Table of contents for February 22, 2016 in Adweek

The poultry company last week appointed Deutsch as its new lead agency, responsible for creative and digital chores as well as media planning and buying. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners had been the company’s creative agency for over 20 years, while Organic, Direct Partners and OMD handled other responsibilities. Deutsch will run the account out of its Los Angeles office. The appointment follows closely on the heels of the agency being named agency of record for Green Giant last month. —Noreen O’Leary…

When you joined Allure last year, you replaced Linda Wells, its founding editor of 24 years. What was that transition like? I have such huge respect for Linda. She’s an icon. I definitely think that when I came in, people were nervous, and I totally expected that and understood that. So over these past couple of months, it’s been a big goal of mine to have total transparency, and I think that having that culture of “let’s talk about stuff” has put people’s minds at ease. But I also think that once people hear what the new vision is, it makes them feel good about things. So what is your vision for the magazine? The million-dollar question! My big goal here was really refreshing the entire brand. I had been…

During Oscars season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is used to celebrating achievement in film and putting on a lavish awards show—not managing a public relations nightmare. But when this year’s Oscar nominations were announced and, for the second straight year, no people of color were included in the acting categories, the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag from 2015 got resurrected and all hell broke loose in Tinseltown and beyond. The criticism about a white male-dominated Hollywood was swift and harsh. Then, there was the backlash to the backlash, wherein academy members cited ageism and reverse racism, and aggressively defended themselves against charges they saw as untrue and unfair. Every news outlet on the planet reported on it. In the middle of it all was Ampas and Oscar itself—the most…

THE BODY Los Angeles artist George Stanley sculpted the original Oscar in 1929, and this year’s statuettes are based on 3-D digital scans of that work. THE SWORD Envisioning him as a knight, MGM art director Cedric Gibbons furnished Oscar with a weapon, though what he’s crusading for is open to interpretation. THE SHINE While the base material has gone from bronze to britannium and back to bronze, Oscar has always worn an electroplated coat of 24-karat gold. THE FOOTING Oscar stands atop a reel of film affixed to a base of black enameled bronze (until 1945, it was black marble). No wonder he weighs nearly 9 pounds. Face-lifts are nothing new in Hollywood, but the one that made the news last week caused a stir nevertheless. The 88-year-old in…

One of the industry’s most powerful agency networks, known for its own voracious appetite for acquisitions, has been caught in a downward trajectory severe enough that it may now find itself prey. “Twenty months on from the collapsed merger talks with Omnicom, we believe an acquisition of Publicis is now a feasible prospect,” Jérôme Bodin and Pavel Govciyan, research analysts at Natixis, Paris, wrote in January. “Publicis is now an extremely attractive target, from both a financial and strategic standpoint. The decline in its share price … has left the group’s valuation extremely low. Meanwhile, the slump in the euro relative to the dollar makes it an appealing target for an American player.” Natixis said Publicis’ stock dropped 12.6 percent in the last year, selling at a 26 percent discount…

DO “Engage quickly in the local culture as much as you can,” said Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. “Do community projects. Meet local agency people and business leaders. Join clubs and associations. Meet local press people.” “Have a detailed business plan before you come into the new market.” —consultant Avi Dan “ Make sure that you understand how the local market prioritizes success.” —Taxi N.Y. president David Jenkins Have “super-knowledgeable” local talent in place from the start, said Scott Goodson, chairman and co-founder of StrawberryFrog. “Otherwise, you’ll make a lot of mistakes.” DO NOT “Don’t wait to solve the serious problems,” said Pereira & O’Dell CCO P.J. Pereira. “If you feel the leadership isn’t going to work, address it fast.” “Don’t ignore your key clients while chasing…

Hollywood loves a great sequel. Not simply because they offer opportunities to tell a story again. Sequels are high on the list of A-list directors and studio networks because the great ones do three things exceptionally well: • They reengage foundational audiences to come back for more; • They attract new audiences who find something of interest that’s meaningful and relevant; • They have the potential to make advertisers, distributors and networks swoon. The coup de grâce of these elements? Growth—more people going to theaters, expanded access to diverse audiences increasingly important to the bottom line, and swelling advertiser investment. Hollywood has spent much time perfecting the sequel machine. Nothing’s more a testament to that than The Force Awakens. Steadfast Star Wars fans were thrilled at the return of something…

‘Leo is a notoriously press-shy and withdrawn star—but he’s been working this system like a Bronx politico,’ says veteran Oscars watcher Tom O’Neil. In this eventful and entertaining election year, the campaigning is not limited to Hillary and Bernie and Marco and Trump. Also out there stumping—for another high-profile and much-coveted albeit very different kind of prize—are Leo and Brie and Saoirse and Sly. And Spielberg and Pitt. And Paramount and Fox and Disney. Even before this year’s Academy Award nominees were announced on the morning of Jan. 14 in Beverly Hills, Calif., the Hollywood publicity machine had already kicked into high gear. Early on came the film festivals, followed by public appearances, profiles by major media, the talk show circuit and eventually those ubiquitous “for your consideration” ads in…

‘When the smartest bad guys figure out how to fool you, they don’t tell you you’re beaten. What you see instead looks like victory: fraud numbers going down!’ Michael Tiffany, White Ops Long a dirty little secret of the digital media business, the topic of ad fraud has been thrust front and center in discussions among agency executives, advertisers and publishers over the last three years. Bot traffic, or nonhuman digital traffic, is at its highest ever, and recent projections from the Association of National Advertisers have more than $7 billion in advertising investment wasted. A variety of organizations and companies are putting serious efforts into stanching the losses, and the ANA will make the topic a centerpiece of its annual Masters of Media Conference next month in Hollywood, Fla.…

AuraBox Clock Speaker $65 Remember when you used an actual alarm clock to wake up in the morning instead of relying on your iPhone? With a bevy of fun (and practical) features, the AuraBox might actually persuade you to bring back the bedside clock. On the front panel of the otherwise innocuous black cube, you’ll find a color LED panel that can be programmed via app to show custom light “drawings,” display smartphone notifications (including incoming calls, texts and social media alerts) or move along to the beat of music played through AuraBox’s Bluetooth speaker. There’s also a built-in microphone for making hands-free calls and a thermometer for measuring the room’s ambient temperature. And, of course, AuraBox makes for one heck of an alarm clock, waking you up to your…

When Scott Pelley assumed the role of CBS Evening News anchor in 2011, he’d had a long and storied career of reporting from war zones, refugee camps and even campaign trails. So when he moved into his office overlooking the CBS newsroom, Pelley filled the space with items that remind him of and pay homage to his career at CBS. Above all else, however, his office is a working space for the team responsible for Evening News’ soaring ratings. “I think of my office as a meeting place for our correspondents, producers and staff,” Pelley said. “We pull up the chairs around the round table in the middle and talk about writing, reporting and the direction of our coverage. The office has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the newsroom one floor…

Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift weren’t the only big winners at the Grammy Awards. According to Engagement Labs’ eValue scoring system, which measures engagement, impact and responsiveness on social media, People magazine was the top-performing brand of the night on both Facebook and Instagram, while Hyundai dominated on Twitter. Intel, which partnered with Lady Gaga to debut an ad touting the technology that went into her David Bowie tribute, also scored highly on all three platforms.…

PRIVATE EQUITY Deal is just too big, given expected ROI. Morgan Stanley, however, is said to be putting out discreet feelers to take company private. STRATEGIC ACQUIRERS Doubtful that WPP, already the industry’s No. 1, is interested, especially given adversarial relationship between CEOs. Deal gives Omnicom combined market share of 40 percent in the U.S., key European markets. But did culture clash kill CEO Wren’s interest? Dentsu found global media agency partner in Aegis. Is it time to find creative counterpart or are Publicis’ problems too much? CONSULTING, TECHNOLOGY PLAYERS While companies like Accenture, Deloitte and, most recently, IBM have been buying digital marketing agencies, they’ve been small-scale deals. While Publicis media agencies have partnerships with Google and Facebook, no one expects them to make a Publicis bid—the same unlikely…

 NBC won the last two seasons in the adults 18-49 demo, but during last May’s upfronts, CBS all but guaranteed it would snatch the demo crown away this season. Instead, NBC held a commanding lead through February, with Sunday Night Football and The Voice bolstered by freshman hits Blindspot and Chicago Med, and a trio of popular December holiday specials: The Wiz Live!, Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and Adele Live in New York City. Thanks to the Super Bowl, CBS has pulled ahead, just barely—averaging 2.5 to NBC’s 2.4—leaving NBC in a strong position to three-peat with three months to retake the lead. NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt looked back on the successful season run that not even he saw coming. ‘If you’re going to launch new shows…

Dating apps chatter reached a fever pitch in 2015. KBS Attention reviewed more than 2.5 million Twitter conversations that included Grindr, Tinder, Happn, OkCupid and Match to gain insights about the trends. What Attention found: there are a bounty of marketing possibilities. “Looking toward the future, brands and advertisers need to identify ways in which to balance science and art as dating apps begin to become more sophisticated in their capabilities,” said KBS Attention associate director Lucas Brockner. “Millennials in particular want practical utility from the brands that advertise to them; otherwise it will provide no value to the consumer and will come off as inauthentic.”…

Actors, directors and costume designers aren’t the only ones poised to score on Hollywood’s biggest night. The Oscars remains one of the most important events of the year for advertisers. The cost of a 30-second spot in this year’s three-hour-plus telecast is $1.8 million to $2.2 million, a 10 percent bump versus last year and a new record, The Los Angeles Times reports. Past sponsors expected to return this year include AT&T, General Motors, Samsung and Coca-Cola. While not on the scale of the Super Bowl, brands still see ABC’s Oscars telecast as a key venue due to its massive reach and prestige. Advertisers that broke campaigns in last year’s show include American Express (which has participated in every Oscars since 1993), Dove and Cadillac. The Oscars is also a…

Leader. Mother. Mentor. Trailblazer. Organizer. Innovator. Listener. Teacher. The 17 winners of AWNY’s 2016 Advertising Working Mothers of the Year Awards carry a full slate of titles. They’re strong leaders at the office, loving parents at home, active members of their communities and inspirations to legions of working parents. The annual AWNY award is given to women who have achieved outstanding business results while also serving as strong role models or mentors at work, at home and within their communities. This year’s winners are being celebrated on February 23 at a luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. To get at what makes someone a successful working mother, we’ve asked the 2016 honorees to share some of their insights, experiences and beliefs about the intersection of leadership at…

What’s the first information you consume in the morning? I wake up and I get the kids ready for school, and I turn on the local NBC news or CNN. I read the New York Post and then I go to the Daily Mail. Then I will check Instagram. I no longer check Twitter because I hire somebody to do that. It’s become so negative while I’m doing the show. I try to also fill myself with some positivity in the morning. I study Kabbalah, so I’ll scan the Zohar or I will read some Eckhart Tolle or some kind of a positive book. Speaking of being positive, you just launched a new lifestyle curation site called From My Lips. You know, I had somebody approach us and say, “Would…