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If you announce that something is elegant or classy, it probably isn’t.

There’s a humility to hospitality and sophistication that evaporates when we name it.

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It’s finally time again to put together Adweek’s Hot List, which honors the best in TV, media and digital & tech each year. This year we’ll again spotlight a Media Visionary, leading executives, creators, shows and companies across dozens of categories. Our iconic Hot List–published in print and online on March 12–evolves every year to…Read More

Last week, I passed 800 people as I walked my way through New York.

I decided to look at the folks I was walking near.

Of those 800 people, not one was as conventionally attractive as a movie star. Few looked like the images I saw on the billboards I passed. Most wouldn’t be cast in a commercial. Perhaps 40 went to a famous college, maybe 10 played competitive sports. All of them were kinder and wiser than the typical TV character, and cared very much about something important.

They were older and younger than the average ‘target market’ for most products. Some carried canes, wore glasses, or had hearing aids. A few were in wheelchairs. A bunch could run far faster than I can, and every one of them knew about things I’ve never even thought about.

If we zoom out and imagine passing 800 randomly chosen people from around the world, we see even more of what it means to be on this planet. Of those 800, fewer than 300 have ever been on an airplane. Half are smarter than average. 200 speak a little English. 50 make just a few dollars a day. Four or five live in bondage. Very few of them have as big an impact on the climate as you and I, and more than 600 of them are very concerned about what’s happening to the world around us.

For a long time, scaled consumer marketing has created status roles where none used to exist, and amplified division and class as a way to create insufficiency and generate sales.

But what we see when we look at the media or at a stack of resumes doesn’t accurately represent the world as it is.

We are all weird, and that’s okay.

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We can wrestle with a challenge or a problem and find energy and possibility while doing it.

And we can dance with someone else as we seek a mutual way forward.

Fighting tends to be more brutal, final and hurtful than is often productive. You don’t want to spend your days fighting.

The words matter.

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As NFL fans gear up for Sunday’s hotly anticipated round 2 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott has teamed up with Maximum Effort and the Colorectal Cancer Alliance’s “Lead From Behind” initiative to dole out some pregame “Sh*t Talk” meant to motivate lifesaving measures. In the 84-second-long video,…Read More

She’s a single mom who’s down on her luck. He’s a competitive eater who’s searching for love. What happens when fate brings them together in an ad for Impossible Foods? It’s a meat cute … get it? Inspired by the cheesy Hallmark movie cannon and wrapped in a heaping helping of dad jokes, Impossible drops…Read More

I don’t think my father knows what I do for a living. When I told him I had moved from film and television to branded entertainment, he looked at me with confusion and surmised, “Like The Carnation Hour?” I had to Google that–turns out he does know what I do. The Carnation Hour was a…Read More

Drinks giant Coca-Cola has released two short films over the Winter holidays through Amazon’s Prime and Freevee platforms, featuring Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer, Scoot McNairy and Colm Meaney in starring roles. The two films, The Note and Ho Ho Heist, are directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Caple Jr, respectively, to continue the brand’s…Read More

Agriculture’s B2B marketing doesn’t have to look far to find its humanity. After marking a half century in the storytelling business this year, ag-focused creative firm Bader Rutter’s client list features some of the sector’s larger players. That includes livestock drug producer Zoetis (with a market cap of $77 billion), chemical and seed firm Corteva…Read More

Luxury fashion house Valentino is continuing its partnership with AR technology company Wanna to allow shoppers to virtually try on womenswear items from its Spring 2024 line in augmented reality. Shoppers can virtually try on a selection of items from the new collection by downloading the free Wanna Wear app on iOS. People can take…Read More