China is hot on the United States’ heels when it comes to artificial intelligence research, according to a new report from Seattle nonprofit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The analysis found that China has already surpassed the U.S. in the total number of AI-related papers produced and is on course to overtake it in the…
Two key dates stand out in the partnership between ecommerce application and platform Wish and the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers: Sept. 21, 2017, and July 9, 2018. On the first date, Wish and the Lakers agreed to a three-year deal, estimated at $12 million to $14 million per year, for the app’s logo…
Just two weeks after news broke that it was losing a partner and executive creative officer, Barton F. Graf is laying off a significant number of staffers as some of its largest clients trim spending or shift to project work.
According to numbers supplied to Ad Age by the agency late last year, at the time the shop employed 53 staffers. It’s said that about 15 people were laid off, which would mean the cuts affected at least 25% of staff.
In a text message to Ad Age yesterday, the shop’s CEO Caroline Winterton declined to specify how many people have been laid off but did confirm there were cuts.
Skoda’s last big ad–“Ugly in the ’90s”–featured a litany of personal fashion disasters that didn’t make a whole lot of sense until you reached the payoff, when you learn the Czech automaker was poking fun at its own clunky designs pre-2000s. Now the brand and its Paris-based agency, Rosapark, are back with another charmingly confusing…
W. Pendleton Tudor, one of the three executives who founded Adweek in 1979, died Tuesday in Montecito, Calif. His children Beth and Doug were with him. Tudor was 89 years old. A nationally recognized marketing and publishing executive, Tudor was born on March 5, 1930, and despite his courtly name, most everyone just called him…
The usual Super Bowl network rotation order–CBS, Fox and then NBC–is about to be shaken up. NBC and CBS have agreed to swap their next Super Bowl telecasts, which means that CBS will broadcast Super Bowl LV in 2021, and NBC will air Super Bowl LVI in 2022, Adweek has confirmed. The move allows NBCUniversal…
Jess Cagle, a mainstay of People magazine, is stepping down as editor in chief of the entertainment publication at the end of March, he said Wednesday. “I’ve decided it’s time to do some other things while I’m still young–or at least alive,” Cagle wrote in a memo he sent to People staff. “It’s also time…
Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the TV ad measurement and attribution company. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.
A few highlights: Singer-songwriter Halsey helps promote online women’s clothing retailer ModCloth in a dramatic, dreamlike commercial with the tagline “Dress against the current, live against the current.” Halo Top serves up another spot in its new campaign with the tagline/jingle “Ice cream for adults, because adults need a lot of ice cream.” (As we noted in yesterday’s Hot Spots, Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl previewed the campaign last week: “Even ‘The Bachelor’ needs a lot of ice cream in Halo Top’s first TV ad.”) And Kohl’s promises “epic deals” on everything from pillows to Nike and Adidas shoes”no coupons needed.”
We decided to break down those myths that respond to the typical question kids ask, “where do babies come from?”
We took charge and responded with the truth in order to expose the purpose of the foundation.
Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the TV ad measurement and attribution company. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.
A few highlights: Singer-songwriter Halsey helps promote online women’s clothing retailer ModCloth in a dramatic, dreamlike commercial with the tagline “Dress against the current, live against the current.” Halo Top serves up another spot in its new campaign with the tagline/jingle “Ice cream for adults, because adults need a lot of ice cream.” (As we noted in yesterday’s Hot Spots, Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl previewed the campaign last week: “Even ‘The Bachelor’ needs a lot of ice cream in Halo Top’s first TV ad.”) And Kohl’s promises “epic deals” on everything from pillows to Nike and Adidas shoes”no coupons needed.”
(TrendHunter.com) Latin America will soon be home to a series of innovative 3D-printed houses that will go up rapidly thanks to the Vulcan II, a large-scale machine capable of creating the frame for a small house…
Fox News opened up its studios to advertisers on Wednesday to promote a message of transparency and trust at its first-ever upfront.
The presentation came as the news behemoth deals with yet another round of crisis surrounding on-air hosts Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson. Both hosts’ shows have lost advertisers over the last week as they deal with separate controversies. (A group of protestors gathered outside of Fox News headquarters in midtown Manhattan as the presentation to advertisers was going on inside.)
Brand boycotts certainly aren’t new to Fox News, but heading into the upfrontswhen networks look to secure a bulk of their ad commitments for the new seasonMarianne Gambelli, who leads ad sales for the organization, says she is frustrated by the confusion surrounding brand safety.
The last thing that springs to mind when someone mentions the dewy rolling hills and tranquil pastures of Ireland, is Bud Light. But this St. Patrick’s Day, the light beer brand is determined to take things seriously, with a bottle inspired by Ireland’s rich history and traditions.
Designed by FCB/RED – the retail division of FCB Chicago – the bottle includes accurately translated Gaelic writing in place of the classic Bud Light banner, Celtic knots steeped in traditional Irish folklore and the original three-leafed shamrock instead of the incorrect four-leaf clover that’s so common today. Even the color of the bottle was inspired by the hue of the grass in the Killarney Hills.
With the Galaxy A7’s pixel-merging technology, you can capture great scenes no matter what time of day it is. Thanks to this groundbreaking technology, the primary 24 MP cameras automatically detect the light level for high-resolution pictures in the daytime and brighter pictures in low-light conditions.
Hi Ads of the World,
Think diversity is ruining advertising? You’re not alone. A new agency, Doug NYC, just launched in order to provide a white space in the industry. Doug NYC is an all-white, male-led creative agency that believes being homogeneous is genius.
The DougNYC.com site, backdropped in calming shades of white, welcomes visitors to the Future of Advertising. A video, “We’re Doug,” asks people to “Believe in the power of sameness.” One image on the site reads, “If great minds think alike, we’re the greatest!”
Sound backwards and…well, stupid? Doug was created as a parody by L.A. independent agency Dailey, which, since its 2017 buyback from IPG, has consciously tried to hire and promote for diversity.
Dailey created the agency to promote its SXSW panel, “How Diversity Became Our Implicit Bias.” As viewers watch it, the site (and video) start to glitch, saying, “The future of advertising is diverse. Get the real answers.” Clicking on the video or the “learn more” button leads to the information page for the panel.
Doug NYC is posting once a day on its Instagram page. At the festival, a street team is airdropping digital Doug NYC flyers, geotargeting Instagram posts, and handing out Doug NYC business cards with catchy phrases like “Other shops pale in comparison.”
A staggering 38% of British children refuse to sit down at the family dinner table, according to new data commissioned by Aldi, with over a quarter of UK parents blaming online gaming for this phenomenon.
As a champion of bringing families together round the dinner table, Aldi is launching an online service to help parents restore that all-important family dinner time.
Introducing Teatime Takedown – a new online service created by McCann UK that enlists an elite squad of professional gamers, who parents can call upon to enter into their kid’s game and take them down, prompting them to put down their controllers and join the dinner table.
Aldi will use clever marketing to reach parents directly, first through a promotional film that will roll out across channels from digital to social and media from radio to out-of-home and even in-store on the back of till receipts. The service will speak straight to parents on Netmums and popular recipe websites. It’s also really simple to use. All parents need to do is sign up via Facebook by inputting their children’s gamer IDs and a desired date, and if online at the right time, the kids will be freed up to join the dinner table by the team of world-class gamers.
Running over the next two long weekends (Friday to Sunday) from 17:00-20:30, Teatime Takedown will culminate on Mother’s Day (Sunday 31 March), when Aldi will extend the service from midday through to dinnertime to reclaim this sacred family day.
As part of Ad Age’s ongoing media-about-media coverage, a quick look at coverage of the college admissions scandal that’s been dominating the national conversation.
The bottom line: This is a story that has a little bit of everything for everyoneincluding celebrity, wealth, power, ridiculously entitled parents, spoiled children, brazen fraud and outright stupiditywhich is why it’s been embraced by media across the spectrum.
The nation’s A-list newpapers all made the scandal front-page, above-the-fold news this morning: The New York Times, for instance, went with the headline “U.S. Charges Rich Parents in College Entry Fraud” (tweaked for the web to “College Admissions Scandal: Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged”). The cable news networks, meanwhile, are particularly obsessed with the camera-ready players in the drama: Felicity “Desperate Housewives” Huffman and Lori “Full House” Loughlin, as well as Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulliplus (bonus!) Loughlin and Giannulli’s Instagram/YouTube-famous daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli. (Ad Age’s Angela Doland rounds up the 19-year-old’s now-controversial work with brands here.)
Some advertisers are starting to distance themselves from both Tucker Carlson Tonight and Justice With Judge Jeanine following recent controversial remarks by both Carlson and Jeanine Pirro. However, Fox News reiterated its support for both shows and hosts Wednesday morning as a protest, organized by liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America, kicked off outside…
Struggling ad agency network MDC Partners announced the acquisition of This Also, a digital brand and product innovation studio in Brooklyn, for an undisclosed amount. The deal was led by Instrument, the Portland agency that MDC owned a 51 percent stake in as of last April. This Also, a 14-person agency founded in 2013, will…
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