Adweek July 12, 2021

When the Summer Olympics kicks off in less than two weeks, there will be one big thing missing from the competition: fans. Organizers said all in-person spectators are banned from attending the games just days after Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a fourth state of emergency in the host country. The move marks another production curveball for NBCUniversal, which is banking on big viewership for the games that were already delayed a year. There’s a lot riding on the broadcaster getting it right. NBCUniversal has netted $1.2 billion in ad revenue from more than 120 advertisers and is also hoping to leverage the games to supercharge consumer interest in fledgling streamer Peacock.…

‘Consumers nowadays want to have more of that personal and intimate connection with the brand that they’re consuming.’ It’s not every day that a major actor like Danny Glover clears an entire set to give you advice, but it happened to Juan Woodbury. Early in his career, Woodbury was a junior producer on a film set when Glover sat him down and talked to him about how to maintain integrity in his career and approach everything he does “in a positive way.” Woodbury has taken that advice to heart as he’s navigated through a creative journey of his own making, with interests in videography, design, photography and music production. Along with producing Birds of a Feather, a feature film starring Snoop Dogg and Polish singer Iza Lach, he also spent 20 years at…

Zoe Scaman, founder of U.K.-based strategy firm Bodacious, released a candid essay detailing industry misogyny and sexual abuse on July 4 titled “Mad Men. Furious Women.” Since then, women throughout advertising have contacted Scaman with their own harrowing stories of toxic work environments. On July 6, those women anonymously released a declaration aimed at putting harassers throughout the industry on notice. Developed with Scaman, the statement promises swift and unyielding action against those who continue to perpetuate an unsafe culture of abuse.…

As publishers scramble to adopt first-party data solutions before cookies disappear, Verizon Media has convinced a third major brand, Maven, to use its new ConnectID technology. Maven, the media company behind publications like Sports Illustrated and TheStreet, chose to adopt ConnectID for a number of reasons, though one stands out. Unlike competitors, Verizon Media offers both demand- and sell-side technology, making it a more attractive proposition for publishers and advertisers. In addition to Maven, it has also enticed Newsweek and Cafe Media to use its platform. BIG NUMBER 30% CONNECTED TV AD FRAUD RATES FELL MORE THAN 12% YEAR OVER YEAR ACROSS ALL DEVICES AND AD FRAUD FELL 30% OVERALL.…

Three years after it was initiated, a U.K. tribunal has ruled in favor of two creative directors who sued WPP agency JWT after they claimed to have been fired for being male, heterosexual and white. Chas Bayfield and his colleague Dave Jenner were two of five male creatives to be made redundant by the agency in 2018. The move came following a conference presentation in which creative director Jo Wallace announced that the agency wanted to “obliterate” its reputation for being full of “white privileged straight men.” The ruling found that they had faced sex discrimination, victimization and unfair dismissal. But claims around age discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, race discrimination, harassment and dismissal on the grounds of making protected disclosures against the agency were dismissed. A spokesperson for Wunderman Thompson told Adweek in…

When Paul Mastronardi joined his family’s produce company in 1994, he didn’t like tomatoes. He set out to change that by visiting seed companies around the world, trying as many tomato varieties in development as possible. In the Netherlands, he tasted the Campari, a variety on the proverbial cutting board because of its unusual size. Retailers feared it would get lost on shelves. But the flavor was so incredible, Mastronardi insisted on introducing the variety to stores across North America. The challenge was how to create awareness about this new tomato. “At that time, there was no branding in tomatoes,” Mastronardi, the fourth-generation family CEO of Mastronardi Produce Ltd., told Adweek from the company’s Ontario headquarters. “A brand sets it apart. That, as far as we know, is the first branded tomato.” Dropping tomatoes…