Table of contents for August 6, 2018 in Adweek

Condé Nast CEO Bob Sauerberg last week confirmed to staffers in a memo that the publisher would sell off Brides, Golf Digest and W—all of which had been acquired by Condé Nast over the years. “These are truly great creative assets that need an owner who will invest in them to realize their full potential,” wrote Sauerberg. “Those titles never quite fit there, they were outsiders, and not having them doesn’t harm the core Condé perception,” said Clint White, president and founder, WiT Media. “They won’t be missed by the big corporate ad buyers.” The move comes after Condé Nast reportedly lost more than $100 million last year. A spokesperson for Condé Nast declined to comment on the figure. Sauerberg, in the email, acknowledged that it was a “complicated” time…

Last October, a pizza chain with a familiar face hired a new chief marketer and a red-hot, digital-first agency to shake up its brand after several disappointing quarters and PR snafus. It all seemed so promising. But things didn’t quite work out for Papa John’s and now-former AOR Laundry Service after Forbes reported that chairman and founder John Schnatter had used the N-word on a May media training call and later published a lengthy expose outlining the company’s “toxic culture.” According to reports, the agency resigned the account—as did its other agencies, which included Fallon, Initiative and Olson Engage. While the uproar led to allegations of racism, extortion and defamation, it’s also a tale as old as time—or at least as old as contractual agreements between clients and service providers.…

The fundamental idea is very simple, like all powerful notions. A marketer’s best work is only made possible through a diversity of talent applied to that company’s business. In recent years, the advertising community has started to come to grips with the bold-faced truth that we haven’t really talked the “real” talk, much less walked the walk. If you take a hard, honest look at the range of companies in our industry at the present time, they all too often reflect the workforce of 1978, not 2018. It is unassailably clear that there is still much work to be done for our industry to mirror the demographic diversity emerging in the early 21st century in the U.S. and abroad. And with the tumultuous events of the past few years highlighted…

1 Can you tell me which social communication platforms you participate in and what you find useful or unique about each? That allows the employer to suss out a candidate’s social media prowess and assess whether they consider and value social tools as an additional useful means to communicate. It also reveals to what extent a potential recruit keeps up with new and changing platforms. 2 How do you stay informed about what’s going on in global culture, and where do you feel is a good place/resource to identify emerging societal trends? Infinite curiosity is a necessary skill for any position. How a would-be job candidate answers it reveals what kind of imagination and hunger to keep current the recruit possesses. To be honest, some people can’t answer this question,…

Who Willow Hill (l.) and Kaitlyn Barclay What Creative agency Where New York 1 Scout Lab developed a user journey for Adidas to help align the firm’s external brand with its more internal employee experience and identity. 2 Teressa Foglia, a high-end milliner, was Scout Lab’s first client and received brand strategy and creative production for a new store in Brooklyn’s Industry City development. 3 A new collective of astronauts called Constellation hired Scout Lab to develop its brand strategy.…

Walmart A new three-minute film for Walmart Canada produced by Scouts Honour highlights the roller coaster of emotion that comes with the chaos of parenting. “Ode to Motherhood” is an absolute hit, brimming with crisp writing, masterful pacing and a great deal of empathetic humor. Sometimes it’s difficult to avoid clichés around parenting, but throughout the spot, we are treated to familiarity and a density that could be well-suited for an episode of 30 Rock, but slightly less snarky. The spot illustrates the pandemonium of new mother Stacy as baby No. 1 arrives—followed by baby No. 2.…

OCT. 31, 2017 PAPA JOHN’S PICKS LAUNDRY SERVICE AS AOR. NOV. 1, 2017  FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN JOHN SCHNATTER BLAMES NFL PLAYER PROTESTS FOR A DROP IN PIZZA SALES. MAY 2018 SCHNATTER USES THE N-WORD ON A MEDIA TRAINING CALL. JULY 11, 2018  FORBES BREAKS NEWS OF THE CALL, REVEALS THAT LAUNDRY SERVICE RESIGNED THE ACCOUNT. SCHNATTER STEPS DOWN AS CHAIRMAN. JULY 13, 2018 CEO STEVE RITCHIE ISSUES AN APOLOGY. SCHNATTER CLAIMS THE AGENCY TRIED TO “EXTORT” HIM FOR $6M. JULY 17, 2018 LAUNDRY SERVICE MEMO CALLS SCHNATTER’S CLAIMS “COMPLETELY FALSE.” JULY 19, 2018  FORBES PUBLISHES EXPOSE ON PAPA JOHN’S “TOXIC CULTURE.” INITIATIVE FOLLOWS FALLON AND OLSON ENGAGE IN RESIGNING THE ACCOUNT. AUG. 1, 2018 PAPA JOHN’S NAMES ENDEAVOR GLOBAL MARKETING AS ITS NEW AOR.…

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU GOT? RICARDO MARQUES VP of Marketing, Budweiser I have to go back to a meeting we had with our CEO [Carlos Brito] a few years ago. What he said was, “Dreaming big or small takes the same amount of effort, so why not dream big?” This was very simple but very cool because it allows us to not only think about your personal career but how you approach any given project, be it a Super Bowl brief or an innovation. That type of thinking when you have a large group of people at the table gets people focused on the right stuff, which is possibilities. All of a sudden people start asking what if we did it and how do we approach this differently. It…

Two years ago, Maria Arenas had just graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (where she earned a BFA in graphic design and worked in the school’s print labs). She sent her resumé to “over 50 places” before she was hired as a graphic designer for New York design agency Tandem in September 2016. At the time, she was Tandem’s third employee, and the company was about a year old. Around the corner from the Tandem offices in Union Square is Flats Fix, a Mexican restaurant that previously counted congressional hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a bartender. Arenas’ bosses were frequent Flats Fix customers, and through their visits, they developed a friendship with Ocasio-Cortez. When she left Flats Fix to run for Congress, the candidate asked the Tandem team to create…

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Pizza chain Papa John’s has turned to another ad agency to help the company move through its ongoing identity crisis. The brand chose Endeavor Global Marketing, the creative division of the Endeavor “holding group” formed by Ari Emanuel’s media conglomerate WME | IMG late last year. That group also includes both WME and IMG along with such disparate entities as UFC, the Miss Universe Organization and Droga5 (in which it holds a minority stake). The company’s search for an AOR started after Adweek reported on a round of layoffs at Laundry Service, which won the account late last year.…

TRIGO VISION Trigo said its platform requires “significantly fewer” cameras compared to other frictionless checkout options. The rep said Trigo is in “deep discussions” with grocers in the U.S. and Europe . CAPER LAB This software startup has developed a smart shopping cart that uses deep learning and computer vision to detect items as they are put into the cart. However, customers still have to pay for cart items with a credit card when they finish shopping. SPRUCE LABS The first time shoppers enter a store with Sprucebot, customers’ devices are associated with their user profiles. When these devices are connected to the store Wi-Fi, employees can see who is in the store and access their profiles, which include preferences. The point-of-sale system is integrated, so when shoppers leave, associates…

In March, American Eagle’s lingerie chain Aerie made a major statement. The store released a one-piece black bathing suit with the word “Survivor” stamped across the front. Modeling the swimsuit was gold medal winning gymnast Aly Raisman, who had recently opened up about being sexually abused by a USA Gymnastics doctor for years. To take such a powerful stance on the importance of women’s rights and the need to listen to women’s stories could have easily backfired. Why should Aerie—or any brand, really—be a part of telling this story? But in this case, experts agreed that Aerie had the authority to take a position and did it in just the right way—finding an authentic voice in Raisman and continuing the retailer’s long-standing commitment to championing women for who they are…

THE LIGHTS Minimalist lighting that mimics natural light has long been a signature feature. Apple recently patented the illuminated ceilings in its newest stores. THE GLASS Apple’s lavish use of glass began with the stairs in NYC’s SoHo store in 2002. Since then, stores have evolved to feature entire supporting walls of glass. THE LOGO Apple ditched its rainbow logo in 1998, and the monochrome white has become a standard for the stores, where it harmonizes with the sleek, spare design. Virginia’s Tysons Corner Center, opened in 1968, was one of the country’s first shopping malls. But on May 19, 2001, it would notch another first. The line began forming in the predawn hours, as many as 500 people assembling in the darkness. After that number doubled, security guards stood…