Table of contents for October 3, 2016 in Adweek

The rumors floating around all year that CBS Corp. and Viacom might recombine 10 years after they split apart are no longer just rumors. Last week, National Amusements sent a letter to both boards asking them to consider a merger in what would be an all-stock deal. National Amusements, which owns 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, also said it won’t accept or support a third party acquiring either company, nor any deal under which it would not control the merged company. Many analysts and investors have said this year that the beleaguered Viacom’s best path to success lies in merging once again with CBS. Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp.’s chairman and CEO, is expected to run both companies, though The Wall Street Journal reported this…

More than 67 percent of women in the U.S. are considered plus size, yet those women make up less than 2 percent of the images in media consumed by a female audience. Refinery29 and Lane Bryant are aiming to change that through The 67% Project, an initiative through which Refinery29 will include a broader range of women across all of its editorial content. Orange Is the New Black star Danielle Brooks will be guest creative director for the project, which runs through Oct. 2. Refinery29 also is partnering with Getty Images on The 67% Collection, a series of images that showcase women of diverse sizes and backgrounds that appear on Refinery29’s website and also are available for licensing through Getty. –Kristina Monllos…

BREW! Hopsy HomeTap $299 These days, you can find a six-pack of your favorite craft beer everywhere from Whole Foods to the corner bodega, but getting a draft-quality pour still requires some legwork. San Francisco-based startup Hopsy, which offers home delivery of beers from local microbreweries like Magnolia and Laughing Monk, is now aiming to bring the brewery experience to consumers’ homes with the HomeTap. Designed by Krups, the HomeTap is a countertop appliance that dispenses draft beer from Hopsy’s proprietary two-liter containers, keeping it optimally chilled and fresh for up to two weeks. While Hopsy’s delivery service is currently only available in the Bay Area, the company plans to start rolling out nationwide by 2017. Buy it: sf.hopsy.beer ADWEEK | OCTOBER 3, 2016 37 COOK Cooking Light Onja Stove…

ANA Calls For Facebook Metrics Audit One week after details about Facebook inflating its video metrics for advertisers were discovered, the Association of National Advertisers called for an audit and accreditation of the social platform’s metrics. The ANA’s qualms stemmed from a report in The Wall Street Journal finding that Facebook overestimated the amount of time users spend with videos by anywhere from 60 to 80 percent. In a blog post, ANA president and CEO Bob Liodice wrote, “While ANA recognizes that ‘mistakes do happen,’ we also recognize that Facebook has not yet achieved the level of measurement transparency that marketers need and require. … With more than $6 billion of marketers’ media being directed to Facebook, we believe that it is time for them—and other such major media players—to…

 It’s no secret that brands are having a difficult time getting consumers with ever-shrinking attention spans to focus on, never mind notice, traditional advertising. But some marketers, including Under Armour, Gatorade and Warby Parker, may have found a solution by way of gaming. ‘If it isn’t a good game, it can have a negative impact on your brand.’Peter Petralia, managing director of digital strategy, Sullivan Last week, Under Armour became the latest marketer to experiment with an interactive game on Snapchat’s Discover. It Comes From Below, from RED Interactive and Droga5, turns players into Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton where, with some fancy footwork, they dodge obstacles in a forest. In August, Gatorade released its first video game within Snapchat’s Discover ESPN channel, Serena Williams’ Match Point, from game developer…

NICK BELL vp, content, Snapchat If the first half of this year for Snapchat was about debuting its API, the second half has been about building up its content. It’s batting two for two in that regard, and Nick Bell is the player who’s getting the hits. Last month, the 32-year-old vp, content enlisted Le Monde, Paris Match and L’Equipe to unveil Snapchat Discover in France. That was shortly after it added Vogue to the U.S. version of the app just in time for New York Fashion Week. These media brands became part of an impressive club of Discover players that also includes CNN, ESPN, MTV, Refinery29, The Wall Street Journal and BuzzFeed. What’s more, the latest partners come on the heels of what may have been Bell’s biggest coup…

LOWE’S Home improvement retail chain Lowe’s has issued an RFI ahead of its first media agency review since 2005. The review comes roughly 10 months after the Mooresville, N.C., chain promoted former vp of advertising Marci Grebstein to the role of chief marketing officer reporting to chief customer officer Michael Jones. Lowe’s Companies Inc. is currently the U.S.’ second-largest home improvement retailer and its eighth-largest retail company by annual sales. According to the latest numbers from Kantar Media, Lowe’s spent approximately $320 million on paid media in 2015 and $162 million in the first half of 2016. –Patrick Coffee…

Over the years, Frito-Lay has tried some pretty wild things to get the public excited about snacks. From spotlighting its potato farmers to dipping chips in chocolate to letting the public shoot its Super Bowl spots, the $14 billion PepsiCo subsidiary clearly isn’t afraid to take a few risks—including manufacturing Doritos out of cardboard. Just in time for election season, and in partnership with Rock the Vote (for more on this group, see page 11), Doritos has unveiled “Boldest Choice.” The campaign encourages young Americans to vote by reminding them that failing to choose is the equivalent of choosing nothing. How’s it do that? With flavorless chips. (We’ll explain below.) Like much of Frito-Lay’s unusual marketing in recent years, this latest initiative is the work of Jennifer Saenz, who after…

‘Everything they’re doing with the property is pure Americana.’Marty Brochstein, svp, industry relations, Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association There’s an ambitious gal running for president who was never satisfied with the idea of being first lady. She’s sharp, decisive and, by her own admission, “a little bossy.” She looks forward to bursting through the glass ceiling at the White House. Do you know her name? It’s Lucy van Pelt. The advice-dispensing Peanuts character may not seem like such an outrageous choice for the nation’s highest office right about now. Or there’s her football-fumbling frenemy, Charlie Brown, or his streetwise dog, Snoopy, also known as Joe Cool. The point is: You have options, people. For a partnership with Rock the Vote, the Peanuts characters are staging their own mock elections, complete with…

So this is actually your second time around at Men’s Health. You first went to work there back in 2004 when you were just 25 years old. How did you get into publishing? I actually worked at Court TV when I started out. I was covering trials. The folks at Men’s Health were surprised back then that I wanted to get into the magazine business, but I really felt like it was just such a vibrant world and full of great brands. Bill Phillips, the previous editor, brought me in to do gear and technology coverage as well as a smattering of other things. Eventually I worked my way up to articles editor and then brand development editor and worked on a lot of the apps and magazine stuff on…

THE FLAVOR The “Great Tasting” claim aside, consumer feedback led to a 2015 taste revamp, which brought sour apple and citrus lime to the lineup. THE BOTTLE At 3¼ inches tall, it’s tiny enough to find a home by the cash register—especially at Walmart, reportedly the source of 15 percent of the product’s sales. THE VITAMINS Among 5-Hour’s mysteries: Why does it contain thousands of times more vitamin B than the recommended daily allowance? THE BUZZ 5-Hour Energy is catchy branding, but the company’s website notes only that the product’s effect “lasts for hours” and “individual results may vary.” Let’s assume you’re reading this at 2 p.m. The lunch you had a couple of hours ago is leading to hypoglycemia. Since you’ve been awake for eight hours or so, your…

Clique Media Group’s powerful brands aim to speak to women across all generations: Who What Wear, a destination for young fashionistas that has even spawned its own clothing line at Target; MyDomaine, for hip millennial women navigating life; beauty site Byrdie; and most recently, Obsessee, aimed at Gen Z, focusing on everything from fashion to food to relationships—and the brand exists only on social media platforms. When co-founders Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr started the business seven years ago after leaving senior editorial roles at Elle magazine, designing their own office spaces probably wasn’t a top priority. But now that the Los Angeles firm is established, it needed space to reflect this and moved to its new corporate digs in February. Power, who’s CMG’s CEO, turned to Pinterest for inspiration…

What is the first information that you consume in the morning? I scroll through Twitter to see if there’s any major news, to see if there was an attack or bombing. If not, then I read the Skimm and Jason Hirschhorn’s media roundup, and then I read The New York Times—not the whole thing, but whatever articles [catch my attention]. I read a hard copy of The New York Times. Everyone should get one. What are your social media habits? I do a lot of Snapchatting, a lot of Instagram Stories, Facebook. My show has a whole social media department, so they’ve really kind of edified me in the way of social media so I know how to do all of these little things. We’re always doing Facebook Live, we’re…