Apple’s Carbon-Neutral Lullaby; King Arthur’s Fresh Look (and Name): Thursday’s First Things First
Plus, new executives at DDB
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Apple’s Affecting Spoken Lullaby Promises 100 Percent Carbon Neutrality by 2030
Apple followed its six-minute slapstick salute to remote work with an ad whose tone is far more sobering. A simple series of shots of a sleeping baby—who represents all babies in the 2020-born Generation Alpha—is overlaid with a gentle voice making a spoken-word promise that the brand will be completely carbon neutral by the baby’s 10th birthday. The ad comes with a statement that the company will achieve this goal with such measures as low carbon and recycled materials design, expanding energy efficiency and more.
Next steps: Apple also announced a new racial equity and justice initiative.
DDB Names New Global and North American CEOs
Omnicom’s DDB Worldwide has elevated two internal leaders to its top executive roles. Marty O’Halloran is taking on the global CEO position, rising from his position as chairman and CEO of DDB’s Australia and New Zealand offices, where he led DDB Sydney to be the runner-up for Cannes Lions’ 2019 Agency of the Year in the Pacific region, among other honors. Justin Thomas-Copeland is the company’s new North American CEO, moving from his previous role as global CEO of OPMG Health.
- Also in job moves: The New York Times has promoted Meredith Kopit Levien to CEO and president. She started at the company as its head of advertising and rose through the ranks to evp and CRO before this new promotion.
Combating Misinformation from QAnon and the Donald Trump Campaign
Twitter has suspended 7,000 accounts related to QAnon, a set of pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the so-called “deep state,” in an effort to stop the spread of misinformation. The platform will also limit the reach of related content and “block URLs associated with QAnon,” a move that is expected to ultimately affect 150,000 accounts.
It was Twitter users themselves that pointed out misinformation from the Donald Trump campaign itself. A Facebook ad that aligns Trump with law enforcement against U.S. protesters in what it calls “public safety vs. chaos & violence” included a photo of protestors clashing with police. The problem? The photo was not of U.S. protesters and police, but instead was a photo from the 2014 pro-democracy revolution in Ukraine.
Premium | Sports Leagues Have No Fans in the Stands. Which Leaves Plenty of Space for Advertisers
Live sports are resuming with strict quarantine controls, including barring fans from stadiums. But those empty seats mean there’s a whole lot of room for advertising—and advertisers are ready to fill that space. Fox Sports, for example, has already sold 90% of its MLB ad inventory as advertisers seek to get in front of sports-hungry fans. The league itself is working with brands like Google Cloud, which will run its stat-tracking systems, and Sony, which will create artificial fan noise in stadiums. The MLB has also created virtual tarps that can be digitally placed around the stadium for ad signage purposes.
Similarly, the NBA is aiming to continue the momentum established by the wildly popular ESPN documentary The Last Dance with campaigns that include user-generated fan content through partnerships with Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok.
Immersive experiences: NBA CMO Kate Jhaveri says the goal is to “make sure our fans feel as if they are in the middle of the action.”
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King Arthur Flour’s Rebrand Aligns With a Lockdown-Inspired Trend
