When hockey teams barred female reporters from men’s locker rooms, she pushed back, breaking through a barrier and campaigning successfully for equal access for women.
Fans who attend the game will receive a token unique to their section, row and seat.
The company didn’t say whether a recent artist boycott is impacting business.
To kick off Black History Month, Lamar Advertising will honor some of the best and the brightest Black Americans who have contributed to the tapestry of the country’s culture. Lamar, one of the largest global outdoor advertising companies, will use its network of digital billboards throughout the United States to highlight nine Black heroes whose…
Social network partly blames changing data rules for possibility of slower advertising growth.
Vita Coco, no stranger to stunt marketing, will wade into Super Bowl waters with a trio of promotions meant to simplify life for the hard-partying football crowd. The coconut water brand, like others with no official link to the Big Game, aims to take advantage of the hoopla surrounding the event without ponying up the…
After seven years away from the Big Game, BMW has called down the lightning for its godlike Super Bowl return. With help from its creative agency of record, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, BMW asked action, fitness and political icon Arnold Schwarzenegger to join equally versatile Hollywood colleague Salma Hayek Pinault as Zeus and Hera. The…
The spot highlights key aspects of the hassle-free sales process Carvana promotes.
The Ad Council celebrated Valentine’s Day 2015 with the PSA “Love Has No Labels,” which went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. The ad kicked off an ongoing campaign, which continues this Valentine’s Day with “Alexa, What Is Love?” a 30-second spot developed with Amazon Ads. Directed by Rodney Lucas, the spot shows…
I’m Ad Age Editor Jeanine Poggi, counting down to Super Bowl LVI. In the weeks leading up to the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams, which will air on NBC on Feb. 13, Ad Age will bring you breaking news, analysis and first looks at the high-stakes, Big Game commercials—all in our Super Bowl newsletter. Sign up right here to get them in your email.
Meta is revealing more details about its Super Bowl commercial, and unsurprising to anyone following Facebook, it will take place in the metaverse. A teaser released today shows an empty fictional restaurant called Questy’s, a Chuck E. Cheese-style backdrop that looks a little tattered, Ad Age’s Garett Sloane writes. The trailer pans across the arcade-eatery playing a song with a vaguely familiar ’80s sound that ends with the lyrics, “and we’ll always be together.” One of the goals of the campaign is to give people a reason to visit the virtual reality world Meta is building, said Chelsey Susin Kantor, Meta’s head of brand and integrated marketing. “Our focus is on what’s ready today.”
RSVP for Ad Age’s Super Bowl event on Feb. 8 at AdAge.com/InDepthSuperBowl.
Budweiser is back to its sentimental ways. With its return to the Big Game it is also returning to its emotional formula with an ad that stars a Clydesdale and a dog, Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz writes.
The spot, directed by Academy Award-winner Chloe? Zhao, shows a Clydesdale galloping through an open Western landscape before tripping on a barbed wire fence, suffering a leg injury. A yellow lab looks on, barking its concern. A stableman and vet nurse the horse back to health (and drink Budweisers in one scene). The final scene shows the Clydesdale charging out of its stable, with the dog running to greet it, as the phrase “In the home of the brave down never means out” appears on screen.
The spot follows the formula of several other prior Budweiser ads that look to tug at the heartstrings all to get people to crack open a cold one. It is expected to be one of just a few ads that attempt to hit a more sentimental note—in this case, looking to remind people that America is resilient.
You can watch all of Budweiser’s prior Clydesdale/puppy Super Bowl ads in our voluminous, searchable Super Bowl Ad Archive.
Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen star in Lay’s Super Bowl commercial, which dropped today. Moments before Rogen is set to get married (the identity of his bride raises many questions), the two friends reminiscence over a bag of chips. The commercial was written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the director, screenwriter and producer of some of Rogen and Rudd’s most beloved comedies including “Superbad” and “This is the End.” Goldberg also directed the commercial. You can watch the spot here.
To keep track of all the advertisers running national spots in the game, bookmark Ad Age’s regularly updated Super Bowl ad chart.
Uber Eats is the latest brand to reveal a host of high-profile celebrities tied to its Super Bowl commercial. A series of teasers the brand released today star Jennifer Coolidge, known for her comedic roles in “American Pie” (Stiffler’s mom), “Legally Blonde,” and more recently, HBO’s “White Lotus”; “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah; and actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow. In each, the stars receive non-food deliveries via Uber Eats such as makeup, deodorant and a candle—yet they go ahead and eat them anyway, Ad Age’s Ann-Christine Diaz writes.
You can watch Uber Eat’s teaser, as well as new teasers from Expedia and Wallbox here.
Don’t take crypto advice from Tom Brady or Matt Damon. That’s what Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, is warning Super Bowl viewers in a campaign that dropped today. As brands like Crypto.com and FTX prepare to make their first foray into the Super Bowl (both of which are expected to come with celebrity spokespeople), Binance is urging consumers not to necessarily buy into the hype. The irony is that it is using celebrities of its own to send this message, writes Ad Age’s Asa Hiken.
NBA player Jimmy Butler appeared in a teaser on social media, in which he told viewers that crypto-shilling celebrities “don’t know you or your finances.” He then encouraged viewers to “trust yourself” and “do your own research” before entering the market.
Former NFL star Deion Sanders and his son, the pro football prospect Shedeur Sanders, outdo one another with feats of strength in an ad for Danone’s Oikos Pro yogurt set to air shortly before halftime during Peacock’s livestream of the Super Bowl, Ad Age’s Jon Springer writes. Titled “Strong,” the 30-second commercial from creative agency Lightning Orchard shows the Sanders duo out-muscling one another tackling tasks like wood-chopping, leaf-raking and SUV-lifting before both are left cowering before the might of “Mamma Connie”—Deion’s mother and Shedeur’s grandmother.
Oikos is remembered for a broadcast TV Super Bowl ad in 2012 in which John Stamos has a romantic encounter interrupted by his “Full House” co-stars, Bob Saget (RIP) and Dave Coulier.
Fans attending the Super Bowl can’t frame paper ticket stubs, since they won’t exist, but they will be able to unlock their own special NFTs. The NFL today announced that it is issuing free NFTs that commemorate Super Bowl tickets and serve as digital keepsakes. As Ad Age’s Asa Hiken writes, the league’s other plans include seven NFTs that will be available for purchase to commemorate the Super Bowl’s seven previous appearances in Los Angeles.
In honor of Groundhog Day we are remembering the 2020 USA Today Ad Meter winner, Jeep’s “Groundhog Day” commercial starring Bill Murray reprising his role from the 1993 film.
RSVP for Ad Age’s Super Bowl event on Feb. 8 at AdAge.com/InDepthSuperBowl.
BMW will plug its electric vehicles with help from the actor portraying the Greek god of lightning.
Twitter introduced its Twitter Toolbox, a set of low-cost, easy-to-use tools built by its developer community for use by its developer community. Twitter Toolbox is organized into three categories. Expression tools are Buffer, which lets developers organize, plan and schedule content; Chirr App, a way to write and schedule Twitter threads; and Thread Reader, which…
Marginalized groups continue to face issues with inclusion. When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, more often than not brands tend to have a role in widening the queer inclusivity gap by conducting minimal outreach to these consumers. Couplet Coffee, an LGBTQ+ and woman-owned lifestyle coffee brand is aiming to make specialty coffee less pretentious…
Chewy introduces us to Giorgio and Ralph—two dogs in conversation (kinda)—as part of its “Chatty Pets” campaign.
Creators on iOS using Twitter’s Super Follows monetization option can now see all interactions from their Super Followers under their Notifications tab. new feature alert for creators, rolling out on iOS! creators will now be able to see all their Super Follower interactions under the ‘notifications’ tab pic.twitter.com/Ruopkq7uAa — Super Follows (@SuperFollows) February 1, 2022…
Zucker said he was asked about the relationship as part of the network’s investigation into Chris Cuomo.
THE GREAT OFFSHORE. Art, argent, souveraineté, gouvernance, colonialisme, edited by the RYBN collective. With contributions by Wilfried Bartoli, James Bridle, Ewen Chardronnet & Bureau d’études, Paolo Cirio, Alain Denault, John Doe, Rachel O’Dwyer, Phineas Fisher, Max Haiven, Reijer Hendriske & Rodrigo Fernandez, Femke Herrgraven, Brian Holmes, Aude Launay, Marie Lechner, Frédéric Neyrat, RYBN.org, Brett Scott, Hito Steyerl, Sarah Taurinya, Vera Tollmann & Boaz Levin. Published by UV Editions (the publishers of another great book: Le cinéma des animaux.)
I don’t often review books written in French but then again I don’t often come across a publication that explores the perverse mechanisms of offshore finance with so much wit, intelligence and clarity. Here is a rapid translation of its summary:
The RYBN.ORG collective tracks the physical and tangible manifestations of offshore finance in the territories where it operates. Borrowing radical strategies from the extra-disciplinary, their work, which brings together the writings of twenty-one artists, hackers and philosophers, draws up an inventory of the most recent changes in offshore capitalism. From the politics of proxies to space extractivism and the commodification of the commons, including citizenship by investment and the art market, everything indicates that “offshore governance” has become the norm, that it has become globalized capitalism.
Steven Soderbergh, The Laundromat, 2019
RYBN, “Offshore Tour” Series, London, The City. Photo: Wilfried Bartoli, RYBN.ORG, 2018-2020
Despite intense media attention sparked by the publication of the Offshore Leaks, LuxLeaks, SwissLeaks, Panama Paper, Bahamas Leaks, Paradise Papers, FinCenFiles and other revelations of massive financial scandals, despite the release of the Hollywood movie The Laundromat, most of us tend to be fairly ignorant of the functioning and mechanisms of offshore finance.
A certain imagery full of clichés, a vocabulary that favours euphemisms, a congenital opacity, a general feeling that the topic is overwhelmingly arcane and alien, etc. All these factors (and more) act as a screen that prevents us from grasping the full extent of offshore criminality and the consequences it has on society.
The artists of the RYBN collective have enrolled an impressive line-up of writers, thinkers, researchers and artists to sidestep the usual economic analysis and add an extra-disciplinary perspective on offshoring. The result is a book that combines existing essays with original texts and interviews. The publication is also illustrated with photos taken during RYBN’s inquiry into the very tangible traces of offshore activities in the streets of Basel, Amsterdam, London, Malta and Jersey.
The Geneva Free Port, behind barbed wire, is crammed with storage vaults that contain some of the most exquisite artworks ever made, tucked away where they may not be seen for decades. Photo: Fred Merz for The New York Times
I was particularly interested in the chapter that exposes how art has become the perfect vehicle for tax evasion and money laundering. Both Hito Steyerl and Max Haiven wrote essays about freeport art storage. Located in a tax-free zone, freeports are bunkers that double as massive museums closed to the public.
As Steyerl notes: The idea of duty-free art has one major advantage over the nation-state cultural model: duty-free art ought to have no duty—no duty to perform, to represent, to teach, to embody value. It should not be indebted to anyone, nor serve a cause or a master, nor be a means to anything. Duty-free art should not be a means to represent a culture, a nation, money, or anything else. Even the duty-free art in the freeport storage spaces is not duty free. It is only tax-free. It has the duty of being an asset.
Rachel O’Dwyer‘s essay uses real-life examples to illustrate how freeport and the blockchain are used as technologies that transform a static property (in this case a contemporary artwork) into a financial asset in a state of perpetual transit. Aude Launay observes the impact that NFTs can have on the distribution of art, on the way artists are remunerated and more generally on the possible obsolescence of traditional art models.
3D image of the Seasteading Institute project, 2017
In one of the essays found in the “liquid identities” chapter, James Bridle traces the history of the recent phenomenon of citizenship by investment which allows rich foreigners to buy a passport from counties like Antigua and Barbuda, Malta and Cyprus. You make investments in the country, contributing significantly to its GDP. What you get in return is a passport that allows you to travel visa-free in Europe, the US and other rich regions of the world. Bridle draws parallels between, on the one hand, the rise of nationalisms and the hardening of external border control and, on the other hand, the development of a market of national identities for the super-rich. The main victim of this citizenship shopping being the state itself.
Ewen Chardronnet and Bureau d’Études analyse U.S. plans for extractivist practices in space (aka the “newspace” economy): the boom of «Spaceports» projects across Europe, the space debris business as well as the U.S. ambitions to mine outer space for precious resources like water, rare earth minerals and helium 3.
RYBN.ORG has an eye-opening essay on Luxembourg’s programme of Space Mining. The grand duchy claims that its space appetites are motivated by the ecological emergency: We need minerals to produce “green” technology and the resources on Earth are not infinite. Let’s mine them in outer space! Behind these noble aspirations, however, is the desire to privatise outer space and strengthen the country’s role as a hub for financial transactions.
The other texts I particularly enjoyed include:
The John Doe manifesto published in Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2016 by the anonymous whistleblower who had leaked the documents at the origin of the Panama Papers.
Reijer Hendrikse & Rodrigo Fernandez connects the rise of transnational organisations profiting from offshore finance with the erosion of territorial sovereignty.
Femke Herregraven compared the Zuidas business district in Amsterdam to a Caribbean island because of the role that the Dutch ‘Financial Mile’ plays in international financial transactions and tax planning.
Phineas Fisher draws on his hacking of the Cayman Bank and Trust Company (based on the Isle of Man) to provide readers with a DIY guide to steal from the banks.
Sam’s Club is rolling out new robots in warehouses across the country as the membership store looks to bring more efficiency to its inventory scanning process. The new devices, made possible through a partnership between the Walmart-owned chain and AI software company Brain Corp, will be mounted onto Sam’s Club’s existing fleet of automated floor…
WarnerMedia News and Sports chairman and CNN president Jeff Zucker has stunned his company–and the industry at large–by announcing his resignation, effective immediately. In a note to his colleagues, first tweeted out by CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter, Zucker mentions that as part of the Chris Cuomo investigation–which led to the former CNN host’s firing…
Leading food delivery company Grubhub has named Interpublic Group’s Universal McCann (UM) its media agency of record. The agency won the business from incumbents Havas and Dentsu. Havas Edge managed the company’s DRTV and CTV while Dentsu managed project work with out-of-home advertising, according to COMvergence, which also estimated media spend for Grubhub is $128…
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