Table of contents for March 21, 2016 in Adweek

Facing accusations that he made frequent jokes about rape, Jews and African Americans, JWT’s global CEO Gustavo Martinez resigned last week, marking an abrupt reversal by his company. Succeeding Martinez is Tamara Ingram, the company’s chief client team officer. Ingram, who led the P&G business at WPP for more than a decade, became one of the most powerful female executives in advertising when she was promoted last year. The shake-up has sparked an industrywide moment of reflection. The allegations that Martinez often mocked women and minorities left many wondering if Mad Men’s portrayal of leering, intolerant ad executives in the 1960s truly was an artifact of a bygone era or a lingering reality hidden under a veneer of diversity and inclusion. To be clear, the case against Martinez and his…

FTC Slams Lord & Taylor Over Native Ads The Federal Trade Commission’s decision to crack down on Lord & Taylor for failing to reveal its relationships with paid promoters may change native ads and influencer-driven social media marketing as we know it. Last week, the FTC settled charges brought against the company for deceiving customers in a social media campaign it ran last year, in which 50 Instagram stars wore a dress from the retailer but failed to disclose the fact that the brand had paid them to wear it as part of a coordinated effort to promote its spring line. Lord & Taylor will now be forced to launch an internal monitoring program. —P.C. GOP Debate Canceled After Trump Drops Out Fox News was all ready to host its…

Over the past decade, NBCUniversal has had great success creating branded content campaigns for its advertising partners, which air across the NBCU portfolio of networks. But the company realized it could be generating even more business in that space. “People think, ‘Oh, I know you do that, but only when I buy media from you and it’s part of a media deal,’” said John Harrobin, chief marketing officer, NBCU advertising sales, of its branded content efforts. “But we have opportunity well beyond that.” Especially now: The company has launched The NBCU Content Studio. It will develop and produce content for advertising clients utilizing NBCU’s creative talent, data, distribution and scale (including its partners BuzzFeed, Vox and AOL). But that content won’t necessarily appear on any of its linear or digital…

By now it’s a cliché to point out that Facebook’s launch 12 years ago and all social platforms that followed have completely altered the way the world exchanges information. Media and consumer research company GfK MRI talked to 25,000 U.S. adults to gain insight about each platform’s user base and characteristics. “As social audiences grow to more resemble the general population, these sites become more comparable to other media—but are losing their edge of being the default go-to for younger audiences,” said GfK MRI managing director Florian Kahlert. “The brutally consistent notion that ‘If my parents are there, it’s no longer cool’ continues to present the social world with difficult choices. The trade-off: gain high-income earners at the expense of your share of younger audiences.”…

2006 (March 21) Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sends the first tweet 2008 Dorsey steps down as CEO, is succeeded by Evan Williams 2010 Williams steps down, is succeeded by Dick Costolo Begins offering paid advertising via Promoted Tweets 2011 Unveils photo and video sharing Reaches 100 million monthly active users Plays key role in the Arab Spring protests 2012 Twitter acquires Vine Begins offering self-service ads 2013 Twitter goes public 2015 Acquires Periscope Costolo steps down; Dorsey returns as CEO Twitter lays off 8 percent of its staff Reaches 300 million users, signs distribution deal with Google 2016 Names AmEx’s Leslie Berland as first CMO…

Mar 28 CMO Report New quarterly series spotlighting major ad sector — focusing on the most newsworthy trends and marketers in the category. This report: Pharma Apr 11 Millennials Issue How we’re talking to this demo... and who’s doing it well. SPECIAL SECTION MOBILE MARKETING GUIDE Apr 18 TV Upfronts Preview A round up of what to expect from TV’s top producers. Let the shows begin! Featuring TV MARKETING Apr 25 Women’s Issue Dynamic women share their collective stories of leadership, affecting change and transformation of their brands and themselves. May 2 Video Issue A drill-down on the stand-outs in the world of 2nd & 3rd screens. Featuring NEWFRONTS PREVIEW SPECIAL SECTION DIGITAL VIDEO GUIDE May 9 Media All-Stars Issue A salute to this year’s media mavens... and…

Avegant Glyph $699 First things first: The Avegant Glyph is not a VR headset. According to the company, the device—which resembles a pair of Beats headphones crossed with LeVar Burton’s Star Trek visor—is technically “mediawear,” although “personal theater” might be a more apt description. Whatever you want to call it, the crazy-looking Glyph lets you watch video content from any device with an HDMI-out port (including smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and more), approximating the experience of looking at an 80-inch screen from eight feet away. Because the headset itself is actually screenless, instead projecting crystal-clear images directly onto its wearer’s retinas by reflecting light off of 2 million microscopic mirrors, it’s easier on your eyes. And, unlike VR headsets, Glyph lets you keep some peripheral vision, so you’re not totally…

Santa Monica, Calif.-based full-service agency RPA is the shop behind some of today’s smartest campaigns for clients like Honda, Apartments.com and Intuit—most recently launching a 60-second spot for the 2016 Honda Civic featuring Empire of the Sun’s catchy tune, “Walking on a Dream.” That laid-back attitude that RPA brings to its breezy ads is also evident in its digs. After housing RPA for 10 years, its SoCal space was redesigned in 2013 and boasts a full production studio, walls overflowing with awards, as well as quirky interactive elements. But for RPA, the devil is in the details. “We’re a creative agency, so we looked at the redesign of our space as an opportunity to provide inspiration—even in often overlooked areas like hallways and meeting room walls,” said COO Pete Imwalle.…

Though the Big West Conference teams may not have much success in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, their fans are among the happiest on Twitter, according to new research by Travelmath. By monitoring sentiment from NCAA fans, Travelmath found that UC Irvine supporters are the happiest, while Indiana was the subject of the most vulgar tweets. Fans from the Big West (who have one NCAA tourney entry this year—Hawaii) topped the positive sentiment list, and were also the most vocal on Twitter.…

‘We need to think about the future and help clients be first to that future and to tackle its real issues.’ The past year has been a tough one for Publicis Groupe chief Maurice Lévy, a well-regarded executive known for his adept management of the industry’s third-largest marketing communications company. More recently, the Paris-based company he built has struggled with major account losses, slowing organic growth and lingering doubts about his logic in pursuing a failed merger with rival Omnicom. Lévy recently spoke with Adweek about why he believes his $3.7 billion acquisition of digital specialist Sapient in 2015 is a bolder move than the ill-fated Omnicom merger and what it means for Publicis in what he calls this “year of transition” at the company. Here, Lévy reflects on what…

‘Because of the size of our company ... it made sense to “go public” with our creative capabilities.’ Linda Yaccarino, chairman, NBCU advertising sales and client partnerships Fallonventions GE’s kid inventor segments on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon “are held up in the industry as a gold standard,” said Yaccarino of the spots, which won two Clio gold awards. Fiat Saturday Night Live actors starred in branded content for Fiat that ran across NBCU’s lifestyle networks and “really, truly speaks to the amount of assets that we’re able to pull from and get the creative juices flowing.” Playing House The USA comedy’s stars created custom spots for VOD sponsors Comcast, Samsung and Toyota. “They were in line with the show’s creative story arc, and that’s what’s next for scale…

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST The controversial resurrection drama launched on Ash Wednesday, 2004, and went on to rake in $370 million at the U.S. box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, on its way to $611 million globally. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL The family drama about a young boy’s near-death experience earned more than $100 million worldwide, proving that it preached far beyond the choir. THE BIBLE The 10-episode miniseries from producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey on History became the most-watched cable miniseries of 2013 and spawned a big-screen spinoff, Son of God, which pulled in $60 million the following spring.…

What are you tackling in the new position? Two things. One is the translation of total audience [measurement], which is now implemented into the new state of metrics for the video industry. And the second one is the transition of our buy-side business to more of a data as a service business, from market-share data to market-share data that is linked to a set of explanatory variables. Where do things stand with your total audience rollout? In the fourth quarter of last year, we delivered the final pieces, so that any advertisers, any agency, any publisher can now see the total audience to a piece of advertising and video content. The next step for us is to move to a syndicated product, whereby everybody sees everything. We’re hopeful of being…

Never in her wildest dreams did Helen Pak think she would leave the advertising industry to do creative work for a technology company. Then, three years ago, while on set filming a big-budget commercial, the evp and co-executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi got a phone call out of the blue. It was Facebook, wooing her for its Creative Shop—a group of creative experts and digital natives charged with developing marketing campaigns for brands within the Facebook platform—as a creative strategist. Pak was skeptical at first, but ultimately agreed to join the team after seeing some of Facebook’s most recent hires. Creative Shop’s chief creative officer, Mark D’Arcy, promised Pak the chance to work with top agencies and brands. “The cultural perks and the employee benefits were miles and…

THE NAME “Le Creuset” translates literally to “the crucible”—or caldron or melting pot. It’s the vessel in which the molten iron is heated at the foundry. THE HANDLE One of the few features of the French oven to change in the last 90 years, the handles were redesigned in 2010 to be more ergonomic. THE METAL Le Creuset’s cast-iron pots consist of 15 percent pig iron, 50 percent recycled iron and 35 percent steel that’s recycled from the automotive industry. Family members often find themselves pining for heirlooms—rings, watches, quilts and so on. But who’d elbow a sibling out of the way to get a cast-iron cooking pot? Well, if it’s a Le Creuset pot, you’d be surprised. Just ask Will Copenhaver. “We see cases where Le Creuset is written…

What’s the first information you consume in the morning? The New York Times website. I get the print edition on Sundays. And then I usually go straight to Facebook and look at all the things that my friends posted overnight. It’s really a general consumption thing with Facebooknews articles, pictures of Chihuahuas that look like blueberry muffins. What’s your go-to social media platform? Facebook is the one I prefer, just because it feels like I’m having an extended conversation with my friends. I use Twitter, but I don’t find it particularly enlightening or helpful in terms of getting information. I also find that it makes me tense after a very short time. The one thing I do like using Twitter for is this thing I started called Sunday Art Exchange…

With more than 400 million monthly users and a growing number of advertisers, Instagram is adding an algorithm that reorders pictures and videos in users’ feeds based on their interests. It’s a move marketers say was inevitable, as the photo-sharing app builds out its ad business and takes a page from sister company Facebook’s playbook, even if it irks Instagram’s core users. (Within 20 hours of the algorithm’s rollout being reported, more than 50,000 Instagram users had signed a petition protesting the changes.) The photo-sharing app didn’t say when the new algorithm will kick in, but The New York Times, which broke the story, reported that the changes will gradually roll out with a small set of tests that affect a “single-digit percentage of users.”…

Tor Myhren Left Grey to become Apple’s vp, marketing communications Rudi Anggono Was at TBWA Paris before moving to Google as head of creative for The Zoo Zach Canfield Worked at W+K and Goodby Silverstein & Partners before joining Google as head of global recruiting, but then returned to Goodby Rick Dennis Was global ecd for Commonwealth//McCann in Detroit before joining Facebook Scott Larson The Razorfish and Factory Design Labs ex-pat went to Facebook to become ecd Ann Mack Left JWT for Facebook Scott Trattner The former TBWA/Media Arts Lab vet is now ecd at Facebook.…

Last week, the New York media world was glued to a live feed from a small courtroom in Florida where Hulk Hogan was suing Gawker Media over a sex tape it published featuring the fallen wrestler. If Gawker publisher Nick Denton seems an unlikely poster child for the First Amendment, then Hustler founder and publisher Larry Flynt’s candidacy for defender of the faith would be shocking. But that’s exactly what happened beginning in the late 1970s when the porn publisher was involved in a series of legal battles regarding obscenity, free speech and public figures, some of them even making it to the U.S. Supreme Court. One case in particular was worthy enough to warrant Hollywood memorialization in The People vs. Larry Flynt, a 1996 film that has since earned…