Morning Update: worst ads of 2016; Funny or Die parodies Newfronts; Heineken wants second media agency; Upfronts hysteria
Copyranter: The worst ads of 2016, so far
It’s time to give sponsored content architects and native advertising scribes a break, even though the stuff y’all create amazingly continues to be completely useless. This week is about “traditional” ads — terrible, appalling, dreadfully offensive traditional ads.
One of the worst things brands do is make up a stupid Ad Word about their product. They’re always cringeworthy. (In 2011, Durex actually trademarked “Wegasm.”) Above are two of the worst in the history of language.
Funny or Die Takes Down the Upfronts’ ‘All New’ Lineups
Did a few of the new shows announced at the 2016 TV upfronts sound a little …familiar? Funny or Die picked up on that too.
The networks aren’t just being lazy, of course. They’re in a death match for viewers’ attention, and even a good show won’t attract an audience as quickly as broadcasters require if nobody checks it out in the first place. So the plan is straightforward: Give people programs they already recognise.
AdWeek: Heineken Launches Global Search to Find a Second Media Agency
Heineken is launching a search for a second agency to handle global media planning and buying at the world’s third-largest brewer.
The Netherlands-based company has been working with Starcom Mediavest Group since 2012, when it consolidated work handled by 14 worldwide agency partners into one relationship with the Publicis Groupe media network.
AAR Partners, London, is handling the current search process which is being led by Gregory Kukolj, Heineken’s global head of media and digital. He did not disclose the marketer’s global spending on the company’s portfolio of brands, which include Amstel, Tecate and Dos Equis.
Fortune: This Post Will Have More Views Than All Of TV*
(Views of each letter counted as a discrete view)
The end of April and first few weeks of May are among the busiest times on the media industry’s calendar. It’s traditionally the upfronts season, when TV networks make their top-dollar pitches to advertisers and agencies. Now it’s also the “NewFronts” season, where digital publishers do the same.
But this year we in the media world are falling prey to some really wild spin. In digital, it’s become customary for us to invent audience comparisons that just don’t measure up — particularly when it comes to digital video “views.” And when we do this, we make bad decisions.
Campaign Live: WPP moves to dismiss ‘frivolous’ Johnson discrimination suit
Erin Johnson “twisted the facts and distorted the context” of former JWT CEO Gustavo Martinez’s behaviour, say lawyers. Lawyers for WPP and J. Walter Thompson today filed a motion to dismiss the discrimination lawsuit brought by Erin Johnson against them and former JWT chief executive Gustavo Martinez, saying she twisted facts and took Martinez’s statements out of context to “make a splash with the media.”
“[I]t is clear that Plaintiff has twisted the facts and distorted the context to contrive gender-based hostile work environment and retaliation claims,” the motion read.
