Owen Wilson seemed to enjoy France the last time he was there. Now he’s back–and bringing an American staple, Oreo cookies, with him. A new Oreo campaign running in France, from Paris agency Buzzman, is about as goofy as it gets, featuring the actor serving as pitchman but getting all of his commercial lines ludicrously…
Remember that cruise you took a long time ago, probably with the grandparents, where the highlight was the endless (bottomless) buffet? No wonder you haven’t done that again. Carnival Cruise Lines knows the industry has some baggage, so to speak, and aims to wipe away those musty old images with its new “Choose Fun” campaign,…
Denim jeans for women made their commercial debut in 1934, and ever since then, one rule has held true: Most women do not like shopping for them. A 2010 Mintel survey conducted in the U.K. revealed that 64 percent of women felt it was “difficult to find jeans that fit them properly,” a rate over…
Just a year after debuting a standalone virtual reality headset, Intel is pivoting away from hardware and into VR content. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel announced that it’s opening a new studio in Los Angeles to create immersive content that allows viewers to walk within a space in VR rather…
M, the human-powered personal digital assistant for Facebook Messenger that never emerged from its limited beta-test never will get to the masses. Facebook informed users–reportedly some 2,000, all in California–that the service will no longer be available after Jan. 19. Casey Newton of The Verge reported that contractors that had been working on M will…
Dick Clark’s American Bandstand had more than its share of cheesy guests over the years–bands that lip-synced their tunes in front of a TV audience under orders to cheer. But few acts quite equaled Buckner & Garcia, two friends who’d met at Perkins High School in Akron, Ohio, and managed to write a song that,…
As brands increasingly seek to understand the Internet of Things, marketers are keying in on how Amazon and Google will dominate connected devices in 2018. That’s why Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Home–with their rapidly expanding sets of AI skills and services–will be completely unavoidable for the 180,000 expected attendees at this week’s annual Consumer…
Last week’s issue of Time magazine is the first edited by a guest editor in its 94 years of existence. It’s also the first issue to feature augmented reality activations–four of them, all on the issue’s theme of optimism. They include an interview with guest editor Bill Gates by Time’s Nancy Gibbs, an animated infographic…
Michelob Ultra will be back at the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, making it the third year in a row that Anheuser-Busch has brought the brand to the Big Game. Anheuser-Busch has selected Michelob Ultra to join Budweiser, Bud Light and Stella Artois as the brands airing spots during the Big Game, according to a…
Viewers of the Golden Globes Sunday night may have noticed a commercial from a company that isn’t typically an advertiser: LinkedIn. And if viewers paid close attention to the spot, they may have also noticed that the actual LinkedIn user who was featured in the ad didn’t fit the “white collar businesspeople” stereotype of the…
Cruise ships aren’t just floating bacchanalia packed with food and booze, says a new campaign from Princess Cruises. They’re a way to connect with nature and the things that really matter in life, like other people and baby sloths. A wizened captain waxes philosophical about change in the centerpiece 1:30 ad from agency Omelet. A…
In 2014, digital agency R/GA launched Ventures, which holds the investments made by the agency through its accelerator programs. Backed by R/GA’s parent organization, IPG, Ventures has partnered with the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2015 to help 15 companies broaden their knowledge and capabilities in the sports tech and entertainment space through a national program…
Oprah Winfrey’s speech after accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award dominated conversation on Facebook and Twitter during the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards Sunday night. At the time of this post, the video of the speech, shared via the Golden Globes Facebook Watch page, had been viewed nearly 24 million times and shared over 400,000…
After serving 10 years as GroupM’s U.K. CEO, Nick Theakstone is being repositioned to the newly created role of global chief investment officer at the WPP-owned media investment management company. Theakstone will be succeeded in his previous position by Tom George, who most recently was chairman for MEC’s U.K. and Northern Europe division and its…
On a night when Hollywood tried to affirm a commitment to respecting women after decades of the opposite, it was bizarre to see a L’Or?al commercial that likened a famous actress’ career to damaged hair. Even more strange, perhaps, was that a vocal minority of viewers seemed to love the spot–even as it was being…
Twitter used a tried-and-true public-relations tactic late last week: If you have an announcement that people are not going to like, release it late on a Friday. President Donald Trump’s tweet last Tuesday taunting North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un and reminding him that the U.S. possesses a “nuclear button,” as well, sparked outrage,…
The Golden Globes was, probably unsurprisingly, a hot topic on social media last night. Overall the awards show drew 3.3 million tweets, beginning Sunday and carrying through into the early hours of Monday morning. The evening was dominated by women calling for an end to sexual harassment in their acceptance speeches (although no men mentioned…
The entire month of January is like one long hangover from the holidays. For this reason, it’s probably apt that the first ad campaign I’m writing up this year revolves around gifts, if outside the boundaries of the season. In Prada’s “The Postman’s Gifts,” Elijah Wood stars in a series of Autumn de Wilde-directed films…
Media giant Viacom is dipping its toes in the influencer marketing waters, announcing an agreement Monday to acquire Whosay. Terms of the transaction were not revealed, nor were any plans to reduce headcount at the New York-based influencer marketing shop. The two companies have a history together, as Whosay has worked with Viacom on more…
As consulting firms continue to move aggressively into ad agencies’ territory (with major players including Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers), WPP has come back to assert its dominance through Kantar, its data and investment division. Combining four of its existing brands–Kantar Added Value, Kantar Futures, Kantar Vermeer and Kantar Retail–the company officially streamlined its consulting…
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