketball in an ad that features cameos from LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Paul George.

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Brad Jakeman, the high-profile president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group who oversees the marketer’s in-house content creation arm, is leaving the company after seven years to start his own consulting firm. PepsiCo will be his first client, according to a company memo authored by Eugene Willemsen, the company’s executive VP for global categories and franchise management. Willemsen will lead the global beverage group on an interim basis until a replacement is found.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with entrepreneurs all over the world who are disrupting industries, creating new economies and building a better society. Now, I have chosen to step down from my current role at PepsiCo in order to follow my passion in these areas, while continuing to consult for PepsiCo,” Jakeman stated in the memo. “I am starting a new venture to help companies innovate and to advise on building brands in our hyper-connected world.” A PepsiCo spokeswoman confirmed Jakeman’s departure, stating that the company “looks forward to working with him in this new capacity.”

His exit comes six months after PepsiCo was forced to pull its widely-mocked Kendall Jenner ad. The spot was created by the marketer’s in-house content creation arm, called Creators League Studio, which Jakeman oversees.The backlash against the ad did not prompt his departure, according to people familiar with the situation, although in a recent personal Facebook post he called the experience “gut-wrenching and painful.”

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A couple things to note about Variety’s just-released Harvey Weinstein cover story:

First, the cover itselfa illustration (by Peter Strain) of disgraced movie mogul Weinstein, looking somehow both defiant and defeated, together with an eerily spot-on headline: “GAME OVER.”

Second, one particular passage in story, which appears online under the headline “Judgment Day: Harvey Weinstein Scandal Could Finally Change Hollywood’s Culture of Secrecy.” Brent Lang and Elizabeth Wagmeister write,

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