Table of contents for May 20, 2019 in Adweek

Social media and television viewing make strange bedfellows. Social media makes it easier for fans of television programs to connect with each other and have shared viewing experiences. Unlike television viewing parties that required everyone to convene in the same physical space, however, social media facilitates social interactions without requiring viewers to congregate in the same place. If you’re engaged with the program you’re watching to the extent that you’re talking about it online, that increased attention may spill over to the advertisements embedded in the programming. On the flip side, if you’re busy engaging in online conversations about the program you’re watching during commercial breaks, you’re not necessarily going to be paying attention to the advertisements that air during the program. ‘The content and timing of the ads play…

There’s a degree of comfort in recruiting employees straight out of the country’s top advertising schools. But there’s a downside to the way that this form of hiring has historically been approached by many agencies, according to Brady. “It’s an archaic system that tends to lead to a lot of cookie-cutter people,” he says, noting that the six-figure price tag of ad schools alone puts them out of reach for many aspiring ad mavens. “We have a financial barrier built into the industry.” To widen the pipeline, Droga5 launched an in-house boot camp called the D5in10 Academy and opened it to artistic folks with no previous advertising experience. Brady likens the free 10-week crash course to a “mini version of a portfolio school,” with nearly 40 agency execs involved as…

People with Down syndrome are doomed to a lifetime of limitations, or so the antiquated thinking goes. Saatchi, in work early this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the National Down Syndrome Society, latched onto that specific, damaging misconception and flipped it on its head in a powerful short film. It was the agency’s sequel to a Cannes Lion-winning pop-up restaurant called C21 staffed entirely by those with Down syndrome. (That experiential activation, launched in Washington, D.C., in late 2017, has since spread to several other cities.) The “No Limitations” campaign broke NDSS records for fundraising in a single day and bolstered the fight to reform laws that stand in the way of financial independence for people with Down syndrome. “This community is one of the most discriminated against…

For companies that say they don’t know where to find young, self-starting, highly motivated, creative people of color, the co-founder of Scope of Work has a ready answer: “We have 200-plus kids in our network looking for opportunities,” says Levenson, who launched the company with fellow artist and educator White in 2016. “We hear this often from employers, and we believe their recruiting strategy just isn’t deep enough.” That’s one of the systemic problems the execs are tackling at Scope of Work, a talent development firm that specializes in finding and shaping artistic, 17- to 24-year-old New Yorkers, placing them in creative-industry jobs and continuing to support them once they land. The startup is addressing other entrenched issues like holes in education, where public school students “may not even have…

For Americans fond of their brewskies, Dec. 5, 1933, was arguably the biggest day in history. That Sunday, Utah became the all-important 36th state to vote an end to Prohibition. To show their gratitude to Franklin D. Roosevelt—who’d reportedly said, “What America needs now is a drink”—two brewers sent gifts to the president. One was Anheuser-Busch and the other was D.G. Yuengling & Son. But while the Clydesdales dropped off only a case of Bud, Yuengling brewed up a batch of its “Winner Beer”—and sent FDR a truckload of the stuff. In a way, it was only fitting. Though D.G. Yuengling & Son has never been a huge operation (it produces 2.5 million barrels a year), it has long punched above its weight, boasting a reach and reputation that’s the…

Long before a modified DeLorean took Marty McFly back to the future, it was the future. In late 1980, America was abuzz over the DMC-12, the stainless-steel roadster with the gull-wing doors slated to go into production in January 1981. While the DeLorean Motor Company worked to finalize its dealership network, Adweek—which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year—was all revved up over which of 100 possible agencies would land the $25,000 car’s $7 million advertising account. “We’ve gotten calls from all over the country,” a DeLorean spokesperson told us. Advertising would be the final touch to a dazzling project begun by John DeLorean, the father of the muscle car who abandoned Detroit to build the car of tomorrow. In the end, however, he’d make only 9,200 of them. In…

DO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE “REFLECT YOUR PERSONALITY,” Lewis said. It should include more than just your resume or your accomplishments. It needs to show what you can bring to the industry you’re in (or want to break into). “Give potential employers or clients a glimpse of the person they’ll be working with,” Lewis said. “Overall, the goal is to do a good job telling your story.” DON’T OVERLOOK THE URL. Lewis said it’s one aspect of your website that travels to other parts of your professional life as well, like social media, resume and business cards. “Not only is this connectivity something a lot of people forget to consider when they’re choosing a custom domain to purchase, but a bonus snag in the decision is what happens when you want…

WE TEAMED UP WITH ADCOLOR TO CELEBRATE INDUSTRY EXECS MAKING MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY. MEET THE FIRST ANNUAL ADWEEK CHAMPIONS. What makes someone a true champion of diversity and inclusion? Here, for the first time, Adweek, in partnership with Adcolor, sought to find out by creating Adweek Champions, an award that celebrates executives and creatives in marketing, media and technology who are committed to taking action that yields real results. A jury composed of Adweek editors, Adcolor members and Adcolor’s founder, Tiffany R. Warren, who is the svp, chief diversity officer of Omnicom Group, earlier this spring was blown away by the impressive efforts being undertaken to effect meaningful change. From the many submissions we received, they selected standouts ranging from Saatchi & Saatchi New York CEO Andrea…

Not to trash networking events, but Melville had something far more ambitious and less old-school in mind when he thought about bringing ad professionals together for some topical conversation. What he co-created was the Disruptor Series, a live talk show in the TBWA lobby where he chats with an eclectic array of innovators and leading-edge thinkers like Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, television personality Wendy Williams, radio host-author Charlamagne tha God and former president of Mexico Vicente Fox. Audio from the 45-minute discussions, which have attracted at least 2,000 attendees in the past three years, has been turned into podcasts that have logged upward of 100,000 listeners. “It’s our way of empowering people with information,” Melville says. “It’s not a mixer. It’s a whole different take.” He has…

In the cacophonous run-up to Cannes Lions last summer, Lucio pulled off the business equivalent of a mic drop. As the top marketing and communications officer at HP, with Visa and PepsiCo stints in his background, he announced the results of an intense push to diversify the ranks at his company and its creative partners. The numbers had shifted dramatically: His leadership group went from 20% female to 50% in 12 months, and women in top creative and strategy roles at HP agencies soared from zero to 52%. Women directed 59% of 53 commercial campaigns, a major stride for equality considering there were no female directors on the production roster before the effort began. Lucio, also speaking during the festival, says HP saw lifts in purchase intent, brand preference, ad…

In the coming months, Univision will search for the next Latina musical sensation, debut a female-centric modern-day version of The Count of Monte Cristo and launch a culture-blending project from Queen of the South writer Arturo Perez-Reverte. The new programming follows the network’s first leap into the supernatural, with life-after-death drama Amar a Muerte breaking ground for its lesbian love story and propelling the channel this spring to its highest prime-time ratings in years. That the broadcaster has replaced wall-to-wall telenovelas with more dynamic, contemporary series is no accident. The change is the brainchild of Rodriguez, who also overhauled the long-running competition show Nuestra Belleza Latina, a cross between a traditional beauty pageant and America’s Next Top Model. The reboot welcomed women of all shapes, sizes and ages, swapped out…

Within hours of his appointment as co-chair of the Association of National Advertisers’ #SeeHer initiative in March, Pritchard announced stepped-up diversity goals for the industry and specific ways to get there by 2020. More ads will be evaluated for unconscious bias in portrayals of gender, race, sexuality, ability and age, for example, and more campaigns and entertainment will come from female directors (current levels are “unacceptable,” he says). He’ll urge more companies to commit to #SeeHer, diversify their own ranks and demand the same from their agency partners. “We have a responsibility to make a difference,” he said at an ANA press conference with his co-chair, AT&T chief brand officer Fiona Carter, reiterating his belief that brands need to lead the way. As the top marketer at big-spending P&G ($7.1…

When Marta Martinez was in college in Barcelona, she attended a school known for its math and qualitative sciences programs. But what did she pick? Marketing. “I became determined to bring the science into what’s considered more of an art,” she said. Over the course of her career, she’s done just that. After working in the agency world at Havas Digital, Martinez dove into ad tech as CMO of MediaMath before switching over to internet advertising at AOL as head of sales strategy. Right before becoming director of agency platforms at Google, she was chief revenue officer for Intersection, a smart cities and media company. One theme of Martinez’s career: She’s never had a straight path. Instead, she’s chosen to zig and zag while connecting the dots, which has also…

As counterintuitive as it may seem, public relations hasn’t done a very good job of hyping itself, particularly as a field for diverse talent. “There’s a lack of awareness, and many people even today still don’t know it’s a viable career,” Smith says. “And a lot of historically black colleges and universities don’t have dedicated majors or focus areas.” There’s also a “legacy paradigm” at work, she says, which means that so-called outsiders are hard pressed to get their foot in the door. Add to that an environment that traditionally hasn’t seemed welcoming to candidates from underrepresented groups, and PR has found itself among the most homogenous industries around. Against that backdrop, Edelman named Smith its first chief diversity executive about four years ago. The role for the 18-year agency…

Members of Petco’s LGBTQ group were talking on internal channels recently about possibly taking part in a summer pride parade on the company’s home turf in Southern California. Hassan joined the chat and, within 24 hours, stepped in with a fully funded offer: What if the company sponsored two upcoming pride parades, in San Diego and San Antonio? It was an opportunity to let those employees and, by extension, the broader workforce know that senior managers were responding to them, he says. “When you have people with great ideas in your organization, you need to support and advocate for them,” says Hassan, an HP and Omnicom alum. “You can establish policies and talk about inclusion, but it’s not meaningful until there are things that everyone can see, touch, feel and…

In one of his early jobs, filing paperwork at a London ad agency, a 17-year-old Dixon asked his supervisors about the internal hierarchy. He was told that minorities weren’t likely to be top of the list for high-profile client-facing gigs. Later, as a college student and professional rugby player, he posed more tough questions about pecking order and discrimination, and centered his master’s thesis on the psychology of racial segregation in sports. He continued that research for a second master’s degree from Oxford University. When he landed his first leadership role in advertising, Dixon would purposely take no pages from those staid rule books. They’d served as an example of what not to do, in the office or on the field. The British-Caribbean son of a single mom gathered creative…

A self-professed data geek, Smith-Anoa’i started compiling statistics in the mid-2000s into a PowerPoint presentation to show her senior managers the growing importance of minority consumer groups. Her message to the C-suite: “We’re leaving money on the table, to the tune of trillions of dollars, by not programming to that wide audience.” She can’t recall how many revisions she made to that deck over time. But after two years of restating her case, Smith-Anoa’i landed her custom-created dream job as CBS Entertainment’s first diversity and inclusion executive in 2009. “I never lost sight of the goal,” she says now, “because I knew this position was so necessary.” In the decade since her appointment, Smith-Anoa’i has advocated for underrepresented voices behind and in front of the camera. The network’s current schedule…

The Walt Disney Company is an entertainment colossus that generated $59.4 billion last year, so it’s easy to forget that, once upon a time, there was an actual Walt Disney. Starting in the 1940s, the legendary cartoonist and film producer began dreaming about an amusement park that would offer immersive experiences that were both fantastical and educational. When Disneyland opened in 1955, its wonders included Adventureland’s Jungle Cruise, a boat ride that chugged visitors through exotic tropical locales. Disney’s original plan had been to use live animals, but when experts told him the creatures would hide from guests, “Uncle Walt” was forced to use models. The ride’s resounding popularity didn’t stop Disney from tinkering with it and, in 1962, he added a feature called the elephant wading pool. It featured…