Meta's surrender, Walmart brand refresh and Heineken's brand genius
This isn't about free speech and never was, Walmart's warm move + Agency & Brand news you need to know!
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On Meta
98% of businesses won’t see any impact from Meta removing fact-checking, because it was never good at its job. Third-party moderators aren’t to blame—it’s Meta and their toxic productivity and profit-seeking culture.
We haven’t forgotten about Myanmar, Elections in Brazil and their potential role in Manipur, Ebola lies, the list goes on. Or the Sextortion scams, Drugs ads and election-related moderation delays.
Big governments across the globe were rarely censoring or forcing Meta. The problem has always been their declining focus on moderation. The Washington Post reported a few months ago that Meta has been defunding their Oversight Board (the 'Supreme Court of Facebook'), causing it to move slower.
Even if you ignore the moderation issues, it wasn’t liberals who forced Meta to quit political content and adopt the ‘‘FB & IG are family apps’ agenda. That was their decision—and it didn’t work.
On one hand, I’m happy about community moderation because what we’ve seen with Community Notes on X is better than any form of moderation we have on TikTok or Meta. If that system can work on a messy platform like X, it’s likely to do even better—especially with news creators and media publishers providing the sources.
On the other hand, what form of free speech protest begins with canceling the voices of other people? Meta deleting trans and nonbinary chat themes sends the wrong signal about their intentions.
The bigger problem with Meta’s announcement is the framing and PR. The gaslighting from Zuckerberg is unreal. He doesn’t know what CFPB does or is.
Many users are concerned about Hate speech and adult content moderation. If you are one of them, consider yourself lucky. Because hate speech in Instagram comments is already on a higher level than TikTok and Breastfeeding (NSFW), AI slop and porn videos are unmoderated on reels. I have tried to reset my instagram reels algorithm, nothing changes.
Meta confirmed one of my 2025 marketing trends predictions: Brand Safety is a thing of past, advertising is about to get messy. Your ads and content will have to overwork to distract people from the fact that last video they saw was something extremely political or inappropriate.
It’s time we rethink our relationship with social media platforms. No, we can’t run from one app to another because of morality or ethics. You should prioritize owning your audience, first-party data and making your work/content detachable from the platform culture and interests.
Lastly, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t make this decision solely because of Trump. He also saw how much money he could save by following this plan. Profit.
On Walmart’s brand refresh
This refresh somewhat explains the 'make the logo bigger' client mindset and the current landscape where brands want to be more visible and welcoming while making fewer changes.
While PayPal’s brand refresh was more substantial, this one follows a similar pattern. Walmart is taking a similar approach, though with minimal changes.
“It’s more about aligning the visual expression with how the brand has evolved since 2008,” said David Hartman, Walmart’s vice president of creative, of the changes.
I disagree. It has more to do with brand aligning their brand identities with their content. This color change is about branding, being as warm as their recent collaborations have been like Gilmore Girls + a font change for nostalgia reasons.
Coors Light had a case of Mondays
The brand launched a misspelled ad campaign and apologised. This seems all too random, and the apology came quickly. Was this part of an early Super Bowl ad campaign rollout? Or a social ad campaign for online engagement?
The agency behind this campaign, Mischief US was not that concerned about it. It was all for shits and giggles as it seems.
The agency previously changed Goldfish’s name to Chilean Sea Bass crackers to troll and make the product more appealing to adult customers.
On Fashion
Jonathan Anderson is rumoured to be leaving Loewe to join Dior. According to reporting by Lauren Sherman of Puck, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the design duo behind Proenza Schouler, are reportedly heading to Loewe.
Moschino’s latest TikTok campaign is something, it’s funny and attentive but the product identity isn’t as visible as it should be. But it is definitely better than PUCCI, according to the comments on Outlander Magazine. The fashion community is divided about brands doing engagement-focused content.
The read of the day: How ‘the algorithm’ became a scapegoat for bland style
Agency News
WPP employees push back on return-to-office policy with petition. (MB)
JC Penney names Mischief US as creative agency of record. (IG)
Matt McNally returns to Publicis as global CEO of Publicis Health. (MB)
New England Aquarium appoints Allen & Gerritsen as Creative and Media AOR.
Tourism Ireland selects Grey London as new global creative agency. (TT)
Penguin Random House books Havas Entertainment as new media agency. (CL)
Whataburger appoints Empower Media its media AOR.
Starbucks abruptly dumps WPP from US creative account. (MG)
Nationwide ends relationship with New Commercial Arts. (LB)
Canadian Blood Services selects Cairns Oneil as media agency.
L’Oreal Canada puts media assignment up for review.
Havas launches creator-led docuseries ‘Shape Shifting’ backed by doctors and scientists.
DOOH.com & savi UK launch joint venture product, “Redeem”.
1st Central drafts in Armadillo to ramp up CRM strategy
Kimberly-Clark divides its media and creative accounts four ways. (AG)
Barclays creative to move from long-serving BBH.
Creative Strategy and Cultural Agency Valerie launches.
On Gen-Z & Heineken
Gen-Z’s favourite brand isn’t Heineken but it should be.
They do more to solve Gen-Z’s crisis than Duolingo and Marc Jacobs. Entertaining content doesn’t go as far as real-life products and events to fix the loneliness epidemic and break stereotypes.
I’m not glazing, only stating the obvious. Gen-Z is very anti-alcohol as far as the trends tell us. But Heineken is the only brand trying their best to reverse it.
I’m also Gen-Z and only drink non-alcoholic beer. But that’s not the main reason behind my likeness for Heineken. It’s their consistently global and perfect marketing that I have been covering for last few years.
First, Heineken has kicked off the year with 0.0 dry January campaign with focus on breaking stereotypes about non-alcoholic beer trends. In Canada, they are running an event train to engage people.
In 2024, The Boring Phone was their biggest ad campaign, they followed up the launch/success of that platform with boring mode app. The campaign’s objective was to make social events more engaging, target nostalgia and promote friendship.
Gaming, Friendship & Life is a common theme in Heineken’s campaign. Almost forgot, sustainability. In Brazil, they ran All black ad to promote energy-saving and recycling used bottles in South Africa.
During UEFA, they ran ads like Laundromatch to connect people and social ads with focus on football fan culture. After covid, they ran ads that targeted toxic work culture with #workresponsibly ad campaign in Singapore, Brazil and other countries.
Coming to the typical beer campaigns, The First Ahh and Forgotten Beers are two ad spots that target the traditional beer fan culture and vibes. They also had F1 collabs with Max Verstappen and Las Vegas Sphere + helping historic Irish pubs by turning them into Museums.
They are not the best at social media marketing but they do get some viral moments. One campaign I really liked was Yappers vs Listeners beer.
Brands that are struggling because the overall market is in decline. They can learn a lot from Heineken, the brand uses other market issues and trends to build up their business.
Acquisitions & Partnerships
T-Mobile to acquire Vistar Media, strengthening its ad-tech capabilities for the digital OOH market.
Stagwell partners with ARM to expand audio marketing.
Publicis Groupe forms Leo, merging Leo Burnett and Publicis WW. (MA)
Comcast Technology Solutions and Mediaocean deepen Partnership, delivering an Industry-First Bi-Directional Integration.
TBWA\London sponsors School of Communication Arts.
RIP Oliviero Toscani
The legendary Italian photographer behind United colors of Benetton ad campaigns.
Brands & Ads
Australia’s 2025 Lamb ad campaign ‘The Comments Section’ is great but not better than last year’s ‘The Generational Gap’ ad spot.
On and FKA Twigs redifine movement in 'The Body Is Art, Part II’ campaign. (AW)
Sonos’ interim CEO hits all the right notes in first letter to employees.
Ford is getting into their nostalgia bag: They are reviving vintage ads to relaunch legendary Capri as an EV.
ATP Tour targets gen Z and millennial tennis fans in global campaign. (MA)
Bumble goes up against dating app rivals with Amelia Dimoldenberg partnership. (AF)
Sarah Lancashire takes up case of Yorkshire Tea crime. (TD)
McDonald’s Canada organised a showdown between NHL stars Matthews and McDavid. (MJ)
Idris Elba ‘walks through’ the ways ServiceNow AI tech works for employees in new ad. (MT)
Dove invites women to let go of the ‘pursuit of perfect’ in 2025. (NR)
George Clooney is back with another Nespresso ad campaign, he’s a detective. (MC)
Macca’s invites Aussies to get the squad together in ‘Squad Down Under’ campaign via DDB Sydney.
Cadbury UK launches Alzheimer’s-awareness ad campaign titled ‘Memory’. (AW)
easyJet has launches creator-led winter ad campaign . (US)
Loewe’s new ad campaign conjures wintery landscape with Drew Starkey and Wang Yibo.
It’s Brick In NYC: Nigel Sylvester and Jordan unveil Bike Air Truck activation. (CL)
Revolut enters world made of wool in ‘Money Possibilities’ brand campaign.
Pepsi pops off with a new flavored cola and announces flavorful Super Bowl food activations in NOLA. (LB)
Bella Hadid returns as the face of Miss Sixty in the Y2K-Inspired Spring 2025 Campaign. (watch)
Endy, online mattress brand gives consumers the tax break that Ottawa didn’t. (CL)
Jude Bellingham reminds us that no matter who you are, you can score goals with Adidas. (AD)
A single like transforms dance duo brutalisms 3000’s lives in Tinder campaign. (LP)
Mercedes-Benz and Google partner on AI-powered conversational search within Navigation Systems.
Whataburger turns 75 in 2025 and brings OG Menu items back for celebration. (view)
Coca-Cola is making AI fears part of its new ad campaign. (MA)
Britannia redefines advertising with tree-shaped billboards, earns praise: 'Love this initiative'
Ladder’s Quitters Day ad campaign is hilarious as f**k.
Charlotte Crosby stars in Rightmove’s clever parody: Selling Sunderland. (FC)
Vodafone cuts advertising and media emissions by a third. (VN)
Mediaocean’s H1 2025 marketing report
Some 68% of marketers plan to increase spending on social media, 67% intend to boost investments in digital display/video and 55% aim to expand their CTV advertising budgets.
86% of advertisers report a lack of synchronization between creative and media processes, highlighting significant opportunities for growth.
TikTok ban isn't live yet, but Zoomers are already fleeing to RedNote
US lawmakers have achieved their ultimate goal of exposing Americans to Chinese propaganda and content.
They banned a Singapore-based platform called TikTok, primarily owned by American investors, for exposing user data to China.
After all, US lawmakers were thinking of Americans. They said, 'Why settle for fake Chinese propaganda when you can have the real deal?'
RedNote is trending heavily with Gen-Z and Millennials. Chinese users on the app are posting LeBron James and Luigi Mangione edits, calling Americans ‘TikTok refugees.’ I also joined the platform for fun and posted one of my recent marketing news recaps. No likes yet, stuck on 15 views.
I don’t know about brands joining the app. But Nick DiGiovanni was quick to drop an official video on RedNote.
If you are asking, why can’t they just move over to Instagram and other apps? Also, many people love their Chinese spy. One of the spies has replied.
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On Reddit: Not the best, what’s the most important ad campaign of all time?