Hasta La Creative!

Molly Godet-Thomas, the former senior art director who won a Cannes Gold Lion during a career spanning J Walter Thompson and Publicis – during which time she became a role model for aspiring women creatives – has died aged 68 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: Happy Black Friday shopping! So what if the faux holiday is still over two weeks away? Best Buy’s Black Friday discounts started yesterday, and Walmart’s launch today, as The Washington Post reports. These are rough times for retail, and shops are competing for our attention sooner than ever. Will the strategy pay off? Who knows. In the meantime, some news you can use: There are $6 pajamas on sale at Walmart.

$99

Twitter has a new offering targeted at small businesses, a subscription ad service that costs $99 a month, as Ad Age’s Garett Sloane writes. For that fee, Twitter subscribers get up to 10 promoted tweets a day, and the service is designed to be automated and hassle-free. Twitter’s ad business isn’t doing so well, with ad sales down 8% in the third quarter from the year earlier. The question here is, does Twitter need small businesses more than small businesses need Twitter?

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Campaigns that ran on Facebook and Instagram had a mostly positive effect on consumer attitudes towards the brand, proved an exhaustive study by Kantar Millward Brown and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Beacon of light’ imagery from the Chinese brand’s latest corporate campaign reflects its intention to step out as a world leader.

Sainsbury’s expects to roll out 45 Smart Shops in stores by the end of next week as the brand continues to drive down costs amid competition from discounters.

Uber has reportedly picked 72andSunny as its global ad agency following a review in the US.

I recently completed an audit of key issues facing several dozen senior agency leaders. These conversations inevitably turn to talent in the ad industry, you know — those valuable assets that go down in the elevator every night.

One CEO suggested I would do the ad biz a great service by shining the spotlight on a disturbing observation I’ve had for some time: namely, the industry is sucking the life out of its employees.

Top talent is, unfortunately, being squeezed out of advertising by the increasing pressures on the business. The three main symptoms are: an overloaded workforce; an exodus to other industries; and the cry for better work-life balance.

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The dystopian narratives of the 20th century encouraged in entire generations a healthy dread of state surveillance. Turns out it’s not Big Brother doing the snooping. It’s us – marketers – “lensing in” on personal privacy.

As Millennials reach their mid-thirties, the cracks in the heavy-handed segmentation are starting to show, with significant implications for brands.

Omar Oakes failed to see the funny side of Don’t Panic’s Bonfire Night stunt.