Table of contents for May 7, 2018 in Adweek

Flipkart, the Indian ecommerce marketplace, on Friday agreed to sell about 75 percent of the company to a Walmart Inc.-led group for approximately $15 billion, according to Bloomberg. Flipkart generated $3.1 billion in revenue last year. This comes a day after CNBC reported that Amazon not only offered to buy a majority stake in the company but also offered a breakup fee of $2 billion and a non-compete. The competition between the two companies continues to heat up, with analysts pointing to Amazon’s reported offer and interest in Flipkart as a necessary means to keep growing (and the size of India’s massive marketplace doesn’t hurt). One of Walmart’s recent major ecommerce purchases was in August 2016, when it acquired Jet.com for $3 billion to compete head-on with Amazon. Currently, Walmart…

In late April, Postmates became the latest digitally native brand to go big with an out-of-home campaign in New York. The first effort, from 180LA, used poppy, bright colors with clever lines tailored to grab New Yorkers’ attention—a move that recently has become increasingly popular with startups and digitally native brands like Casper and Brooklinen, which want to make a big splash in a new market. “As a tech company, Postmates has always had a very strong digital and social advertising presence, but awareness-level marketing is becoming increasingly more important as the brand matures,” Lizz Niemeyer, director of brand marketing, Postmates, explained. “OOH is still one of the best ways to bring your brand to life in a physical way.” For outdoor media company Outfront, the interest in OOH from…

WITH A MATCH IN HER HAND AND A MISCHIEVOUS SMIRK ON HER FACE, SAMANTHA BEE IS GETTING HER INNER PYROMANIAC ON. She’s in the middle of a photo shoot in a loft not far from the Lincoln Tunnel in New York, and it’s a fitting visual, given that, since launching Full Frontal on TBS three seasons ago, Bee has pretty much burned down the nearly all-male, mostly white late-night format. For a half-hour each week, the woman who Sen. Elizabeth Warren said “is more than a comedian—she’s an instigator and an advocate” fires off brilliant insults and observations touching on everything from sexism to social injustice. Her debut show featured a segment on female veterans. In another, she lambasted Kansas state Sen. Mitch Holmes, the man behind a women-only dress…

Tory Burch FASHION DESIGNER AND FOUNDER, TORY BURCH FOUNDATION When Burch opened her first boutique in 2004, her business plan included an anomalous proposal: to start a foundation to empower other women with entrepreneurial dreams. Established in 2009, the Tory Burch Foundation inaugurated a fellowship for female small business owners that provides access to capital, education and networking opportunities. Each fellowship class also takes part in a pitch competition that awards a single winner an investment of $100,000. Burch’s vision is grander still. She mounted a worldwide #EmbraceAmbition campaign aimed at changing the way society views and values the drive and determination of women and girls. Earlier this spring she led the foundation’s Embrace Ambition Summit, with speakers addressing barriers to equality. “If we confront the biases and stereotypes that…

Emotions run high in new Mother’s Day ads from Teleflora that focus on moms raising their children in situations that pose unique challenges. The flower delivery service’s campaign, which introduces the tagline “Love makes a Mom,” should come with its own box of Kleenex. That said, sentimentality takes a back seat, and straightforward storytelling carries the day in affecting fashion. The minute-long ads, crafted by The Wonderful Agency (the in-house marketing unit of Teleflora parent The Wonderful Company), and Wondros Productions directors Chris Riess and Amy Hill, touch a nerve because they’re so real, unfiltered and, ultimately, uplifting.…

Madonna Badger FOUNDER AND CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, BADGER & WINTERS Badger made her mark in 2016, when she launched a video exposing the hyper-sexualized way women are portrayed in ads, along with the hashtag #WomenNotObjects. The initiative was a reaction to the rampant sexist advertising she and her business partner Jim Winters found while doing research for an Avon campaign. While Badger continues to speak out on the issue, presenting research that counters the “sex sells” myth to convince other agencies to end the objectification of women, she’s also incorporated the mission in her own work. A recent JCPenney campaign, “Style and Value for All,” featured women of multiple ethnicities and body types. —Desa Philadelphia Colleen DeCourcy and Susan Hoffman CO-CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICERS, WIEDEN + KENNEDY With storied reputations as…

Leslie Berland CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, TWITTER In January, Berland and a handful of other prominent CMOs from Chase, HP and Quantcast noticed that the lineup at the Consumer Electronics Show was lacking in women keynote speakers. So, Berland and her team created their own female empowering event and the hashtag #HereWeAre. All told, 150 changemakers including GE CMO Linda Boff attended, while 2 million watched the livestream on Twitter. “What we wanted to communicate is that we’re all one—we’re all in this together,” she says. Leveraging the momentum, Berland took the #HereWeAre campaign to the Oscars with a powerful TV ad featuring Issa Rae and Ava DuVernay, among others. Going forward, Berland sees the campaign—and Twitter’s role in changing the lack of diversity in leadership—as “a shared platform. It belongs…

Dentsu Aegis Network has succeeded in defending Microsoft’s global media planning and buying business, which is one of its largest accounts. Multiple parties close to the matter said the technology giant announced its decision earlier this week after a closed review first launched last December. Every major holding group was involved in what one source called a “Hail Mary” pitch with the exception of Omnicom, which could not compete due to a conflict with Apple. The tech giant spent $1.5 billion on marketing last year. A Dentsu spokesperson deferred to the client, and Microsoft’s PR firm had not yet provided comment on the news at press time.…

Pamela Adlon CO-CREATOR, STAR, WRITER, DIRECTOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SHOWRUNNER, BETTER THINGS Last year, Adlon became the first women to direct and star in every episode of an entire TV season—and plans to do the same thing for the upcoming Season 3 of her FX comedy. As showrunner, she makes sure at least half her crew is female (“My mandate was women, women, women, every chance I get”) and the shooting days are as efficient as possible. “I just don’t like to waste time,” says Adlon, who was inspired by watching Tracey Ullman call the shots two decades ago, when she was a guest star on Ullman’s HBO series, Tracey Takes On. “She had two kids and said her goal was to be home by dusk every night, otherwise what’s the…

THE BACK A tilting back integrated with a rising footrest is the signature feature of the Reclina-Rocker, which was introduced in 1960 and is still a brisk seller. THE HANDLE Pull on the lever and—easy!—the chair tips back. For an extra $75, the company will put it on the left side of the chair for you. THE ARMREST La-Z-Boy recliners often resembled marshmallows with all that padding. The contemporary Maxx model boasts wood arms and a sleeker profile. According to Nielsen data, the number of homes receiving a TV signal (broadcast, cable or broadband) stands at 96 percent. And despite studies that show we’re watching less TV, American adults still take in over five hours of it every day. Too bad media firms don’t track what all those butts are…

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