Some Advertisers Slowly Test Other Platforms Ahead of TikTok’s Congress Testimony

As TikTok faces a possible U.S. ban for national security reasons, with CEO Shou Zi Chew testifying before Congress this week, analysts suggest advertisers explore other platforms to reach their audiences. “But there is no need for immediate action just yet,” said Insider Intelligence analyst, Jasmine Enberg. The U.S. accounts for roughly half of TikTok’s…

Foria Encourages Women to Find the Art in Their ‘O-Face’ in Pleasure-Centric Campaign

Foria wants women to find the beauty in moments of pleasure-and be their own muses in the process. The pioneering female sexual wellness brand–which will celebrate a decade in the space next year–has launched its latest campaign centered on finding and creating these moments and sharing them for fun. Another enticement for consumers to participate?…

AT&T’s Lily Hams It Up With NCAA Stars—Past and Present—in March Madness Ad Blitz

As one of the NCAA’s “Corporate Champions,” AT&T is typically granted carte blanche to have year-round activation presence at all its championship games. It comes as no surprise that the tech and telecom juggernaut expanded its omnipresence to include the airwaves during the hotly anticipated March Madness tournament. This year, the brand unleashed “Madness Loves…

This Agency’s ChatGPT Experiment Prompted Recruiters to Request Interviews With an AI

Recruiters are calling Austin Anglin, an art director at the independent Atlanta agency 22Squared. They aren’t interested in interviewing him. Instead, they want to reach an art director named Alex Irving. The caveat? Irving isn’t human. They’re the pseudonym behind the AI-produced creative portfolio Anglin created with his co-worker, 22Squared senior copywriter Emmy Murf. Using…

Anheuser-Busch InBev Is Only Brand to Win Cannes Lions Creative Marketer for Second Year in a Row

Cannes Lions has named Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) as Creative Marketer of the Year for the second consecutive year-the only brand to achieve this in the history of the festival. The award, introduced in 1992, honors a marketer that has created Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time and has “established a reputation for…

Adweek Creator Visionary Awards 2023: Call for Nominations

Get ready to log in: Adweek’s Creator Visionary Awards are back for a third year. Over the years, social media has evolved beyond basic communication to become an all-encompassing necessity for creativity and progress. With an aim to carve out a differentiated space for themselves and their community of supporters, creators are often born of…

McDonald’s Channels Wednesday Addams to Promote Its Home Menu

The latest campaign from McDonald’s in Romania centers around a young Chess prodigy that owes a debt to the character of Wednesday Addams as it promotes the value of its Home Menu Mix offer. Created by DDB Romania, the latest campaign aims to launch its new value platform and communicate its items as good value…

Carat Wins SharkNinja’s North American Business

SharkNinja is awarding its media business to Carat U.S., following a competitive review that the brand led itself. The review was an “expeditious process,” said Michael Law, Carat’s North America CEO, estimating just six weeks passed from when Carat received the brief to when it learned of the decision. “In the world of pitches, this…

5 Reasons Why Wonderful Pistachios Is Reviving Its Classic ‘Get Crackin’ Campaign

Stars of the original “Get Crackin'” campaign for Wonderful Pistachios ran the gamut from D-listers like Snooki and the Winklevoss twins to early internet sensation Keyboard Cat, tragicomic character Mr. Bill and cannapreneur Snoop Dogg, all showing off the personality-defining ways they enjoyed their salty tree nuts. The catchy tagline appeared in two Super Bowls–via…

How PlayStation Is Building Its Creator Strategy With LeBron James

LeBron James fans will know that, off the court, the basketball icon is an avid gamer. King James regularly interacts with his 52.8 million Twitter followers about his passion for gaming. And his fandom for Sony’s PlayStation console is legendary, as evidenced by an earnest image circling online from 2003 that shows him (on the…

Cookie-Alternative Fledge Testing Grows, But Not Among SSPs

Fledge, part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox suite of solutions intended to replace third-party cookies, is moving from a theoretical ad-tech framework to reality, according to new findings from demand-side platform RTB House. But encouraging all members of the media supply chain to test, especially in tough economic conditions, is limiting its adoption. Fledge, or first…

MikMak Goes Global With Acquisition of Swaven

MikMak is going global. The U.S.-based ecommerce platform, which revolutionized retail and recently secured a patented technology enabling the use of multi-retail selection and checkout within online video marketing campaigns, announced the acquisition of Swaven, a Paris-based ecommerce enablement and analytics software company that operates across EMEA, APAC and LATAM. “I think this acquisition for…

Google’s Latest Adjustments to Topics, Again, Favors Large Publishers

Privacy Sandbox proposal Topics is dealing another blow to smaller publishers. The Topics proposal suggests grouping users by interest-based cohorts based on browsing history, like auto or fitness, created by the browser and shared with a site–and its ad partners–when a user visits. In Google’s January quarterly progress report, to assuage European antitrust regulators, it…

Advertising Redefined 2023

Every Super Bowl 57 Ad in Under 2 Minutes

The venue and teams may change, but there is one constant when it comes to the Super Bowl – the commercials. Whether you tuned in for Rihanna’s half-time show or the epic back and forth battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, you were treated to a smorgasbord of creativity. Between the fan-favorite…

‘He Gets Us’ Is Bringing Jesus to the Super Bowl. Can It Convert Viewers to Followers?

Amid all the celebrity-filled brand spots, blockbuster movie trailers and beer ads, He Gets Us–a campaign to reintroduce Christianity to viewers–is a bit of an outlier. Rather than selling a brand or product, the $100 million campaign is running two Super Bowl ads that aim to “inspire those who may be skeptical of Christianity to…

Marketers Brace for an AI Arms Race in Search

The Big Tech arms race to own the next wave of language-based artificial intelligence heated up this week, as Google and Microsoft made dueling announcements that could change the way consumers access information on the internet. And that, in turn, is set to change the playbook of how marketers approach search. Microsoft said it would…

Snoop Dogg Slips Into Skechers’ Super Bowl Campaign

Skechers will run an ad during the fourth quarter featuring Snoop Dogg, who shows what he can do while wearing a pair of the brand’s hands-free slip-in sneakers. The 30-second “All Walks of Life” campaign, conceptualized by Snoop himself, features cameos from fellow brand ambassadors Howie Long and Tony Romo, as well as his close…

McDonald’s Delivery Campaign Features Doors Resembling Its Menu Items

In recent years, the iconic design of McDonald’s food and the brand furniture has become a focus for its advertising around the world, so familiar to the general consumer. In this latest campaign from McDonald’s France, created by TBWAParis, the brand has released three posters featuring different building doors, which are also reminiscent of a…

Workday’s Super Bowl Ad Wants Execs to Stop Calling Each Other ‘Rock Stars’

The adoption around the use of the description “rock star” in the business world has gone too far, according to enterprise software company Workday’s Super Bowl spot, which features actual rock stars to make its point. The 60-second ad from Ogilvy, which will run nationally during the third quarter of the game Feb. 12, features…