Table of contents for April 4, 2022 in Adweek

For many women in journalism, some of the same qualities that make the internet such a valuable tool for reporting—such as the intimacy it affords—can also make it a haven for harassment. Nearly 73% of women in journalism, according to Unesco, have experienced online violence, jeopardizing half of the industry and threatening to silence critical reporting. Some publishers have taken a proactive stance against this crisis, treating digital harassment as a workplace hazard. At BuzzFeed, reporters receive training about how to safeguard their digital identities, and editors are taught how to identify and flag stories that could provoke harassment before they are published. Some news organizations aiming to protect their journalists use digital services, such as anonymized phone numbers and online information management software like DeleteMe at Defector Media. Having…

LaToya Shambo was used to being the only Black woman in rooms that advocated for the same faces in marketing campaigns—the typical white, thin determinants of beauty and success. But it wasn’t until 2011, when she was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street and holding her newborn, that she decided to do something about it. Surviving that accident, spending months in rehab and her entire maternity leave in a cast changed Shambo’s life forever. “During that process, there was a lot of self-reflection,” she said. “I decided that I had to give back to the culture.” A lifelong singer, Shambo had briefly flirted with the idea of working in the entertainment industry before settling on marketing. Following that, she transferred to the Fashion Institute of Technology, switched majors…

When Billie Schaub started working at the CBD brand Ned in December, she pitched her reluctant CEOs an influencer marketing strategy. After a less-than-fruitful history of working with creators, that approach was, Schaub recalls being told, “the best way to flush money down the toilet.” “I wanted to completely revamp the program,” said Schaub, the brand’s marketing manager. “When we have our first call with influencers, we say, ‘We don’t want this to be a one-and-done and never talk to you again type of deal. We want to create a relationship with you over the next months and years.’” After starting with an empty roster at the beginning of the year, Schaub has built out a team of 88 influencers, who average a 109% ROI on their posts. In addition…

Advertising’s central goal has always been to convince people to buy more stuff. But as the world hurtles toward environmental catastrophe, brands and advertisers have a crucial role to play in transforming the global economy to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Consumers endure a daily onslaught of advertisements arguing that simply buying a certain product could mean the difference between a planet devastated by climate change and a lush, thriving ecosystem. But overconsumption and constant growth are incompatible with the kinds of changes it will take to fully address climate change. “Markets create incentives for companies to grow ever larger. That means selling more products,” said Aron Cramer, president and CEO of sustainable business group BSR. It also means “using more natural resources and creating more…

Jasmine Crowe’s company was inspired by a single Google search: “What happens to extra food at the end of the night?” Today, she’s one of the only CEOs who would prefer if her company went out of business. “It would be a dream of mine if we existed everywhere, but it would also be a bigger dream of mine if we didn’t need to exist,” Crowe said. According to the EPA, food waste makes up 22% of municipal waste in the U.S. That number highlights the gaps in a food system that contributes to more than a third of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions, while failing to feed all its inhabitants. Feeding America reports that 38 million people are food insecure in the U.S. alone, meaning they’re not sure where…

In 2019, the global economy generated 53.6 million metric tons of electronic waste. That’s the equivalent of about 2,272 Titanic-sized ocean liners, or one Titanic’s worth of e-waste produced every four hours. Of the year’s total e-waste, less than one-fifth (17.4%) was safely recycled, according to the 2020 Global E-Waste Monitor, a joint project of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations’ Sustainable Cycles Programme and the International Solid Waste Association. As for the rest, most of it probably ended up in landfills, and some was informally recycled, which likely exposed workers to toxic materials. And that can lead to cancers, miscarriages and neurological damage. If the global economy remains on its current trajectory, e-waste will hit 120 million metric tons per year by 2050, according to the UN. Given…

California’s Bay Area hockey fans are no doubt familiar with the voice of Randy Hahn, who has commentated on San Jose Sharks games since the team’s inception three decades ago. But even they might not bat an eye when an artificial intelligence-generated clone of Hahn’s voice chimes in on local radio ads. Hahn recently signed with Veritone, a company that produces realistic-sounding vocal imitations of celebrities and influencers in order to expand their options for sponsorship and endorsement opportunities. “Voice personalities like me only have so many hours in a week to take advantage of opportunities as they appear,” Hahn said in a statement. “Now, I can quite literally be in multiple places at once.” Veritone’s vocal cloning is just one way companies are looking to tap into a new…

What’s something exciting and innovative you’ve worked on recently? This past January, M&M’s rolled out a new brand purpose to create a world where everyone feels they belong—a world that is for all “funkind.” Our purpose was designed to remind everyone that, despite our differences, we have an incredibly powerful thing in common as a community: the power of fun. As a reflection of that, fans will notice changes to the brand’s look and feel rolling out across M&M’s content, properties, experiences and products. What does success look like for that campaign? We’ve developed The M&M’s FUNd to provide resources, mentorship, opportunities and financial support in the arts and entertainment space to help ensure people have access to experiences where everyone feels they belong. I love that we’re going to…

Beth Esponnette and her co-founders at Unspun are chasing a North Star that could revolutionize apparel as we know it: reducing global carbon emissions by 1% and creating products that will never end up in a landfill. Having started in the fashion industry right out of college, Esponnette said she quickly felt like she was “fueling this machine that was using up resources and turning those resources into trash.” So when she co-founded Unspun, a digital apparel brand that makes custom jeans using its own 3D printing technology and software, the goal was to reduce waste by making products as people purchase them instead of producing them in large quantities beforehand. Consumers can take a quiz online to determine what kind of jeans they want, which are then made with locally…

When it comes to periods, most menstruators want a quick, easy and painless method for dealing with their cycles. The less cleanup and waste, the better. Menstrual cups aren’t a novel idea, but they’ve hit a stride as more sustainability-minded consumers attempt to reduce single-use waste. According to a report by market research firm Facts & Factors, international sales for menstrual cups totaled $720.6 million in 2020 and are expected to reach $980.4 million by 2026. The first patented menstrual cup came about in 1867 as an insertable rubber bag. It then reemerged, for the first time as a commercial product, in 1937 when actress Leona Chalmers endorsed a reusable latex rubber cup called the Tass-ette (later rebranded as the Tassette). The DivaCup markets itself as an environmentally friendly alternative…

Our cover illustration was done by Zhenya Oliinyk, an illustrator and cartoonist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. As a former journalist, her work grapples with challenging social and cultural issues. What was your inspiration for this week’s Adweek cover design? Probably spring, which finally started to kick in in Kyiv. Even the ongoing Russian attack can’t stop the sun from shining and trees from blossoming. Who inspires you creatively? Liana Finck, Brecht Evens, Emma Larsson, Sophi Miyoko Gullbrants, and my dear Ukrainian colleagues ​Anya Ivanenko and Jenya Polosina at seri/graph. How did you get your start as an illustrator? My first job ever was to write news stories and draw political cartoons. In a decade, that gradually transformed into writing comics and drawing illustrations. How do you stay focused as a…

It must be uncomfortable for advertising executives to watch their Big Oil clients testify before Congress about their companies’ alleged misleading messages. In a recent House oversight committee hearing, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) highlighted the mixed messaging between Exxon CEO Darren Woods’ comments to the public and what the company’s own scientists were warning about for years in private. Those oil, coal and gas clients are climate enemy No. 1. But their sidekick, the advertising industry, isn’t far behind. The dangers of ‘lobbytising’ It’s likely that those same big agency CEOs and directors watching their fossil-fuel clients squirm will be next to perch on those hard wooden chairs, staring up at the raised bench of elected representatives. The questioners will have their pick of terrible examples. At its worst, advertising…

USE DATA TO DEEPEN ENGAGEMENT One of our top-performing emails is our rediscovery email, where we say, “Here’s what was happening in your life five years ago.” We’re able to serve up the photos in context; we know if they’re travel photos or whether it’s the birth of a child. We have hundreds of different use cases that we are building to tailor and personalize our messaging at scale to our customers. So we have a great focus on personalization and using the data to try a deeper engagement with our customer. ZIG WHILE THE REST ZAG We drive a huge incremental return from doing direct mail. So it is a critical part, particularly at holiday [time]. And it is a little bit of zigging while the rest of the…

If Josh Tetrick had suggested 20 years ago that friends in his Birmingham, Ala., hometown buy an electric car, they would’ve laughed. Today, those same folks are “drooling over a Tesla,” he said. There’s a parallel to be drawn in the plant-based egg and cultivated-meat industries, with the co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based unicorn Eat Just aiming to change the way the world eats in the same way customers have swapped out their gas-guzzling vehicles In a crowded plant-based industry, Eat Just stands out for producing both plant-based eggs and meat alternatives, rather than one or the other. Tetrick’s Good Meat division has pioneered the first commercially available cultivated chicken in Singapore, and the company’s Just Egg brand—made with mung beans—dominates its plant-based niche, sold in 43,000 retailers and…

America’s petroleum-based economy starts with moving crude oil to a refinery. And that’s just what the 987-foot tanker Exxon Valdez was doing when, in the early hours of March 24, 1989, a third mate at the wheel ran the ship onto a reef in Alaska. The ruptured hull gushed 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound—oil that eventually spread along 1,300 miles of coastline. The spill destroyed the fishing industry, killed thousands of animals (including 250 bald eagles) and prompted a law requiring all tankers in U.S. waters to have double hulls. Few Americans knew what climate change was in 1989; the horror of oil-soaked otters on the nightly news pointed to the hazards of transporting oil, not burning it. But the spill laid bare America’s near-total reliance…