When Super Bowl 54 kicks off on Sunday, rumor has it there might actually be some football involved. The Big Game has become such a showcase for advertising that one in five Americans now say they tune in just to watch the commercials. Somewhere around 50 spots will air in this year’s game–Fox sold out…
Over a year after the departure of its last chief executive, J.Crew finally has a new CEO. Jan Singer, who was previously the CEO of Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, a position she left at the end of 2018, is taking the top spot at the retailer, where she’ll oversee the J.Crew and J.Crew Factory businesses, filling…
While he will always be best remembered as an NBA legend, Kobe Bryant had an impact off the court as well, particularly within the Los Angeles community. The world of advertising is no exception. Following the untimely death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant (along with seven others) while on their way to…
With the new decade, people want to start trying a trend that has been gathering steam in recent years: Dry January. Dry January is a concept that began in 2013 and was trademarked in 2014. Organized initially by Wales Alcohol Change UK, it promotes a break in drinking for the month of January. According to…
For all the benefits the invention of sliced bread has bestowed upon the world, there certainly seems to be a lot of new greatest things that have come since. This, essentially, is the premise of Little Caesars’ first Super Bowl spot, starring Rainn Wilson of The Office fame as the head of “Sliced Bread Inc.”…
In the 1970s and ’80s, New York Life was a staple Super Bowl advertiser. The company, which was founded in 1845, advertised in the Big Game from 1970 to 1976, again in 1978, and then from 1987 to 1990. But since then, the brand has remained on the sidelines–until this now. New York Life is…
Kobe Bryant, a former MVP of the National Basketball Association and a five-time NBA champion, is dead at 41, after his helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California. Bryant spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, who drafted him out of high school in 1996. Bryant was an All-Star for 18 of those 20…
While Portlandia pushed Portland’s weirdness into the public perception, the city isn’t all doughnuts, beer and naked bike rides–although those are things that the city is known for. Many aspects of Portlandia are obviously exaggerated, but one thing Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein absolutely nailed were the city’s ubiquitous thrift shops. While the most recognizable…
While health and wellness retailer GNC isn’t as physically fit as it once was, a new ad campaign might help restore some vitality. In a lighthearted, self-deprecating spot from Havas New York that debuted earlier this month, GNC invited viewers to see the company in a different light by focusing on an asset more valuable…
Alternative holding company Plan A, which was formed by Untitled Worldwide founding partner and CEO MT Carney and former Droga5 CEO Andrew Essex in June 2018, has expanded by adding four new companies to its fold. Joining the agency network are: Tether, a Seattle design agency formed by industry veteran Stanley Hainsworth, who formerly led…
It’s been a tumultuous time at Gap Inc. Over the past several weeks, the San Francisco-based retail conglomerate, which owns seven brands including Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, has seen the departure of three senior executives and the scrapping of a previously announced plan to spin off Old Navy. The latest exit is marketing…
Digitally focused indie agency AnalogFolk is closing its Portland, Ore., office, and one of its leaders, Carren O’Keefe, will relocate to Amsterdam as its executive creative director. The office mainly served Nike’s U.S. football account, handling the brand’s social media. At the end of last year, Nike took those functions in-house, and AnalogFolk had to…
Anomaly has found a simple yet effective way to help fight the wildfires that are ravaging Australia. The agency has tallied up the amount each of its Australian staffers makes per week and plans to donate that sum to organizations that are helping with relief efforts. According to Anomaly, roughly 30 of its staffers across…
Americans love their conveniences, but one piece of long-cherished gear is clearly on its way out: the disposable plastic bag. Consumers use 100 billion of them a year, and since most recycling programs can’t handle the flimsy things, they wind up in landfills or the ocean. This fact has moved lawmakers across the country to…
Despite his famously laid-back persona, Snoop Dogg is a hard-working foot soldier for one of his pet causes, namely swapping out animal protein for the plant-based Beyond Meat. The iconic rapper, who has a well-hyped penchant for a different kind of plant product, is an investor in the fast-growing billion-dollar startup and a frequent Beyond…
At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month in Las Vegas, one man towered above the crowd. At 7’1″ and over 300 pounds, Shaquille O’Neal–better known as just Shaq–dominated the NBA for nearly two decades. Since retiring in 2011, the Diesel has only grown his presence in households across the world. He’s a commentator on…
Merriam-Webster is such an of-the-moment publication that it’s added terms like “gender nonconforming,” “snowflake” and “bottle episode” to its arsenal lately, plus identified “they” as the word of 2019. As its editors say, “The English language never sleeps.” So why has it continued to single out monosodium glutamate in Chinese food, under the heading “Chinese…
When Meghan Markle–now known as the Duchess of Sussex–stepped out for a day of engagements in Cardiff, Wales during her engagement to Prince Harry in January 2018, she wore a pair of black skinny jeans from the little-known Welsh brand Hiut Denim. Once one of the several bloggers who tracked the soon-to-be Duchess’s style were…
Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s new daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Mountain Dew’s Super Bowl Ad Will Parody The Shining…
LAS VEGAS–At CES 2020, there was a lot of buzz about the future of autonomous vehicles and the freedom that passengers will have during trips in driverless cars. What will that mean for marketers? Adweek sat down with two experts, Bill Wyman of Harman and Anne Mellano of Bestmile, to discuss this growing area of…
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