Does the world need a company that peddles $12 socks? That wasn’t the question that Bombas founder Randy Goldberg initially asked himself. It was, rather: “How can we solve a societal problem?” Socks are the most-requested item at homeless shelters across the country, yet those same facilities can’t accept used socks as donations (it’s a…
In a way unseen since Nike’s controversial Colin Kaepernick campaign last year, P&G shaving brand Gillette all but dominated the cultural conversation last week with “We Believe,” a digital campaign designed to update tagline “The Best a Man Can Get” for a new era by calling on men everywhere to address matters of toxic masculinity….
Lexus is sitting out the Super Bowl this year but, ahead of the game, the brand is launching a four-minute football-themed ad touting some “new” safety features and technology for quarterbacks. Taking a stab at some levity in a quasi-mockumentary style, the Toyota-owned brand and its agency, Team One, are “launching” technology to keep quarterbacks…
In recent years, Kia has become synonymous with running Super Bowl ads that star a celebrity. The brand featured Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler in 2018, Melissa McCarthy in 2017, Christopher Walken in 2016, Pierce Brosnan in 2015, and Laurence Fishburne as his Matrix character Morpheus in 2014. But this year, Kia is breaking precedent and running…
An elevator isn’t the first place one thinks of for a chance to have some interesting interaction. Most of the time, the ride up and down is an exercise in people gazing forward quietly, or sneaking peeks at their phones. Conran Design Group, part of Havas in London, is seeking to break the monotony and…
Whether it’s from a desire to escape the anxieties of modern life or simply an artistic form of nostalgia, the visual techniques of the recent past are now helping define the look of the present. In Shutterstock’s annual Creative Trends report, the stock art service analyzes billions of searches for images, videos and music to…
The European Union is expected to soon announce another antitrust fine against Google–this time related to its AdSense advertising platform, according to a report from Bloomberg. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who heads up EU competition policy, is expected to soon announce a fine for the AdSense product, sources told Bloomberg Thursday evening. It’s unclear when exactly…
A group of nuns joining forces to take on an all-powerful tech company sounds like the plot of Sister Act 3, but it actually happened in Brooklyn–sort of. Amazon shareholders representing more than $1.3 billion in assets filed a resolution Thursday asking the company to stop selling its facial-recognition technology, Rekognition, to government agencies until…
Why go to the grocery store when the grocery store can come to you? This is the logic behind grocery chain Stop & Shop’s new partnership with San Francisco-based company Robomart, which will bring mini self-driving convenience stores to customers in Boston this spring–and marks the latest in a long line of grocery delivery experiments….
The PepsiCo-owned chip brand Doritos is returning to the Superbowl in 2019, with a spot that will feature musician Chance the Rapper. The brand teased its partnership with the rapper in a tweet this morning: Our prediction for the big game? There’s a chance things are gonna get hot. Stay tuned 02.03.19 #NowItsHot pic.twitter.com/ITkG5RAmGi –…
As the vp of brand marketing and culture at Hulu, Nick Tran leads a team in charge of defining and shaping the overall customer experience and relationship with the brand. From previous stints with Taco Bell, Samsung and apparel startup Stance Socks, Nick carries a diverse background with the common thread of keeping brands at…
Chairman Edward Lampert’s quest to keep 126-year-old department store Sears alive proved successful at the 11th hour as his firm, ESL Investments, was named the highest bidder at a recent auction. A person familiar with the matter confirmed the news in an email. The person did not comment further. A spokesperson for Sears declined to…
Today marks day 25 of the 2019 government shutdown, making it officially the longest in U.S. history. As the days add up, more people’s lives are being impacted, from government workers who aren’t getting paid to brewers waiting on the FDA to people waiting in long airport security lines due to short staffing at TSA…
It’s as if Christopher Walken’s Googly-Eyed Gardner decided to go into retail: Supermarket chain Giant Food Stores has deployed six-foot-three-inch googly-eyed robots named Marty–and it has plans to bring him to all 172 stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia this year. Marty is the result of a partnership between parent company Ahold Delhaize,…
All of us who grew up watching Fred Rogers liked to imagine living in his neighborhood, but residents of Squirrel Hill, Pa., didn’t have to pretend. They literally lived in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Rogers moved to the Pittsburgh neighborhood in the 1960s and long maintained his connection to the community, even choosing to spend his…
PayPal is adding a major player to its marketing department: Today, the company announced the hiring of Allison Johnson as CMO and executive vice president. The brand has been without a CMO since 2013. Johnson joins PayPal from West, a marketing and venture capital firm where she worked with clients like Square, Twitter and Braintree,…
We’re back, baby! The tech team have been busy at CES this past week, and they’re ready to share the big trends coming out of the Las Vegas Convention Center. On this week’s episode of the Adweek podcast, Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, we’re joined by creative editor David Griner, tech reporter Kelsey Sutton and…
One month after auto giant Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sent its North American media planning and buying account to Publicis Groupe’s Starcom, incumbent IPG officially confirmed that it may go through a large-scale round of layoffs across Mediabrands, Reprise and UM, which previously held the account. Crain’s Detroit first reported the news. UM had been North…
Petco has chosen Horizon Media as its strategic media agency of record following a review launched last fall, which was managed by MediaLink. The selection follows the pet supplies retailer naming MDC Partners-owned Anomaly as its creative AOR last month. “This is an incredibly exciting time for Petco,” Petco CMO Tariq Hassan said in a…
Of all the factors credited for the so-called blue wave of Democratic legislators elected to the House of Representatives in November, there’s one that doesn’t seem to be on many people’s radar: personalized emails. But talk to the Democratic National Committee, and they’ll say the party’s success during the 2018 midterms–which saw a net gain…
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