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 THE W EEK IN MEDIA A ND M A RK ETING Adweek
reached out
to 19 brands
that sponsor
the NWSL,
including
IN THIS ISSUE partners of
the Portland
O C T. 1 0 , 2 0 2 2 | V O L . L X I I I N O . 2 0 Thorns.

14

SITTING IT OUT
AMID NWSL ABUSE REPORT, MANY
both reflection and action.” Nationwide is “deeply
BRANDS STAY SILENT. BY MOLLIE disturbed” and waiting to fully review the report. Nike will
CAHILLANE AND JASON NOTTE continue working with NWSL leadership “while using our
voice to advocate for positive change.” Alaska Airlines said,

THE HOT LIST An unflinching investigation from former U.S. deputy attorney
general Sally Yates into the National Women’s Soccer League
found that “abuse and misconduct—verbal and emotional
The buzziest in TV, media and tech,
including Hallmark’s Wonya Lucas. abuse, and sexual misconduct—had become systemic.”
Despite being a relatively new league (the NWSL
was founded in 2012), it has experienced unprecedented
growth, and brand partnerships have come with it.
10 Adweek reached out to 19 sponsors in the days following
the report; 10 responded. And many that did respond to
Adweek punted responsibility back to the NWSL.
Delta said the report raises concerns that “warrant
“Our priority is supporting the players and ensuring any
action we take contributes to positive systemic change.”
Ally bank is committed to moving forward “through the
truth, no matter how painful.” And Deloitte hopes the
league’s actions “will foster a safe and inclusive women’s
professional soccer league for the long term.”
“Sponsors can still invest in the sports,” said Ketra
Armstrong, director of the Center for Race and Ethnicity
in Sport. “But they can also have some demands,
accountability and shared understandings that will require
the leadership to do a better job.”

CREATIVITY IN MEMORIAM
INSIGHTS
Healthy cereal upstarts like Brave
bring the fun back to breakfast.

12 BIG NUMBER
WIEDEN: THE ADVERTISING CLUB OF NEW YORK; SOCCER: AMANDA LOMAN/ISI PHOTOS/GET T Y IMAGES

$1.26
In the 1970s, Burger King told customers they could
MILLION DAN WIEDEN
FINE PAID As half of Wieden+Kennedy,
“Have It Your Way.” That sentiment is back, in an
BY KIM Dan Wieden coined perhaps
empowering way. “You Rule” is the theme of BK’s first
KARDASHIAN the most recognizable tagline
campaign from indie agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul
TO SETTLE AN ever: Nike’s “Just do it.” He
VOICE (OKRP), which was chosen as its creative agency of
SEC COMPLAINT died at age 77 on Sept. 30.
Starting a new job is daunting. record for the U.S. market in April. “’You Rule’ is about
ABOUT AN His career began in PR,
Here’s your road map. life, it’s about how you live it, it’s about acknowledging
IMPROPER until commercial freelancing
that the consumer, the hero, is a winner and deserves
CRYPTO
40 to be treated as such and deserves to feel like
that,” said OKRP CEO Tom O’Keefe. —Kyle O’Brien
INVESTMENT
led him to discover a knack
for the industry. He met David
POST ON SOCIAL Kennedy at a small Portland
agency; the duo opened
Wieden+Kennedy in 1982.
MOOD BOARD The Week in Emojis Wieden constantly pushed
his crews to take chances, as on
Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man
Could Smell Like” campaign,
along with work for Coca-
PERSPECTIVE Cola, AB InBev, Booking.com,
How one call kick-started Twister, Delta Air Lines, ESPN, Honda,
America’s most risqué party game. Mondelēz, P&G and Verizon.
Among Wieden’s awards
COVER were a lifetime achievement
PHOTOGR APHY BY JESSICA CHOU FOR ADWEEK
REI ESPN DOLE Clio, a Cannes Lion of St.
ADWEEK PUBLISHES NEXT ON OCTOBER 24.
PLEDGES TO KEEP R E VA M P S N B A C R E AT I V E TURNS FRUIT JUICE Mark and being named to the
STORES CLOSED ON IDENTITY FOR THE FIRST INTO INK FOR PRINTING
©2022. All rights reserved. ADWEEK® is a registered trademark owned B L A C K F R I D AY — F O R E V E R TIME IN SEVEN YEARS ‘ M A L N U T R I T I O N FA C T ’ L A B E L S Advertising Hall of Fame.
by Adweek, LLC and used under license. Adfreak®, Adweek Brandshare®,
AgencySpy®, Brandweek®, Brand Genuis®, Brand Save®, Hot List®,
Mediaweek®, Social Times®, TVNewser® and TVSpy® are registered
—Kyle O’Brien
trademarks owned by Adweek, LLC and used under license.
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UPFRONT
TALENT POOL
MICK
McCONNELL
SUPERUNION’S
NORTH AMERICA CEO
DOUBLES DOWN ON
COLLABORATION.
BY PATRICK KULP
Mick McConnell’s marketing career
began with a stack of rejection
letters from some of the top
architectural firms in New York.
The now-North America CEO
of agency Superunion had the
misfortune of graduating from
architecture school into an early
1990s recession and found that few
firms were hiring. So he was willing
to do the job that was needed.
McConnell landed a marketing
role at the Kansas City, Mo., office of
engineering and architecture giant
Ellerbe Becket, which became a
blessing in disguise. “I got hooked
right away into marketing and pitches
and that kind of realm,” he said.
The position ended up being
the start of a wide-ranging and
singular career at the junction
of marketing, architecture and
design. A subsequent job at another
architecture firm led McConnell back
to New York to open a new branch.
Then the marketing agency across
the street, Arnell Group, managed to
convince him to come over full time
to advertising. There, he and a few of
his colleagues opened an early digital
agency called Surge Interactive that
did web design work for clients like
Consolidated Edison.
After another stint in architecture
supervising the construction of a
Dubai hotel, McConnell found a
middle ground between the two
fields in a series of store and brand
design jobs for companies including
Starbucks, Samsung, Chipotle and
WeWork. He also led a creative team
at agency R/GA and taught courses
at the Pratt Institute.
Beyond a cross-disciplinary
insight into design principles,
McConnell said the culture of
collaboration between client and
firm in architecture gave him a
different vantage point into how ad
6 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK
‘We have agencies tended to operate.
“That kind of collaborative spirit
clients that is actually something that was seen
earlier on in architecture than in the
have a desire agency world,” McConnell said. “In the
to do something agency world for many, many years—
until recently—it was: ‘This is my gift
different … And to you, right here. Here’s your logo.
Here’s your brand that I’m giving you.’”
many times At WPP-owned Superunion, where
he has served as North America
those desires CEO since last year, McConnell
and differences has doubled down on that idea of
collaboration. He is building out an
are aligned. internal initiative called Superunion
Studios that involves working more
Why can’t we closely with smaller agencies and
freelancers and giving them due credit
mash them up?’ on the finished product.
BIG MISTAKE
While he was at Chipotle,
Fast Company featured
McConnell in its design
issue. When his managers
found out, he was fired for
making himself the face of
the company. “The biggest
mistake was just going
for it and tooting my own
horn,” he said.
LESSON LEARNED
“I learned a ton [from that
mistake], not just for PR
and press, but everything
I do now that is a part of a
group,” he said. “I have to
make sure the group is on
board with the discussion
that we’re having.”
HOW HE GOT THE GIG
He knew WPP chief talent
officer Shannon Moorman
from his time at R/GA
and had been considering
a few different creative
leadership roles within
the WPP network when
the Superunion CEO job
opened up.
PRO TIP
Go where the work is
to develop a sense of
open-mindedness and
experience true change,
McConnell said. “When
you’re young and just out
of school and starting to
build a career, traveling for
opportunity is more than
just the job.”
Some of his proudest work has
also evolved out of joining forces with
clients he admires, such as a campaign
for Coca-Cola-owned plant-based
beverage AdeS that sought to craft a
new, shame-free narrative around the
eco-conscious category.
Going forward, McConnell also
wants the agency to do work that
brings together its clients on co-
branded projects.
“We’ve been talking about
Superunion as a verb,” he said. “We
have clients that have a desire to do
something different. And we have
another client that has a desire to do
something different. And many times
those desires and differences are
aligned. Why can’t we mash them up?”
®
EDITOR’S LETTER
THE LIFE O’BRIEN
AS PART OF THIS YEAR’S HOT LIST, WE
HONOR A TV LEGEND WHOSE CAREER
HAS BEEN SIZZLING FOR THREE DECADES.
Autumn is in full swing, and while the
weather might be crisp outside, we’re
turning the temperature up with our
annual Hot List issue.
Even before I settled into my new
role overseeing the magazine, I had been
focused on this week’s issue for many
months. That’s because the Hot List
has long been one of my top projects to
work on each year, and I always relish
the opportunity to celebrate the year’s
standouts in TV, media and digital/tech.
Our team—including media editor
Lucinda Southern—has assembled
another rich list of honorees for 2022,
filled with the most talked about brands,
people and platforms from the last year.
We’ve got everything from innovative
stalwarts like The New York Times to
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022
®
disruptive upstarts like BeReal, as well
as a couple of recent cover stars, such as
Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan
and Abbott Elementary creator and star
Quinta Brunson, whose stellar work
warranted a curtain call.
Speaking of Adweek covers, we
have another terrific one this week:
Conan O’Brien, who is this year’s Media
Visionary, our signature Hot List honor
that goes to an industry icon who has
been a creative force for decades. What
I love most about this award is that it
has evolved in recent years to recognize
that upper echelon of creators who
aren’t afraid to leave their comfort
zone and embrace the great unknown,
successfully branching out into new
platforms. That’s what he has done with
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, his hit
podcast that unexpectedly morphed
into the centerpiece of a wildly popular
podcast network.
Yes, O’Brien has been relentlessly
inventive throughout his three-decade
career, first at Late Night and then
again on TBS where his Conan Without
Borders travel segments quite literally
redrew the map on what was possible
in late-night, then with other flights
of fancy like his Legally Prohibited
From Being Funny on Television tour
following his infamous Tonight Show
exit in 2010. But he’s ascended to a
new level with the podcast, proving
once again the value of adapting to the
industry’s new realities, including the
challenge of creating a new show for the
streaming era, as he is doing for HBO
Max. “That’s one of the discoveries of
this world, is that there are so many
different ways now to be funny, and one
shouldn’t be afraid of them,” he told me.
This is one of my favorite interviews
I’ve ever done, and after not sitting for
any major profiles since leaving his TBS
show in June 2021, it was clear that
O’Brien was in the mood to reflect on
his career with a fresh perspective. “I
feel like I can cancel my therapy for the
next three weeks!” he told me as our
conversation wrapped up. I hope you
enjoy it, and best of all, you can hear
even more from O’Brien when he attends
Adweek’s Convergent TV Summit West
event, which is taking place in LA Oct.
11-12. (You can also participate remotely
by registering on Adweek.com.)
So take a break from the fall chill, and
warm yourself up with this sizzling issue.
Jason Lynch
Editor
@jasonlynch
7
 Insights
TRENDS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ART IMITATING ART
PHOTOREALISTIC AI IMAGES ARE RAISING NEW QUESTIONS
ABOUT DIGITAL COPYRIGHT. BY PATRICK KULP
T
ype in a prompt like “email,”
and several entirely original
stock images of computers
and messaging will be
created instantaneously. A few more
clicks and inputs will generate a host
of text snippets suggested for ad copy.
That’s how a new tool from a
8 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK
startup called Omneky lets brands—
usually growth-hungry apps and
ecommerce sites—pair artificial
intelligence-generated photorealistic
images with passable machine-made
copy and post the results directly to
social and video platforms.
The platform, which taps a
popular open-source AI art generator
called Stable Diffusion, is one of
the first to tailor this cutting-edge
technology specifically to brands
in this way, but it likely won’t be the
last. As AI-powered image generation
technology has advanced by leaps and
bounds in the past year, its output has
THE FUTURE IS NOW
This image was generated with
startup Stability AI’s Stable
Diffusion tool, one of the most
popular AI image programs.
transformed from garbled abstractions
to sometimes-realistic renderings.
In turn, a host of new creative
software tools have put the power to
instantaneously create lifelike images
through a simple text directive in the
hands of virtually anyone.
AI creations are winning local fine
art contests, flooding major stock
image banks and providing imagery for
email newsletters. The sudden ubiquity
of this kind of technology is already
raising new questions about digital
ownership and what constitutes an
original work of art.
For instance, do human artists have
a case against a machine that copies
their style of work because it happens
to be trained on a massive data set
that might have included the artist’s
own images? And can feeding prompts
to an algorithm and building on the
machine’s work with human touches
ever qualify as an art form in itself?
As these tools inevitably begin to
present challenges for copyright law,
experts told Adweek it’s only a matter of
time before those questions are litigated
in court, which could have wider
implications for how copyright works on
the internet. The legal liabilities around
AI-generated art are likely to become
even more pressing as platforms like
Microsoft-backed research group
OpenAI attempt to sell developers and
brands on these technologies through
new commercial products.
“And so if we’re going to talk about
this in any way, from a copyright
perspective, it really should be
considered a work of joint authorship,
where me as the human has had
some input into what the AI is actually
going to create at the end of the day,”
said Suzanne Hengl, partner at Baker
Botts, which focuses on branding and
copyright law.
Copyright requires
human authorship
As it stands now, works created S TA B I L I T Y A I S TA B L E D I F F U S I O N
solely by artificial intelligence are not
applicable for protection under U.S.
copyright law. Legal authorities have
repeatedly ruled there must be some
proof of human authorship, which could
present major hurdles for brands looking
to protect campaigns created with AI.
“It’s a pretty dicey proposition for
brand owners and for ad agencies
to rely solely on AI content for their
®

campaigns because there’s really very
little that they can do to protect those
campaigns from getting out into the
public domain and allowing folks to use
them at will,” Hengl said.
Getty Images has banned AI-
generated images for legal liability
reasons. While Shutterstock has
removed some of the AI-generated art
posted to its platform, the stock image
bank posted a statement from CEO
Paul Hennessy on Sept. 22 that said
the company plans to chart a path for
allowing such content once it grapples
with “open questions on the copyright,
licensing, rights and ownership of
synthetic content.
“We need to do all that we can
to not only protect the intellectual
property rights of our contributors
alongside the advent of this technology,
but also ensure that they’re
empowered to take advantage of this
new creative medium,” he added.
A Getty Images spokesperson
echoed concerns about copyrights
around AI generation. “There are open
questions with respect to the copyright
of outputs from these models, and there
are unaddressed rights issues with
respect to the underlying imagery and
metadata used to train these models,”
the spokesperson said in a statement.
Major brands and ad agencies have
been careful about treading into these
technologies in part for this reason.
The few projects advertisers and
media companies have undertaken
with this technology have been largely
experimental, such as a campaign
where Heinz used research group
OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 program to generate
images of ketchup bottles. Because
that campaign tasked the AI with
mimicking Heinz’s existing trademark,
the brand was able to circumvent any
legal issues around the project.
“There are ongoing cultural
conversations—and maybe future
legal questions—around who has true
ownership of the output of certain
prompts,” said Kai Tier, vp of technology
at R/GA. “If I am creating something
with a prompt that is in the style of an
existing artist, and the output is based on
their previous work, is the work I created
all mine, or is it really that of the artist
who created the original references?”
What constitutes
a novel creation?
H E I N Z ; C O S M O P O L I TA N ; 1 0 D AY S
Whether or not brand output is
applicable for protection is less
important for the kinds of companies
Omneky’s AI platform caters to, which
are mostly looking for stock art to
display in performance marketing-
style digital ads. Hikari Senju, founder
and CEO of Omneky, said while the
output images of the tool might not be
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022
®
up for copyright protection, they are even if you’re using other people’s
different enough from the training data assets, that is a piece of artwork.”
to constitute a unique creation. Forrester analyst Will McKeon-
“My dad is actually an artist … and White said brands are also likely wary
the thing with art is that artists copy of liability issues if an AI output does
each other all the time,” Senju said. happen to hew too closely to an image
“Even before generative art, there already under copyright, such as an
was this question of what constitutes existing work of art or another brand
original content; what is sufficiently asset. But some of the legal questions
original versus what is copyrightable could come down to whether or not a
or copyright defensible. Generally, as brand is intentionally trying to replicate
long as you can prove that the concept a copyrighted image, as evidenced by
or idea is sufficiently novel or original, the text prompt fed to the machine, he
Heinz and Cosmopolitan have each experimented with research group OpenAI’s
DAll-E 2 image generator. Agency 10 Days used the Midjourney AI tool to create
new logos for iconic brands, including these surreal images for Gucci.
IT’S (ALMOST) ALIVE!
A variety of tools have popped up that now offer just about anyone
the ability to create lifelike AI images from simple text prompts.
Stable Dall-E 2 Midjourney
Diffusion Released in January, Microsoft- This tool is the
This open-source backed research group OpenAI’s product of a small,
software was Dall-E 2 is the program that independent
created by a startup almost single-handedly research lab that
called Stability AI advanced AI art to its current operates through
and is accessible to state. The software is trained on a bot in a Discord
anyone through an hundreds of millions of images group chat that
API program. pulled from across the web. anyone can join.
INSIGHTS | TECH
said. For instance, if the prompt used to
generate an image was “McDonald’s
Happy Meal,” the resulting copyright
breach might appear much more
intentional than if the input was a
more generic “fast-food combo.”
“It’s really up to the humans
providing the training data to think
of these problems beforehand, or as
people using them to then leverage
them after the fact,” McKeon-White
said. “If you’re effectively trying to use
one of these things as a mechanism
to intentionally create the image of a
specific copyright in a specific scenario,
that will likely lead to some legal
ramifications, but unintentionally … it’s
likely a little bit more of a gray area.”
Potential legal challenges
Stephen Thaler, president and CEO
of AI creativity startup Imagination
Engines, has been on the front lines
of the push for an expansion of
copyright beyond human authorship.
The research scientist has been
attempting to secure a copyright for
his AI-created art since 2018. But
each time, the U.S. Copyright review
board has shut down his applications
and appeals based on its established
precedent around human involvement
in the creative process, most recently
in a decision last February.
But Hengl thinks Thaler’s efforts
could soon push the issue of AI
copyrights to a higher court or even
Congress if he decides to invoke a law
called the Administrative Procedures
Act, which would force a judicial review
of the U.S. Copyright Office’s decisions.
Based on how Thaler has pursued a
previous patent case, she believes he
will likely do so in the next few months.
“We’re going to see some pushback
on this idea of you have to have human
authorship in order to have something
that’s protectable under copyright,”
Hengl added.
In any case, Hengl thinks the
advent of AI art will also lead to an
expansion of the terms of fair use,
the legal exemption made for use of a
copyrighted work without permission
under certain conditions, in much the
same way the doctrine was widened
with the dawn of the internet age.
“I do think you’re gonna see the
fair use doctrine expand,” Hengl said.
“We’re going to be taking principles
that have been laid out for a very long
time and apply them to a new medium,
which is always what the law does. It’s
always about 10 steps behind where
technology is.”
PATRICK KULP I S A N EMER GING
TECH REPORTER AT ADWEEK . HE
C OV ERS CR E AT I V E INNOVAT ION,
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE
F U T UR E OF 5 G. @PAT R ICK K UL P
9
INSIGHTS | BRANDING
Cereal Showdown
STARTUP BREAKFAST BRANDS ARE APPEALING
TO THE MODERN CONSUMER WHO WANTS
HEALTHY TO BE FUN. BY BRITTANEY KIEFER
Tony the Tiger and his fellow cereal
mascots—from Toucan Sam to Cap’n
Crunch—once ruled the breakfast
table. Through decades of savvy
marketing, the brands represented
by these characters cemented
themselves in kitchens, pop culture
and childhood memories.
More recently, however, some of
those breakfast mainstays have lost
their sheen as health advocates warn of
the high sugar content in many popular
cereals. The U.K. government is also
considering legislation that would
restrict the marketing of food and drink
products high in fat, sugar and salt
(HFSS) to young people—with more
regulation potentially to come across
Europe—forcing food manufacturers
such as Kellogg’s and Nestlé to remake
their cereals. This coincides with a
global trend of consumers trying to buy
10
healthier foods since the pandemic’s
start, according to a 2022 survey from
market research firm YouGov.
As consumers become more
health conscious, there is an appetite
for cereal innovators, as evidenced by
the success of New York-based brand
Magic Spoon. Founded in 2019, Magic
Spoon—which launched in Target this
year, counts Amy Schumer and Nas
among its investors, and has gained a
cult-like following among millennials—is
gluten-free, high protein and low sugar.
However, its marketing eschews the
staid messaging typically associated
with healthier foods. Its tagline,
“Childlike cereal for grown-ups,” and
colorful, ’90-inspired packaging design
harks back to the brands that appealed
to many in their youth.
In the U.K. and Europe, startups
including Surreal, Crispy Fantasy
and Brave are taking a leaf out
of Magic Spoon’s marketing
playbook. As consumers’ food
buying habits shift, these
brands are balancing health
claims with the fun and
nostalgia that made cereal a
cultural fixture.
“We wanted to bring the
energy and personality from
the cereals of our childhood,
but do it with nutrition you can
feel good about,” said Surreal
co-founder Kit Gammell. “We
think fun and health shouldn’t
be mutually exclusive.”
Health with
personality
Surreal was founded
in 2021 by two former
employees of coconut water brand
Vita Coco, Gammell and Jac Chetland,
who wanted to create a healthier
cereal that maintained the “fun,
flavor and personality” of the brands
they loved as children, Gammell said.
“As adults, where health becomes
a bigger concern, all that fun, flavor
and personality of cereal is lost.”
Surreal’s marketing taps into
childhood nostalgia through bright
packaging, a mascot with a grinning
cereal bowl for a mouth, and
entertainment and prizes such as
cut-out mustaches and pet pictures. It
recently ran billboards in the U.K. with
lines including, “Don’t tell Tony” and
“Coco’s got competition,” referencing
the likes of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
and Coco Pops.
Though Surreal may be the
David to Kellogg’s Goliath, it is an
opportune time for the brand and its
peers to enter the market ahead of a
crackdown on HFSS food advertising.
As evidence of the threat to the
cereal giants, Kellogg’s sued the
U.K. government this year over rules
that would restrict it from promoting
sugary cereals in supermarket special
offers, but lost the case.
Wooing the disillusioned
Andrea Rodrik, co-founder of European
cereal brand Crispy Fantasy, said
the brand is trying to win back
disillusioned adult consumers through
candid posts on social platforms
such as TikTok, where it has amassed
more than 69,000 followers, and by
positioning itself as a product that
“gives you the indulgence, satisfaction
and memories of cereal but without
the guilt involved.”
In August, plant-based snack brand
Brave ventured into cereal with a new
product called Super Hoops, which
is made from sustainable ingredients
such as peas and chickpeas instead
of grains. Rather than employing
cartoon mascots or games on boxes, it
promotes its purpose—sustainability—
with a statement on its boxes: “Fight
unsustainable farming practices.”
For these newer cereals to usurp
Tony the Tiger in the grocery cart,
one of the biggest barriers may be
price, as consumers face the crunch
from inflation and rising energy bills.
These cereal startups, and health food
generally, tend to be more expensive
than mainstream brands.
Amid these challenges, cereal
brands will have to rely more than
ever on creative marketing, said Simon
Gregory, joint chief strategy officer
of BBH London, which works with
legacy U.K. cereal brand Weetabix. “It
needs to be more fun,” Gregory said.
“Otherwise, it’s going to be cereal
without the milk and pretty dry.”
DON’T CRY OVER
SPILLED MILK
Some mainstream cereals are
branching out from their typical
marketing playbooks to win over a
new generation of customers amid
the upstart competition.
Kellogg’s brought Tony the Tiger
to Twitch in a livestreamed battle
royale game that saw the Frosted
Flakes mascot go head-to-head
with Twitch streamers.
Post Consumer Brands’ Pebbles cereal
solicited artwork from kids and turned
it into murals in U.S. cities including
Denver, Los Angeles and New York.
General Mills’ Lucky Charms has
struck up unusual partnerships with
brands such as Crocs footwear, Swiss
Miss, Marvel and Morphe Cosmetics.
BRITTANEY KIEFER IS ADWEEK’S
EUROPEAN CREATIVE EDITOR
BASED IN LONDON. BEFORE
JOINING ADWEEK, BRITTANEY WAS
CREATIVITY & CULTURE EDITOR AT
CAMPAIGN. @BRITTANEYKIEFER
OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

In the space of three days in late
2021, the cannabis industry in the
U.S. brought in north of $290 million,
setting records for Thanksgiving
Eve—better known in weed circles as
Green Wednesday—Black Friday and
the Thursday before Christmas, per
researcher Akerna.
Last year was not an anomaly.
Fourth quarter has traditionally been
a boon to the legal cannabis market,
mirroring mainstream American retail
and boosting the bottom line of a
yearslong national rush. With history
as a guide, it would seem that there’s
every reason to be optimistic about the
upcoming season.
But there’s also cause for concern,
with legacy states struggling,
inflation raging, wholesale prices
dropping and federal legalization
lagging. Add to that heap of systemic
problems a dearth of venture capital,
a glut of flower, sky-high taxes and a
fierce illicit economy.
“We’re finding ourselves at the
nexus of unfortunate events,” Emily
Paxhia, managing partner of cannabis
investment fund Poseidon, told
Adweek. In other words, there could be
a proverbial lump of coal ready to drop
into the industry’s stocking.
New heights
Yet as sobering as the issues are,
cannabis sales are expected to
reach anywhere from $27 billion to
$30 billion by year’s end, per BDSA
and Brightfield Group, which would
represent yet another high-water
mark, compared to $25 billion in 2021.
And the summer held at least
a few good omens, according to
Karan Wadhera, managing partner
at venture capital firm Casa Verde
Capital, given that consumers bought
$255.5 million worth of flower, vapes,
infused drinks and other products,
per Akerna, during the long July
Fourth weekend.
“Through all the problems,
this has been a resilient industry,”
Wadhera told Adweek. “We’re still
very bullish about its prospects, and
we think we’ll see the uplifts start
with Green Wednesday.”
There are several areas of
opportunity as the industry aims to
finish the year on a high note; here are
some trends to watch:
Pinching pennies
As consumers continue to get
hammered with rising everyday
expenses, many have trimmed their
discretionary spending. Cannabis
has shown itself to be “recession-
resistant,” per BDSA’s CEO Roy
Bingham, but not recession-proof.
That means buying patterns
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022
®
I N S I G H T S | R E TA I L
these days have changed. Some
cannafans are looking for the most
Cannabis Seeks potent product at the lowest price.
Others, meanwhile, have traded from
premium to value brands to save
money. Against this backdrop, both
An EOY High
new and established value brands—
Old Pal, Baker’s, Dime Bag, Caliva’s
Deli and Cresco Labs’ High Supply—
can flourish.
DESPITE STRESSORS LIKE INFLATION Alternatively, luxury brands like
Jay-Z’s Monogram and Bloom Farms
AND LAGGING LEGALIZATION, THE might consider sample sizes or bundles
INDUSTRY EXPECTS RECORD SALES to retain their consumer base.
THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. The shifting consumer behavior
could lead to “a moment of
BY T.L. STANLEY experimentation,” Paxhia said, with
more companies developing their own
bargain products or creating special
SKUs to appeal to budget-conscious
shoppers and battle the illicit market.
SEASON’S GREEN-INGS Another hot commodity? Gift
cards, which will help cash-strapped
consumers who aren’t allowed to buy
Retailers in the weed space, federally illegal weed with credit cards.
like their mainstream mall
brethren, count on a jolly holiday Promopalooza
Though Bingham pointed to the
to buoy their annual bottom line. “crashing prices and razor-thin
Here’s a look at past performance: margins” in mature markets,
discounts and promotions will be
key business drivers this holiday,
according to experts.
GREEN CHRISTMAS “Companies will want to pull
WEDNESDAY WEEK out all the stops this year to
attract new customers and firm up
brought in the totals reached loyalties that have been wavering,”
second $267 million Bethany Gomez, managing director
highest in six markets of cannabis researcher Brightfield
Group, told Adweek.
daily dollar (California, When handled with care,
sales GREEN Colorado, promotions can enhance rather
of any WEDNESDAY Michigan,
than diminish a brand, according to
Gomez. “Strategic discounting for key
canna-holiday AND THE Nevada, holidays allows this to be a one-time
in California and THURSDAY Oregon and occurrence without setting this as
an expectation with the consumer,”
Massachusetts BEFORE Washington), Gomez said.
in 2021, CHRISTMAS, according Experiential marketing and
collaborations will be front and center,
per BDSA. the No. 3 and to Headset. with The Parent Company’s chairman
No. 4 sales and CEO Troy Datcher saying the
days, topped circumstances call for “bringing in
exciting new ideas,” such as a recent
$192 million partnership between TPC and FaZe
combined, Clan co-founder FaZe Rain to spotlight
its sneaker drop-style debut.
BLACK according NEW Such projects can draw in new
FRIDAY to Akerna. YEAR’S EVE audiences, build loyalty and create a
sales reached 2021 saw relationship with consumers, Datcher
said, which can “help us face some of
$99 million, consumers these macro challenges that will be
per Akerna, in six with us into 2023.”
the second-biggest states spend
day in 2021, behind $44.5 million,
T.L. STANLEY IS A LOS ANGELES-
only April 20. per Headset. BASED SENIOR EDITOR AT
ADWEEK, WHERE SHE SPECIALIZES
IN CANNABIS, PLANT-BASED
PRODUCTS, SPIRITS AND
CREATIVITY. @TLSTANLEYL A
11

Act Like a JERK
HOW TO FEEL COURAGEOUS AT YOUR
NEW JOB. BY ADRIAN PARKER
Editor’s note: This piece is part of
our Columnist Network series, which
explores the tactical thoughts and
actions from Adweek’s community
of high-level experts.
With nearly 50 million Americans
changing jobs this year, the Great
Resignation is quickly becoming the
Great Migration. People aren’t simply
starting new roles; they’re choosing
new ways of working.
For marketers, changing jobs
should be like launching an exciting
new campaign. Instead, it feels like
leaping from a ledge. Half of all new
hires will fail, be fired or quit within
18 months. And advertising agencies
maintain a 30% turnover rate, the
highest out of all industries.
So why is it so hard to start a
new job?
It’s rarely about intelligence.
Emotion is the primary source of
organizational truth, but also the least
understood. Outdated hiring processes
are better at showing employees how
to fit in than how to cultivate trust,
vulnerability and healthy conflict.
12
VOICE
knowledge into mutual understanding.
Unleash potential solutions and
accelerate learning by asking these
open-ended questions:
• If done with excellence, what’s
the one thing that would have the
biggest impact?
• What competitor do you obsess
over, and why?
• Why hasn’t more time, effort or
energy changed the current situation?
• What are we in denial about?
• How would you feel one year from
now if things stayed the same?
• What obvious options are we
ignoring because they seem unsafe
or not smart?
ENGINEER
Design ugly problems
When learning new capabilities, it
helps to borrow a page from engineers:
Fall madly in love with ugly problems.
If you’re last place, low quality,
overpriced or misunderstood, own it.
Inspect your team’s foundation
with questions designed to find these
structural problems:
• Who defines success and decides
when it’s achieved?
• What prevents us from solving our
biggest challenges now?
• When was the last time a leader
admitted a mistake?
• How does your boss reward success
and react to failure?
• How do you secure the resources,
support and tools you need to win?
• Does your manager encourage you
to rethink priorities and take risks?
It’s a trap. The only way to kick
butt in your new job without losing
your sanity is to stop people-pleasing,
start prioritizing and commit to
being a JERK: a journalist, engineer,
ringmaster and knight.
JERK is not a process, nor a person.
These four unique skill sets create bias-
proof beginnings for sustained success:
Journalist
Skill: Ask irreversible questions.
Intent: Understand context.
Engineer
Skill: Design ugly problems.
Intent: Explore capability.
Ringmaster Specs
Skill: Link actions to results. Claim to fame Adrian Parker is
Intent: Test culture. a writer, adviser and marketer
Knight focused on professional and
Skill: Pick big fights. organizational transformation.
Intent: Create clarity. He has served as the global vp
of marketing for Patrón Tequila
JOURNALIST and held leadership roles at
Ask irreversible questions Grey Goose Vodka, Intuit, Kate
Context is everything. The social and Spade and Foot Locker.
political data you need to succeed is Base Texas
locked in the minds of your new peers. Twitter @AdrianDParker
Irreversible questions convert their
RINGMASTER
Link actions to results
In the beginning, you can’t change a
team’s culture, but you can harness
it. Ringmasters let go of assumptions,
embrace surprises and model actions
worth emulating. Instead of big bets,
start with micro-tests that translate
theories into low-risk projects. This
helps spotlight everyone’s results,
not just your own.
Healthy beginnings are hard, but
they don’t have to be uncommon.
Tame your inner genius with these
value-based questions:
• What happens when people cause
conflict by speaking uncomfortable
truths publicly?
• How safe is it to be yourself at this
company?
• What work are we doing because
it worked in the past that now
wastes time?
• Are you having fun and enjoying
what you’re doing most days?
• What does your ideal workweek
look like?
• Do you prioritize time for passions,
mindfulness, physical activity,
spirituality, etc.?
KNIGHT
Pick big fights
Like knights, new leaders rise and
fall based on their ability to pick
the right fights and ignore the
wrong ones. No one will do this for
you. Fighting for focus isn’t fun or
popular, but it’s a requirement for
avoiding mediocrity.
Ask yourself and your team these
questions to help protect their focus
and align your own:
• If you weren’t already doing it, would
you apply for the job you have now?
• If you were me, what would you
focus on?
• Where am I responsible for results
outside my natural competencies?
• What tasks can only I do?
• What do people come to me for
that I’m best at?
• Is our best talent focused on the
most important work?
• Am I the right person to create
the conditions for future success
in this role?
Starting and staying at a new job
I L L U S T R AT I O N : W E A R E / G E T T Y I M A G E S
is a must-have skill for marketers
hoping to have a real impact. After the
celebratory high-fives and handshakes,
invest less time in trying to impress
your peers and, instead, become
obsessed with learning from them.
Ask irreversible questions like a
journalist; design ugly problems like an
engineer; link actions to results like a
ringmaster; pick big fights like a knight.
Start your job like a JERK and give
others the courage to do the same.
OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®
 D ATA P O I N T S

Shop different Buy secondhand Only buy Shop before

This holiday brands/stores items on sale November
than usual:
season, how
likely are
you to …? 35% 47% 33% 55% 69% 21% 51% 37%
Likely Not likely

71%
of shoppers say
inflation will have
an impact on their
gift giving
Making a
(Shorter) List
53%
are shopping earlier
to ensure products
are available

HOLIDAY SHOPPERS ARE NOT TAKING

69% 49%
ANY CHANCES THIS YEAR. BY EVA KIS

Americans will be feeling more like Scrooge than Santa this holiday
season as ongoing economic problems put a damper on gift giving.
In a YouGov survey, 69% of shoppers said they plan to buy fewer
items this year, while 9% of Americans don’t plan to do any holiday
shopping at all, citing inflation as a major reason. They’re also more
of shoppers plan open to nontraditional shopping, including buying secondhand (33%). are willing to pay
to buy fewer items Supply chain issues also continue to worry customers, with 53% more to get the
this year of respondents in a survey by customer insights firm Big Village items they want
planning to shop earlier to ensure the products they want are
2021 2022

66%
available. And if you’ve got what they want, 49% of shoppers are
willing to pay more to get those essential items.
“Inflation has impacted purchasing decisions throughout 2022,
and our data indicates the holiday season will be no exception,”
said Rich Tomasco, vp of Big Village Insights. “Retailers should be
prepared to see shoppers on the hunt for gifts and bargains earlier,
out of concerns of rising prices and inventory shortages, with the

9%
destinations more likely to be mass merchandisers/value-oriented
stores rather than specialty/boutique retailers.
Among all consumers, Gen Z is the most likely (66%) to do more of Gen Z consumers
in-person shopping this year. will do more in-person
As for conveniences like buy now, pay later and curbside pickup, shopping this year
they were all far down the nice list of essential shopping experiences
compared to free delivery (54%) and free returns (55%).
“Despite it all,” Tomasco added, “many consumers will still find Walmart and Amazon tied
a way to do what it takes to get the most important items on their at 39% for the top store
of Americans don’t
shopping list, just in a different way than usual, in 2022.” consumers consider essential
plan to do any holiday
for holiday shopping.
shopping at all

How essential are these shopping experiences to you?

Essential Nice to have They don’t matter

Pay in store, Curbside/in-store Free delivery Women were Green options Buy now, Free returns Women were
deliver to home pickup 26% more likely (i.e. longer pay later also 23% more
than men to say delivery time) likely than men
54% free delivery is 55% to consider free
essential. 51% returns essential.
41% 40% 41%
36% 36% 36%
32%
28% 27%
16% 17% 15% 14%
9% FREE 12%

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022

®
INFOGR APHIC: CARLOS MONTEIRO / SOURCE: YOUGOV, BIG VILLAGE / SOME RESPONSES MAY NOT ADD UP TO 100% BECAUSE OF SKIPPED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS NOT LISTED. 13
AHGHKBG@MA>R>:KL
L M : G = H N M L  B G  M O%
I N ; E B L A B G @ %  = B @ B M : E
:G=M><A
 CONAN O’BRIEN CONSIDERS
HIMSELF A LUCKY GUY.
And not only because he was fortunate enough to spend 28 years
reinventing late-night, first when he was NBC’s surprise pick to
replace David Letterman as Late Night host in 1993, then followed by
an innovative 11-year run on TBS’ Conan, which ended in June 2021.
O’Brien is also keenly aware that luck has had an outsized role in the
unbelievable breaks that came his way, starting with the way the Late
Night job somehow fell to someone who, at the time, had just logged a
few years writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons.
“So anyone in this business—and I’m gonna go further than that, I
think anybody in any business or any endeavor—who doesn’t carve out
a healthy chunk and assign it to luck is deluded,” said O’Brien.
However, becoming a TV icon isn’t just about luck, but also having
the talent, intuition and tenacity to capitalize on those once-in-a-lifetime
opportunities. For O’Brien, that meant staying focused and finding his sea
legs during those early years when NBC repeatedly tried—and failed—to
find his Late Night replacement after a rocky start. He also leveraged the
unexpected social media-fueled frenzy that erupted around his infamous
2010 exit from The Tonight Show—after the network attempted to
return previous host Jay Leno to the 11:30 p.m. time slot—into a sold-
out U.S. concert tour, followed by a new late-night home at TBS.
Then, most recently, he turned a throwaway side gig—his podcast
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend—into a full-fledged podcasting and
audio empire via his Team Coco media company, which SiriusXM
purchased last May for an estimated $150 million (see sidebar). The
deal not only keeps O’Brien’s podcast going for another five years, but
also includes the creation of his own Team Coco comedy channel on
the satellite radio platform, debuting later this year.
What’s next for O’Brien, Adweek’s 2022 Media Visionary, after

MEDIA
conquering late-night, broadcast, cable and podcasting? You guessed
it: streaming. He’s finally focusing on his next TV show for HBO Max,
which he’ll turn his attention to this fall.

VISIONARY
But before that, in his first extended interview since leaving TBS more
than a year ago, O’Brien reflected on his extraordinary journey as well as
his current time away from late-night and how his podcast “saved” him.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

FOR THREE DECADES, CONAN O’BRIEN

HAS BEEN A LATE-NIGHT ICON. NOW
HE’S BREAKING NEW GROUND AGAIN,
THIS TIME AS A PODCASTING TITAN.
BY JASON LYNCH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JESSICA CHOU
MEDIA VISIONARY
Adweek: This is now the longest you’ve gone in
three decades without regularly being in front
of an audience. What has that been like for you?
Conan O’Brien: That’s the part I miss the most. I love
being in front of people. I still grab opportunities to do
it. The author-illustrator Randall Munroe writes these
books called What If? that are wildly popular, these
science books that are quite funny. My son’s a big
fan. And his people reached out and [asked], would
I be willing to host a book event here in Los Angeles
for him? And before they could finish the sentence,
I said, “Yes, I will do it. As long as there’s a crowd I’ll
go there. I don’t need money. I don’t need a free book.
I don’t need anything.” [laughs] That’s the part that I
miss, and that I am looking forward to being back to.
I was rewatching the Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
documentary about your 2010 tour, and a big
part of that film was the urgent need of yours
to be in front of a crowd. But even though you
do miss that, it seems like 12 years later, it’s
not as urgent as it was back then. I think you’re
right. I think that there were many years where that
was all I knew: You get up and you do this every day.
I think we computed over 4,000 hours of television
[that I’ve done]. You get to the point where it’s
part of your metabolism. There’s some part of
your lizard brain that knows every day, I need to
secrete this fight or flight hormone to get this idiot
out there and take away all of his inhibitions. So
what happens is, if you break the cycle for a while,
things do start to calm down a little bit. And what I
love is the podcast, in so many ways, has saved me
because we started it before the show ended.
How so? [It’s] a completely different way of relating.
I don’t get instant feedback, but I also don’t rely on
some of the cues that a live audience gives you,
which can sometimes lead you too often to go for
the joke as opposed to really dig in and explore. You
think about the old format [on my TV show], it was
five-minute interview, get out on a laugh, commercial
break, then four to five minute interview if you’re
doing two segments, and then get out on a laugh. You
get that ingrained in you, and I’m not saying it’s bad,
but like all things, it has its pluses and minuses. And
this new format, after so many years of doing it one
way, has been very freeing, and feels like I’m using
different muscles. Let’s just pretend I had muscles, I
would now be using different muscles.
What do you wish you’d known before you
started Late Night that would have helped
you get through those tough early years? I
wish I had known about antidepressants. Because
I didn’t. All the feedback I was getting was from
the network and television critics [and] was
resoundingly negative. What I didn’t know for a
while is that there were all these 15-year-olds,
16-year-olds that were watching that never had a
problem with it. They immediately said, “Oh God,
this is so weird and different. This is for me.” But
they had no way of communicating with us (this was
pre-internet). I wish I’d had some way to know that.
When did you start to feel you were finally
getting things under control? After the first year.
The saving grace was the studio audiences. Because
18
you’re getting what’s supposed to be very official
feedback. These readings, these metrics that tell you:
network: unhappy; critics: unhappy; ratings: not where
they should be; affiliates: not happy. What no one was
taking into account was that [at Late Night’s] Studio
6A, if we did five shows a week, I would say four times
out of five the audience seemed really happy with
what we were doing. And you were getting laughs and
we started to build more and more bits that, when we
announced them—the Clutch Cargo, In the Year 2000,
Staring Contest—there’s a cheer. That was giving me a
signal that was more profound than all the negativity.
I’m naturally a humble person. But you don’t go
through a couple of years like that and work that
hard and not come out of it with some humility
and some sense of [having gotten] lucky. I remind
people that all the time. We worked very hard,
but I could easily have gone away in ’94 and been,
as someone once said, a Trivial Pursuit question.
I did everything in my power to make sure that
we would survive, but we needed luck, too. And
that, I didn’t supply. I don’t know where that came
from; we just got lucky. I know NBC was trying to
replace me, but it never quite lined up. And then by
the time they got around to it, someone said, “You
know, it’s actually doing pretty well.”
Skipping ahead to your next trial by fire moment,
your Tonight Show exit, does it feel strange to
explain to people now the importance of that
franchise to you at the time, given how much
has changed in late-night since then? At this
point, even beginning to try and explain to people
all the different ways in which I thought that was a
screwed-up situation—and in some ways unjust—is
absolutely asinine and feels completely stupid and
self-indulgent. But it was really important to me.
I will admit to you, I am not a seer. I’m not a
tech visionary. I’m not a revolutionary thinker. Talk
about luck: I happen to exist at a time when the
internet at that point, 2010, is really starting to flex
its muscles. There was this explosion online, and
that took me completely by surprise. I didn’t see it
coming. I remember at the time, there were people
at NBC that—I always picture them in their black
tower, going: [shocked indignation] “How is he doing
this? Release another falcon. Stop him!”
But no, I didn’t [organize] that. That was a lot
of young people who thought it was bullshit. And
they use the internet, so they went to town, which
led to this grassroots movement. From there it
was immediately this feeling of: “Let’s do a show
for these people.”
O’Brien and
sidekick Andy
Richter’s staring
contests were
a popular Late
Night segment.
Which led to your tour after you left the
Tonight Show. It’s an interesting example of,
take what you’ve been given. My sense of humor
didn’t change, I didn’t change as a person. But the
situation changed completely overnight from, I’m
heading the oldest late-night franchise in America,
the storied Tonight Show, to that’s over.
It’s about adaptation. I really didn’t want any of
that craziness with NBC or Leno; I wasn’t looking
for any of that. But once it happened, and this is
the situation, you react to that situation using what
skills you have. And then you proceed in the new:
What’s the new reality? The new reality is, now I’m
doing this in theaters. Hey, there’s a big upside to
this. There’s an incredible energy in here. And these
theater shows allow for so much more vaudeville,
for lack of a better term, than you can do on a
Tonight Show or any show like that. And then that
led to, well, who would we do the next show for?
So how did you end up at TBS? A lot of people
thought, “Well, he’ll go to Fox.” But they said, “They
don’t have affiliates lined up [at 11 p.m., when the
show would have aired]. So you gotta go on the
road and convince affiliates [to free up their 11 p.m.
time slots].” And I thought, “You know what? No.
I want to go someplace where maybe we have a
smaller audience. Maybe it doesn’t have the reach,
but I want to work with good people who let us do
our thing, and we’re somewhat protected.” [Former
Turner Entertainment Networks chief] Steve Koonin
came along, and his pitch was so much less slick
than everybody else’s pitch. But I could tell, this is a
really good man and he has the same idea I do. That
was one of the best meetings I’ve had in my life.
We were on TBS for 11 years, and we were
completely supported, 1,000%. When people stop
me on the street, it’s [for] the work I did there. I did
a ton of remotes, travel shows, Ice Cube and Kevin
Hart in a car. There are all these moments that we
had that bounced around YouTube and Facebook. It’s
a good body of work. And that, again, was looking at
the situation as it was and making the best decision,
given the new reality. I had to let go of that idea
that my destiny was the Tonight Show, which even
as I say it now, is ridiculous. For a million different
reasons, it didn’t work out. So move on, and don’t
waste time moaning about it. You have the skills and
these abilities, and there is a thing here that you love
to do. Do that with the tools you have at hand.
That same kind of thinking leads to the
podcast, which leads to other things revolving
around the podcast.
 What was your response when you were pitched
to do a podcast? I was in our offices at Warner
Bros. talking about different things we could try.
Something I’ve learned is, always have people around
that are smarter than me in ways that are different
from how I’m smart. Someone said, “You should do
a podcast.” And I was sarcastic, like, “Oh, really?
Because I’ve been on television for, at that point, 25
years. So a podcast is what I should do, you think?
That’s good thinking.” I was pretty dismissive. Then I
said, “I could interview some staff members and see
how it goes.” And then my producer, Jeff Ross, said,
“Well, there might be a dealbreaker here. For it to
work, you’d have to read ads.” And I said, “Do I get to
read them as myself, in my own personality?” And he
said, “Yeah.” And I said, “I think I’d love reading ads.”
Which is not a phrase you never hear
celebrities say. For me, I was going back to … I’m
such a geek for old media. I used to love listening
[to and] watching people who were funny, seeing
old clips. This was back before the internet, you’d
have to go to the Museum of Television and Radio in
New York, and I’d go there and just look at stuff. And
it was fun to see Steve Allen interrupt the comedy
for a second to do an ad. Because he was still Steve
Allen, and sometimes he was being funny about it,
and you could tell he didn’t really give a shit or he’s
doing it in his way. There are ways to talk about a
product, and everybody knows, “Oh, that’s Conan.
He’s doing this thing he has to do because he’s got
to make things pay for themselves, the way we do!”
What else have you loved about podcasting?
The biggest joy of doing the podcast is that it’s
essentially what I’ve been doing my entire career.
But it has a completely different focal length. That’s
one of the discoveries of this world, is that there
are so many different ways now to be funny, and
one shouldn’t be afraid of them. One should give
them a shot and not be afraid of risk. I think if my
podcasts had been a failure and lasted just a couple
of months, you probably wouldn’t even be asking me
about it because the penalty for trying and losing is
NORMAN NG/NBCU PHOTO BANK — GETTY IMAGES; JESSIE GASKELL/TEAM COCO
not that bad. So that’s been a delightful discovery
for me. As I get long in the tooth, they keep coming
up with new ways to humiliate oneself.
You’ve talked many times on the podcast about
how invigorated you’ve felt by doing it. Did it
accelerate your decision to step down from the
TBS show last year? I honestly think two things
accelerated it: having the podcast, meaning, if I
had no other outlet to be me and there was no way
to reach people, I could see being more reluctant
to step away. So, yes, the podcast helped give me
many ideas for other things I could be doing with my
time that still allowed me to rant like a madman.
And I think Covid accelerated it a little bit. Doing
interviews on Zoom, being away from the studio,
maybe laid bare for me how, OK, I’ve done this for
a long time. I’m really proud of what I’ve done. I
don’t know that I have anything else to add to this
nightly televised thing that shows up at 11 o’clock.
I thought, “OK, this is a good time, nothing lasts
forever. Let’s do this now, and then there’s a chance
to reinvent and reapproach rather than [I] must
keep cranking these out.”
ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022
®
Why did you decide to expand your podcast into
an empire? That was my team. I can’t take a lot
of credit really for the larger business other than I
was there to say, “Yeah, that sounds fun, and I will
happily go on [other podcasts within the network]
to try and help push it when it first gets started.”
It became a fun project for all of us to get together
and try and make this thing happen.
There was no mandate at the beginning. Once
you start moving and one step leads to another step,
very quickly this flow takes over and things happen.
We’re making things that I would want to listen to,
and that gives me a lot of joy. One of my favorite
people of all time is Dana Carvey. He and his sons
have been working on a project for us called The
Weird Place. And what’s more fun than working
with Dana Carvey on a show where he’s letting his
imagination go completely wild?
‘SO I GUESS
THE POINT OF
THIS ARTICLE
IS THERE’S NO
ESCAPING ME.
AND I MEAN
THAT IN THE
WORST WAY.’
You sold Team Coco to SiriusXM earlier this
year. Had you been seeking a potential sale,
and why were they the right fit? For a while, we
weren’t seeking anybody. And then it started to
become obvious that that was a possibility. Sirius,
we were already involved because our podcast was
through Sirius, and we had a meeting with them.
They were terrific, and the message to us was:
Don’t change anything about yourself. Then they
said, “Would you be interested in doing a SiriusXM
channel?” I was like, “Could I do anything what I want
with it?” And they said, “We want you to do whatever
you want with it.” So I left that meeting thinking, “I
really clicked with [SiriusXM president and chief
content officer] Scott Greenstein and his team, but
His Conan
Without Borders
travel shows on
TBS included an
Israel trip.
oh my god, it’d be so much fun to do this SiriusXM
channel because it’s going to feature all kinds of
different content, not just from the podcast, but
from years and years of doing comedy. And there’s
so much of it that would work well on the radio.”
I [also liked] that Sirius was interested in not
hindering people’s ability to hear us; if anything, trying
to help us figure out ways for more people to hear
what we’re doing, for it to be more accessible. So
people can still get the podcast the way they always
did. But they can also, if they don’t even know what
we’re up to, stumble across our channel at some point
and maybe start laughing and we’ll get them that
way. So I guess the point of this article is there’s no
escaping me. And I mean that in the worst way.
You’ve alluded to what’s next for you a couple
of times. When you announced your TBS exit,
you said you’d be doing a show for HBO Max, but
there haven’t been any new details about that in
the past year. Where do things stand now? There
was an assumption, and probably I assumed it, too,
that I would leave the nightly show in late June 2021,
and we’d let the dust settle, and then in September
we’d start cranking up again. And that didn’t happen.
Some of that was [because] I got really involved
in the podcast company, and then we started talking
to Sirius. But I can’t say honestly that was the
reason. I think there was some part of me that said,
“We need things to settle a little bit. I don’t want
to get back out there, just to get back out there. I’d
like to have a creative impulse that I think is worth
people’s time.” HBO Max was very nice. I said,
“Clearly, I’m going to need some time to figure this
out.” And they said, “Take your time.”
I don’t want to say just yet what I’m thinking
about, but we’re starting to gear up. But in the
meantime, I feel somewhat fortunate that we’ve
taken our time because streaming is changing so
much. When it was announced that I would go to
HBO Max, the streaming business has gone through
an entire revolution since then. And I would like to
think that whatever we come up with is something
that works in the new streaming reality. I don’t
want it to be antithetical to how TV works now.
So I’ve been feeling lately like it was wise to take
a little time and be patient about it, rather than
immediately saying, “OK, here’s what we’re doing,”
because it may not fit the current reality.
One part of the current reality is that there’s
been a lot of change within HBO Max,
especially within unscripted. But you’re
getting the message that whenever you’re
19
MEDIA VISIONARY
O’Brien
ready, there’s still a home for you there? Like I say, photographed
nothing’s been formalized. And there’s no project as of this at Team Coco’s
moment. But when it was in the news that HBO Max was podcast studios
terminating a bunch of projects, I had someone say to me, on Sept. 22.
“Are you afraid they’re gonna terminate your project?” And
I said, “Well, we don’t have one.” [laughs] I haven’t gone
into them with a pitch yet. So at the moment, I felt kind of
snug and secure. “It’s pretty hard to cancel something that
doesn’t exist!” That was in my best Jon Lovitz voice.
Whatever I do end up doing for HBO Max, it only works if it
works for both sides. And I’m sure we can figure out: What’s
their appetite? What do they want to do? Even after all this time,
my ego isn’t telling me, “They’re going to do whatever I want
to do because I’m Conan O’Brien!” That’s not how I’m made. I
have ideas of something I’d like to do, and we’ve had some really

HOT !M>:F" COCO

constructive talks. And so we will see. My hope is that we will
be working on that this fall, and we can start to get it going.

Do you feel less pressure around developing this HBO Max AHPH;KB>GLF>=B:<HFI:GR;><:F>:IH=<:LMBG@IHP>KAHNL>
show now that the podcast business is thriving? I won’t lie,
it does take some pressure off because I have a great creative WHEN CONAN O’BRIEN moved Me?) and O’Brien’s longtime TV sidekick
outlet. But I do miss aspects of television, and I still have an from NBC to TBS in 2010, his team knew Andy Richter (The Three Questions), it took
itch for that. And so figuring out how I fit into this—what’s the it wanted to handle the social media and shape as an audio-first business.
evolution now?—and getting that right is still something that’s YouTube distribution of his show clips itself. With more than 190 million annual
important to me. So I’d love to get you and your readers off the The digital strategy wasn’t yet a priority for podcast downloads, two-thirds of which
hook and say, “Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing Conan on TV media companies, but “we needed to control are O’Brien’s flagship podcast, Team Coco
again.” But something tells me that my ego and my fat Irish face how this stuff got out,” said Jeff Ross, was able to capitalize on the recent frenzy
will take control at some point. O’Brien’s longtime executive producer and among audio platforms in signing A-list
Team Coco co-founder. “When we went to podcast talent to exclusive deals. Last May,
What do you still want to do that you haven’t done yet? Turner, we made a little business out of it.” satellite radio company SiriusXM acquired the
Someday I’d like to play The Music Man’s Harold Hill. I really Thus, Team Coco was born, its moniker company for an estimated $150 million, a deal
just want to do the “[Ya Got] Trouble” song. There was an inspired by the nickname that also included a five-year
opportunity years ago for me to possibly step in when there was Tom Hanks helped popularize agreement with O’Brien to
a vacancy in The Music Man [on Broadway] back in the 2000s. I during O’Brien’s brief run as continue as host.
was doing the Late Night show at the same time, and it became Tonight Show host, which then Its new owner “gives us a
clear that wouldn’t work. But, man, if there’s a world where I became a rallying cry among huge amount of visibility if you
could come out, tag in and do the “Trouble” song—I’m not sure fans when he exited NBC. combine the podcasts and the
I’m built for the whole musical—that would be my dream. The social media business radio and their ability to market
I’ve been obsessed with it. I wrote a Simpsons episode that is thriving, with 17 million stuff, which is significant,” said
features a Music Man parody, [1993’s “Marge vs. the Monorail”]. social media fans and 1 billion Ross. “Assuming that we do
It’s been an obsession of mine for a long time. I think I am, at annual video views across another TV show, I think they’ll
the end of the day, a vaudevillain. I love putting on a show, YouTube and Facebook, all feed into each other in a
grease paint, people in horse costumes backstage and the generating roughly $10 million positive way.”
crowds lining up. in annual ad revenue. And While the company
Team Coco morphed into a focuses on creating its
Is there anything else you want to share as you look full-fledged digital media upcoming Team Coco comedy
back on your career? Something that I try to remind myself business in 2018, even though network for SiriusXM, due
of is—because things are changing so rapidly and there’s so “we didn’t know exactly what later this year (“Right now,
much entertainment out there—my mantra is always: Don’t be that meant,” said Adam Sachs, that’s the thing we’re most
judgmental. Comedians are famously judgmental, [along the now svp and head of Team excited about,” said Ross),
lines of] “I have very strong opinions about what’s funny, or Coco, who arrived at the Sachs is eager to tap into
what’s good. And this I think doesn’t quite meet the standard.” company that year. “We had SiriusXM’s substantial
I just keep telling myself it’s all changing so quickly. Don’t a vision; maybe there would audio and video resources,
calcify. Don’t get stuck in your ways. Don’t get judgmental. be some live events and some including working on an
Be open to trying new things. Have some humility. And don’t digital video with other talent.” audio documentary that has long been in
be afraid. I’ve been really blessed and had an amazing career, With plans to also tackle standup development at Team Coco.
but I’ve also been through a lot of turbulence. I think what has specials, books and video games, podcasting As Team Coco nurtures O’Brien’s

JESSICA CHOU; COURTESY OF TEAM COCO

helped me is there’s some small part of me that always says,
“OK, get up. Let’s get back in there. Let’s try again.”
I don’t know if they teach that in business school, but I think
that’s so important to staying young and staying in the game.
And I see these people: Mel Brooks. Norman Lear just turned
100. I’m lucky to be friends with Bob Newhart, and he’ll be
at my house sometimes, and he’s still really funny. He’s still
really interested in making stuff and getting out there. Those
are the people I admire. They weren’t afraid to evolve, weren’t
afraid to keep trying and are still laughing and being silly and
staying loose. And they probably have some evil potion they’re
drinking that they haven’t told me about!
“was just one vertical of what we were going
to do—and then that turned out to be the big
thing,” said Ross.
That’s because O’Brien’s podcast,
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, became an
immediate hit in 2018. “We realized that
we had the ability to build a successful
podcast network because of the success of
this centerpiece show,” said Sachs. As that
network—which now boasts nine podcasts—
grew to include offerings from Rob Lowe
(Literally!), Nicole Byer (Why Won’t You Date
podcast, which Sachs predicted is “going
to continue to grow as more mainstream
demographics adopt podcasting,” the
company has shifted its long-term
podcast network plans to prioritize quality
over quantity. Sachs once envisioned
growing the podcast slate to 50 shows by
2023, but said now “we really just want to
be opportunistic and make a handful more
shows over the next couple years that we
feel are really great and have the chance
to break through.”

20 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

MEDIA
EXECUTIVE
OF THE YEAR
Congratulations

TRAVIS MONTAQUE
CEO & Co-Founder,
Group Black

We started Group Black with a

simple mission: to dramatically
transform the face of media
investment and ownership. Lack
of access and investment in Black
voices has suppressed the growth,
development, and reach of Black-
owned media for decades.

We’re changing that.

 TELEVISION HOT LIST
CREATOR OF THE YEAR
TAYLOR SHERIDAN
THE HOLLYWOOD OUTSIDER TURNED
HIS MEGAHIT YELLOWSTONE INTO
TV’S HOTTEST FRANCHISE.
BY JASON LYNCH
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALBERTO RABELO
AS TELEVISION AUDIENCE
viewing patterns have been upended
during the past few years, Hollywood
has adapted some new conventional
wisdom when it comes to the state of
TV: Linear hits don’t exist anymore,
especially on basic cable. Series
don’t grow their audiences several
seasons in. It’s no longer possible to
make shows that appeal to both the
heartland and the coasts. And nothing
beats the NFL in the ratings.
Then again, as Taylor Sheridan
noted to Adweek earlier this year,
“That’s why I’m not in Hollywood!” His
outsider status (he’s lived in Texas
for the past decade) emboldened
Sheridan, Adweek’s TV Creator of the
Year, to co-create Yellowstone—the
Paramount Network drama that stars
Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the
patriarch of a family that controls the
country’s largest contiguous ranch—
and turn it into TV’s biggest hit, and
hottest franchise, of the past year.
Last November, the show’s Season
4 premiere stunned the industry by
debuting to 14.7 million viewers across
its Paramount Network, CMT, Pop and
TV Land simulcast. That was a 58%
increase over the Season 3 premiere,
and it outrated everything else in
primetime that week, including NBC’s
Sunday Night Football.
And that was just the start.
Season 4 also launched the first two
series Sheridan created as part of the
extended Yellowstone universe he
is building out with Chris McCarthy,
president and CEO of Paramount Media
Networks and MTV Entertainment
Studios (which co-produces Sheridan’s
shows alongside 101 Studios.) Late last
year, prison industry drama Mayor of
Kingstown (starring Jeremy Renner)
and Yellowstone prequel 1883 broke
records on both linear and streaming
platforms. The two shows had the
biggest cable linear debuts in three and
six years, respectively, and 1883 was
Paramount+’s most-watched original
22
title ever. Now, Sheridan has six new
series on the way over the next year.
His next drama, Tulsa King—with
Stallone as a mafia capo released from
prison after 25 years who is exiled by
his boss to Oklahoma—debuts Nov. 13
on Paramount+. (Its first two episodes
will air Nov. 20 on Paramount Network
following an episode of Yellowstone.)
In December, he’ll roll out the next
Yellowstone prequel, 1923, starring
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, which
will follow the Dutton family during
Prohibition.
Four more series are in the works
for 2023: 1883: The Bass Reeves
Story, Lioness, Land Man and another
Yellowstone spinoff, 6666 (set on the
Texas ranch featured in the show’s
fourth season).
As more projects pile on his plate,
Sheridan has largely abdicated directing
duties to others on his crew, saying,
“We’ve groomed from within people
that have the tonal sensibility like me,
that understand the way that I like to
storytell with a camera.” But he still
writes all of the Yellowstone-related
scripts himself, he said, “because I’ve
never found any other writers that
grew up on ranches.” To adhere to his
production mantra—“No surprises”—
Sheridan stays on schedule, making
sure he has scripts written early enough
to keep production running smoothly
and on time.
And even as he builds out TV’s
hottest franchise, Sheridan is making
sure not to lose focus on the hit series
that started it all. While he did agree to
expand Yellowstone’s upcoming fifth
season—debuting Nov. 13—from 10
to 16 episodes at McCarthy’s request
(the season will be split in half, with
the second part slated to air next
spring), he otherwise has not altered
his approach to the hit show following
last season’s breakout success. “I don’t
change a thing,” said Sheridan. As is
the case with all his films and series, “I
make it the way I want to make it.”
TV EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
WONYA LUCAS
TOUTING EVOLVING STORYTELLING
AND HER ‘DREAM TEAM,’ SHE’S
BRINGING INCREASED DIVERSITY
AND BRAND EXPERTISE TO
HALLMARK MEDIA. BY BILL BRADLEY
WHEN SHE ARRIVED at Hallmark Media (then called Crown
Family Media Networks) in July 2020, it would have been easy for
Wonya Lucas to simply maintain the status quo when it came to
Hallmark Channel and the other networks under her purview.
But that’s never been her style. Instead, Lucas—Adweek’s
TV Executive of the Year—tapped into her extensive resumé in
branding (Clorox and Coca-Cola) and television (where she had
been head of marketing and research at CNN, evp at Weather
Channel and helped launch ID at Discovery) and dug in at the
Hallmark networks “to understand who that core audience is and
then understand the opportunity audience,” Lucas told Adweek.
At the top of that list was Black women, whom Lucas knew
from her time at ID “actually watch more television than any other
demographic. Fifty percent more now,” Lucas said. “And it’s an
audience that largely, at Hallmark, we weren’t getting.”
Well, they are now. Among her key moves at Hallmark Media,
Lucas leaned into its existing IP, turning the brand’s three-
decade-old greeting card line, Mahogany, into an entertainment
brand focused on Black culture and Black women. The brand has
already produced two movies, with plans to extend into podcasts
and scripted series.
Lucas has successfully infused some long-overdue diversity
into the Hallmark networks, too, with not just race but through
religion and sexual orientation as well, all while maintaining
the brand’s ratings dominance. Hallmark Channel was the No. 1
most-watched entertainment cable network of the 2021-2022 TV
season among households, women 18 and older, and total viewers,
according to the company. Meanwhile, Hallmark Movies and
Mysteries also ranked in the top five most-watched in total day and
weekend prime among women 18 and older.
Going forward, Hallmark will offer audiences even more
opportunities to see themselves reflected on screen. In addition
to Mahogany, the company is working on expanding its other
properties, including kids’ brand Crayola; Tree of Life, centered on
the Jewish faith; and Vita, a brand focused on Hispanic and Latinx
culture. Additionally, DaySpring, for the Christian religion, already
has movies coming out for Christmas and Easter.
Ultimately, Lucas wants to create an “ecosystem of content”
across the Hallmark properties (including its streaming service,
Hallmark Movies Now), which could potentially offer deeper
dives for fans.
That certainly includes Countdown to Christmas, Hallmark’s
annual two-month holiday movie marathon extravaganza.
Despite increased competition each year, Hallmark continues
to dominate the holiday movie space. Last year’s Countdown
propelled Hallmark Channel to the No. 1 entertainment cable
network among adult women for the eighth consecutive year and
total viewers for the fifth year.
Even with an uncertain economy ahead, Lucas views Hallmark’s
branding as its secret weapon.
Lucas told Adweek one of her proudest accomplishments since
joining Hallmark Media is assembling her “dream team” of execs:
“They’re strategic thinkers, they are passionate and they’re fun.”
23

SHOW OF THE YEAR
STRANGER THINGS
(NETFLIX)
AFTER ALMOST A THREE-YEAR
HIATUS, Stranger Things made its long-
anticipated return to Netflix and sent
viewers running up that hill (um, to their
screens). The fourth season holds the No.
1 spot on Netflix’s most popular English TV
list with 1.15 billion hours viewed, making
it only the second series ever to cross the
billion hours viewed mark (after Squid
Game) and was Netflix’s biggest premiere
weekend ever for an English-language TV
show. Plus, splitting Season 4 into two
parts allowed Netflix to dominate the
zeitgeist twice this year. —Mollie Cahillane
HOTTEST DRAMA SERIES
YELLOWSTONE
(PARAMOUNT NETWORK)
WHO SAYS SCRIPTED CONTENT can’t
thrive on linear? America can’t seem to get
enough of the Dutton family as the Kevin
Costner drama became an unlikely linear
smash hit in Season 4, with its premiere
drawing more total viewers—14.7 million—
than even NBC’s Sunday Night Football that
week. If past is prologue, its ratings are likely
to be even bigger when Season 5 premieres
on Nov. 13. —A.J. Katz
24
TELEVISION HOT LIST
HOTTEST LATENIGHT HOST HOTTEST COMEDY
TREVOR NOAH (COMEDY CENTRAL) ONLY MURDERS IN
P R E V I O U S P A G E : L U C A S : C O U R T E S Y O F H A L L M A R K N E T W O R K S ; C U R R E N T P A G E : S T R A N G E R T H I N G S : C O U R T E S Y O F N E T F L I X ; Y E L L O W S T O N E : C O U R T E S Y O F P A R A M O U N T; N O A H :
IN A YEAR OF unexpected late-night upheaval, no exit
THE BUILDING (HULU)
was as shocking as Noah’s announcement last month that he HULU’S ONLY Murders in the
would soon be departing The Daily Show after seven years at Building took no prisoners when it
the helm. While he kept The Daily Show as much of a must- came to dominating the comedy
watch as it had been under his predecessor Jon Stewart, landscape. Starring Selena Gomez,
Noah’s true talent has been taking the series beyond the TV Martin Short and Steve Martin, it
screen. Noah’s Daily Show has amassed more than 31 billion debuted as Hulu’s most-watched
minutes viewed across its social channels, with Emmy- original comedy ever and received
nominated segments such as Between the Scenes regularly a massive 17 Emmy nominations.
going viral. The series also continues to make waves with in- Then it fully dodged the sophomore
person activations, including Heroes of the Freedomsurrection slump for its equally brilliant
and In the Footsteps of the Freedomsurrection: A Self-Guided Season 2, which premiered less
Walking Tour of Jan. 6. He will be missed behind the Daily than a year later. —M.C.
Show desk—but he’s going out on top. —B.B.
C O U R T E S Y O F C O M E D Y C E N T R A L : O M I T B : C O U R T E S Y O F H U L U ; E N C A N T O : C O U R T E S Y O F D I S N E Y+
DISNEY+
HOTTEST OUTLET FOR KIDS | HOTTEST STREAMING SERVICE |
ITS RIVALS’ SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS are falling or flatlining, but Disney+ continues to grow: The
platform reaches more than 152 million subscribers in 150-plus global markets. Those numbers are expected
to increase even more with Disney+’s upcoming ad-supported tier, due on Dec. 8. And kids love to watch (and
rewatch) Encanto on the platform—the musical has accumulated more than 180 million rewatches globally—
alongside direct-to-streaming movies such as Turning Red and Zombies 3, and the new season of one of the
best kids’ shows out there, Bluey. —B.B. and M.C.
OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®
 TELEVISION HOT LIST

GO TO
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R I C K & M O R T Y : C O U R T E S Y O F V I A C O M ; H O D : C O U R T E S Y O F H B O M A X ; A T L A N T A : C O U R T E S Y O F F X ; D R O P O U T: C O U R T E S Y O F H U L U ; T H E K A R D A S H I A N S : C O U R T E S Y O F H U L U ; B E L- A I R : C O U R T E S Y O F P E A C O C K
HOTTEST OUTLET
FOR SPORTS
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FOR DRAMA
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HULU THE DROPOUT
HOTTEST
THE STREAMING service has (HULU)
MEASUREMENT
locked down this category for the
COMPANY fourth year in a row, thanks to its THIS SPRING seemed to
ISPOT.TV plethora of options. Just start with be all about limited series

HOTTEST OUTLET
HOTTEST NEW SERIES both seasons of Only Murders in
the Building and the return of Ramy,
featuring real-life events,
but none stood out quite as
FOR UNSCRIPTED
NETFLIX HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (HBO) and then move on over to the FX
shows on the platform like What
much as Hulu’s The Dropout.
Amanda Seyfried sparkled as
HOTTEST BRANDED NEW SHOWS don’t get much hotter than House of the We Do in the Shadows, Atlanta, Elizabeth Holmes, including a
CONTENT Dragon. The Game of Thrones prequel debuted to 10 million The Bear and Reservation Dogs. full voice transformation to nail
CONTENT U.S. viewers in August, the biggest premiere night audience And if you somehow still haven’t Holmes’ signature low-pitch.
ROOM for a series in HBO’s history. To date, the first episode has laughed enough, hop over to the The eight-episode series—
(AMC NETWORKS) passed 30 million viewers, and the full season is averaging ABC sitcoms available next day which premiered alongside the
29 million viewers per episode. The series is so popular on the streamer, including Abbott real-life trial of the disgraced
HOTTEST TV FRANCHISE
it’s even propelled HBO’s Game of Thrones high onto the Elementary. —M.C. Theranos CEO—snagged six
YELLOWSTONE Nielsen streaming charts. And if the title isn’t clear enough, Emmy nominations, including a
(PARAMOUNT NETWORK the show also has dragons. —B.B. win for Seyfried. —M.C.
AND PARAMOUNT+)
HOTTEST SHOW
ON SOCIAL
STRANGER
THINGS
(NETFLIX)
HOTTEST CABLE
NEWS PROGRAM
THE FIVE
(FOX NEWS)
HOTTEST HOTTEST REALITY/ HOTTEST REVIVAL
GLOBAL SERIES COMPETITION SERIES
MONEY HEIST: BELAIR (PEACOCK)
KOREA THE KARDASHIANS
(NETFLIX) (HULU) THIS IS A STORY all about
how Peacock turned the Fresh
THE KARDASHIANS are no Prince of Bel-Air upside down.
strangers to our screens, as the The gritty reimagining of the

HOTTEST ANIMATED SERIES first family of reality TV spent 20

seasons on E!. After ending that
RICK & MORTY (ADULT SWIM) series last year, they moved over
to Hulu for a new season and
THE SCI-FI SITCOM—which was the No. 1 comedy on picked up right where they left off.
cable in 2017, 2019 and 2021—picked up right where it left Following its premiere last June,
off when Season 6 premiered last month, and was cable’s The Kardashians became Hulu’s
most-watched show in the 11 p.m. time slot. Meanwhile, it most-watched premiere ever
also ranks one of HBO Max’s top series, both domestically across all global markets to date,
and globally. Adult Swim has leveraged that success where it was available on Disney+
with hit activations like Wormageddon, the immersive fan and Star+, Disney+’s international
experience that drew more than 100,000 fans to one of arm. After all these years, it
the 14 global builds, with its original Wormageddon video proves that we are still not done
receiving 75 million global views and counting. —A.J.K. keeping up with the Kardashian/
Jenner family. —Colin Daniels
classic Will Smith sitcom has
soared to become Peacock’s
most-watched original, with 9
million accounts streaming it
to date. The series’ numbers
rose thanks in part to NBCU’s
promotion during Super Bowl
56, which took place the same
day the series debuted. And
fans can expect even more
when Season 2 debuts in
2023. —B.B.

26 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

 HALLMARK MEDIA

Congratulates

WONYA LUCAS
Adweek’s TV Executive of the Year
 TELEVISION HOT LIST
GAME CHANGER OF THE YEAR
QUINTA BRUNSON
THE ABBOTT ELEMENTARY CREATOR AND STAR IS
REFINING WHAT CLASSIC TELEVISION LOOKS LIKE.
BY SHANNON MILLER PHOTOGRAPH BY TRACY NGUYEN
THOUGH SUMMER is typically for socializing and taking scenic vacations,
creator, writer and star Quinta Brunson spent the months in preproduction
for the highly anticipated second season of her ABC runaway hit, workplace
comedy Abbott Elementary.
Things are much different for the in-demand showrunner this time around.
Between her ensemble’s collective popularity and an expanded order of 22
episodes (compared to 13 in Season 1), neither the show nor the celebrated
mind behind it has anything left to prove. Good thing, since she and her writers
are taking the opportunity to play with pacing and format following the show’s
breakout success earlier this year.
“There are episodes this season that could exist at any point in time or just
for fun,” she told Adweek. “The goal for Season 2 was to have a little bit more fun
in that world we created. I was excited to have more episodes and more kind of
pointless fun that doesn’t necessarily have to be wrapped into a larger story arc.”
Since gracing the cover of Adweek’s Convergent TV issue in April, Brunson has
only further cemented herself as a formidable force in the entertainment industry
through Abbott and other creative ventures. As a creator who has ostensibly
restored the entertainment industry’s faith in the traditional broadcast network
sitcom during a time when streaming continues to reign supreme, Adweek’s Game
Changer of the Year leveraged modern-day viewing behaviors to build her rapidly
growing audience and a renewed interest in live network viewing. And best of all,
she’s telling deeply human stories that feel accessible in the process.
After a year of unwavering success resulting in seven Emmy nominations and
three wins—including Brunson’s trophy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy
Series, courtesy of her work on the series pilot—the multi-hyphenate has
learned to trust her and her team’s creative instincts going into the new year. So
far, it’s proven to be effective in fending off the dreaded sophomore slump.
“We had such a well-received first season that it felt easy to say, ‘OK, let’s
just do more of what we did last season,’” Brunson said. “Because it’s not like
we have to do any course-correcting or anything like that. It just feels like we
need to trust ourselves and do more of what we did and hopefully audiences
will receive it.”
Receive it, they did: In the week after its initial airing, Abbott’s Season
2 premiere managed to increase its ratings by 318% among adults 18-49,
reaching 7 million viewers. This signifies the series’ largest-ever delayed
viewing ratings jump to date.
In August, she inked a development deal with Warner Bros. TV where she
will create and develop original works for the company’s various platforms,
including HBO Max. Though her relationship with the studio dates back to 2018,
the deal would be her first exclusive agreement with such a major entity.
“I’ve always had a wonderful partnership with Warner Bros., so I think the
development deal was being talked about for a very long time, while Abbott was
airing,” she said.”I feel like a lot of the people who I work with creatively—some
of whom I’ve worked with since before Abbott—were already in my corner.”
Thank you to our readers, listeners, and viewers for making us the

HOTTEST IN
HEALTH
Reporting from the frontiers of health and medicine
D I G I TA L & T E C H H O T L I S T CREATOR OF THE YEAR
DREW AFUALO
TIKTOK’S BIGOT WATCHDOG RAKES
IN BRAND DEALS DESPITE TAKING
AN UNTRADITIONAL APPROACH.
BY MESERET AMBACHEW
TO HER OPPONENTS on TikTok (often straight men lambasting
women for their looks), her comebacks are cutting and calculating.
But to Drew Afualo’s fans, they’re warranted and mostly hilarious.
Afualo’s witty responses to displays of fatphobia, transphobia,
sexism and racism have gotten the reactionary content creator 7.8
million followers on TikTok. This puts her ahead of public figures like
Kim Kardashian, who has 4.7 million, and Afualo’s videos often receive
an average of more than 2 million views.
“My platform is literally built off of making terrible men
uncomfortable,” said Afualo, Adweek’s Digital & Tech Creator of the Year.
In February, Afualo launched her own podcast, The Comment Section,
through content company Brat TV. The show invites TikTok stars like
Jackie Aina and Antoni Bumba to discuss the most noteworthy and nasty
comments on their pages, as well as cover an array of topics, like “How
to Be a Bad Bitch” or being “Fake Woke.” According to influencer agency
Whalar, which reps Afualo, the simulcast show brings roughly 50,000
streams across Apple and Spotify and 150,000 on YouTube.
Combative remarks, however warranted, are traditionally not a
magnet for brand partnerships, but this isn’t the case for Afualo. This
year, the creator is booking up to two deals a week with brands like
YouTube, Tinder, Mountain Dew, and in her most recent haul, Yitty, music
artist Lizzo’s shapewear brand through a partnership with Fabletics.
Money paid to creators isn’t slowing down despite signs of an
economic downturn that’s leading to less ad spend, especially considering
the influencer marketing sector made $13.8 billion in 2021, which is
expected to increase to $16.4 billion by end of this year, per Statista.
“Marketers see 50% higher attention metrics, such as valid and
viewable impressions and watch time [on TikTok] when working with
creators, compared to a brand posting itself,” said Influential CEO Ryan
Detert. Based on influencer campaigns done through Influential, there’s
six times the return on ad spend on social creator campaigns compared to
campaigns that don’t use creators. Detert estimated other creators with
similar followings to Afualo would likely generate revenue in the tens of
thousands of dollars per post.
In March 2021, her first viral video listed a number of red flags in men,
such as having any interest in Joe Rogan or calling women “females,”
reeling in 3.2 million views and nearly 700,000 likes.
Sticking it to them came at a cost, though. Afualo told Adweek in May
that TikTok disabled her account four times as a result of getting flagged
by followers of her targets.
While building a brand on being a vociferous defender against a
platform’s trolls has rewarded her with loyal troops, she can’t always
make the entire army happy. In April, the creator received backlash from a
portion of her audience for her paid partnership with fast-fashion retailer
Shein promoting Shein X, an incubator program to help up-and-coming
fashion designers launch a collection with the brand. The comments below
her try-on haul lampooned Afualo for working with a brand that had been
accused of neglecting sustainability in its rapid-production practices.
As the number of brand deals grow, Afualo has realized her choices
hold more weight, and she has therefore become more purposeful with
who she chooses to partner with. “If it [a brand] sounds like it works for
me, and I agree with the messaging, then I’m going to do it,” she said. For
instance, she attended and posted about Benefit Cosmetics’ brow service
activation in August where every $5 from each paid service went to a
pro-female charity such as Planned Parenthood. She has also promoted
LINDY LIN

Smashbox cosmetics’ vegan and cruelty-free moisturizer in a TikTok.

 DIGITAL & TECH
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
SAMANTHA
JACOBSON
THE TRADE DESK CHIEF STRATEGY
OFFICER IS SHAPING THE FUTURE
OF THE OPEN INTERNET.
BY CATHERINE PERLOFF

IT’S ONLY OCTOBER, and The Trade Desk has seemingly

made news this year on every pressing topic in ad tech.
As buyers were puzzling over how to make their supply paths
more efficient, demand-side platform The Trade Desk cut out
multiple middlemen, announcing in February it was removing
Google’s Open Bidding as a source of supply and launching a
pathway for advertisers to buy directly from publishers, sans
supply-side platforms. Then, when Google announced further
delays to the deprecation of third-party cookies until 2024, The
Trade Desk made steady headway on ushering its alternative,
UID2, inking partnerships with Amazon and Procter & Gamble.
And as retail media and CTV became the buzziest part of the
media budget, The Trade Desk forged partnerships with Walmart,
grocery chain Albertsons, HBO Max and Disney+. In the first half
of the year—during which CEO Jeff Green said the company has
“gained more market share, grabbed more land than any other
period” in the firm’s history, per comments in its second-quarter
earnings call—revenue has grown 39% to $692 million, a reward It’s a fitting perspective for her, as she’s helped The Trade Desk
for The Trade Desk’s prescience. articulate a vision for the internet that allows advertising to exist
The Trade Desk’s prominence in headlines—thanks in part outside of walled gardens while still protecting users’ privacy. (As part
to growing partnerships and making its tech and systems more of its second-quarter earnings, Green outlined The Trade Desk’s goals
ubiquitous—isn’t what makes chief strategy officer Samantha as: “to be the objective, open-internet alternative to walled gardens.”)
Jacobson, Adweek’s Digital & Tech Executive of the Year, most But while The Trade Desk has been strategic to earn this role,
excited about the company’s triumphant year. It’s the opportunity maintaining it is far from certain.
to be a leader in the future of the open web at a time of fluctuation. Not only has the company been forging critical industry
“The thing that I really like about Trade Desk … is the focus on partnerships, but its tech also really works.
strategy: How do we make the open internet better?” she told Adweek. The Trade Desk also has built credibility by generally sticking to its
According to Jacobson, the possibility to ask big questions lane as an intermediary, as competitors have tried to foist their way
is what distinguishes her current role from previous positions in into other digital media verticals via acquisitions of content and data
strategy or business development at Oracle, American Express assets, said head of programmatic at agency PMG Justin Scarborough.
and eBay, where her purview was more narrowly focused on the The company’s vision for UID2 applies this statesman-like
bottom line. At The Trade Desk, Jacobson is instead focused on positioning: The tech is free, open-sourced and designed to be
COURTESY OF THE TRADE DESK

making sure the company continues to be an industry leader,
which entails thinking about the company’s future positioning. One
important facet of her job is onboarding advertising and publishers
onto UID2, a nonprofit initiative.
“It’s been a really big pivot from just thinking about the
company where I work … toward how do we make the world
better?” Jacobson said. “How do we think about what identity
could look like in a future state?”
interoperable with other identity solutions. Jacobson said The Trade
Desk wants to distinguish itself from other ad-tech companies that sell
identity solutions under rigid terms.
“We want the ecosystem to be better, and that’s so different from
how most companies operate,” Jacobson said. “Instead, The Trade Desk
has really taken this approach of not just saying that they want to make
it better, but truly providing open-source opportunities and transparency
as one of the guiding pillars so that the full ecosystem can benefit.”

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022

®
31
 D I G I TA L & T E C H H O T L I S T

HOTTEST SHOPPING PLATFORM

DEPOP
ELON MUSK
DEPOP COMBINES the intoxication of social media—from
AND TWITTER
finding a likable creator to learning what your friends are up HOTTEST OBSESSION
to—with the growing popularity of resold fashion. Incumbent
commerce platform Etsy saw this value and purchased
London-based Depop for nearly $1.5 billion last year. Depop THE TECHNOLOGY sector’s
brought an army of younger shoppers with it; when the most compelling soap opera
acquisition was announced, 90% of its active users were began innocently enough
under 26. At the time of the deal, the platform had 30 million on March 14 when mega-
users and generated $70 million in 2020 revenue from the entrepreneur Elon Musk
fees it earns on sellers’ transactions. (More recent figures purchased 9.2% of Twitter’s
aren’t available, now that the company reports results with stock. The roughly six months
Etsy.) Under new ownership, Depop has managed to remain since then have been unsettling
buzzy, announcing partnerships recently with Olivia Rodrigo, for employees and uncertain
Megan Thee Stallion, HBO and Netflix. —C.P. for advertisers—see if you can
keep up. Musk was added to
HOTTEST GAME
Twitter’s board of directors but ELDEN RING
declined days later. He agreed
April 25 to acquire the company WHILE GAME OF THRONES fans are still

for approximately $44 billion,
or $54.20 per share, in cash,
but almost immediately showed
signs of buyer’s remorse. He
sent a tweet early on May 13
questioning Twitter’s assertion
that spam and fake accounts
represent fewer than 5% of
its monetizable daily active
users, and then replied to
CEO Parag Agrawal’s detailed
response with a poop emoji.
After threatening to call off the
deal in June, Musk eventually
followed through on July 8,
leading Twitter to file a lawsuit.
Musk’s legal team claimed Sept.
HOTTEST PLATFORM 9 that the company’s severance
agreement with former head of
ROBLOX security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko
violated the terms of the merger
EVER HEARD OF a digital rendition of a designer gown agreement. Just four days later,
selling for a whopping $5,000? It’s possible on Roblox. it took all of six minutes for
The platform is the year’s hottest digital playground Twitter shareholders to approve
for brands such Gucci, whose Roblox activation saw 34 the merger at a special meeting.
million users, and Alo Sanctuary, which had 49 million The two sides were set to go
visitors at its activation. Roblox has not only been a trial in the Delaware Chancery
driving force for brands but also for the creator economy. Court Oct. 17, but in an about-
In 2021, the creator community earned a total of $539 face Oct. 4, Musk sent a letter
million on the platform, according to Roblox. And 52.2 to Twitter saying he would
million average daily active users are spurring more reinstate his offer, and Twitter
action from brands, with the platform currently testing tweeted its intention to close
a new ad product that will let brands place 3D promos the deal at $54.20 per share.
within their activations. —Trishla Ostwal Stay tuned. —David Cohen
D E P O P : C O U R T E S Y O F D E P O P ; R O B L OX : C O U R T E S Y O F R O B L OX ; T W I T T E R ; E L D E N R I N G : C O U R T E S Y O F F R O M S O F T WA R E
(impatiently) waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish
writing the fantasy novel series the show was based
on, A Song of Ice and Fire, gamers are ecstatic the
author took the time to work with FromSoftware
president and CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki on action role-
playing game Elden Ring. “Ye dead who yet live, your
grace long lost, follow the path to the Lands Between
beyond the foggy sea to stand before the Elden
Ring. And become the Elden Lord.” That challenge
did not go unheeded. Marketed by Bandai Namco
Entertainment, Elden Ring was released Feb. 25 and
surged from more than 12 million units sold worldwide
as of March to 16.6 million currently. Simultaneously
releasing it in 14 languages helped move the needle.
“It’s astonishing to see just how many people have
been playing Elden Ring,” Miyazaki said earlier this
year in a statement. “We hope players enjoy a high
level of freedom when adventuring through its vast
world, exploring its many secrets and facing up to its
many threats.” —D.C.
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32 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

©Disney
 MEDIA HOT LIST

WHEN GRID LAUNCHED in January under the editorial

vision of Laura McGann, the publisher sought to solve one
of the most fundamental questions of modern journalism—
how to best tell a story—by approaching it from a different
perspective.
For McGann, who had wrestled with complex narratives
for years while running newsrooms at Vox and Politico,
the most effective reporting often called attention to the
structural factors that animate an issue. So, at Grid, where
she serves as executive editor, McGann—Adweek’s Media
Editor of the Year—has oriented the entire organization
around that thesis.
While the degree to which Grid has woven these
concepts into its fabric is rare, the practices themselves
are commonplace in mature newsrooms. In fact, the
inspiration for the core tenets of Grid came from moments
of heightened collaboration that McGann had witnessed
throughout her career.
“It occurred to me that this thing that we do sometimes
could be something we do all the time, but it would require big
changes in both the structure and culture of the newsroom,”
McGann said. “There would need to be buy-in from the staff,
but if you could get that, you could produce work that speaks
to the way the world actually works.”
Although compelling, the idea presented a number of
challenges for McGann as she worked to launch the publication.
To produce a novel kind of reporting, she needed to build a
novel kind of reporting process, one in which journalists work
collaboratively by design. And to do that, she would need
journalists who shared her enthusiasm for the Grid concept
and were willing to take a risk on an experimental vision.
These constraints made the recruiting process a
challenge. Nonetheless, her intriguing pitch, combined
with $10 million in seed capital, helped entice a team of
early converts, enabling the veteran reporter to build out a
newsroom of her own for the first time.
Now, nearly a year later, and with a clear proof of
concept in tow, Grid has found hiring far easier: The team
has grown to 30 editorial staff members, and its approach
has allowed the publisher to communicate complex news
stories with an unparalleled fluency.
Its unique approach has also proven well suited for making
sense of sprawling stories and subject matters whose scope
overwhelms traditional formats. In its first year, Grid has
found particular traction covering the war in Ukraine, health
policy and misinformation, McGann said, though she declined
to share specific numbers.
While the structure of Grid has proven to produce rich
reporting, it remains an open question whether the approach
will resonate with readers. After all, an insistence on depth
runs counter to the prevailing arc of the internet, which bends
toward bite-sized.
In its first nine months, the early results are encouraging.
Grid has seen traction in its signature daily newsletter, which

MEDIA EDITOR OF THE YEAR

has 120,000 free subscribers, according to the publisher. In
response to demand, it has launched a second newsletter to

LAURA MCGANN
be focused on health and policy. The publisher declined to
provide any specific numbers around growth.
Regardless of its success, Grid serves as a reminder of just
how much room for experimentation remains in journalism,
and that the fixed ideas that govern the industry are often far
more flexible than they appear.
COURTESY OF GRID

AT GRID, THE VETERAN EDITOR TAKES “Grid offers a type of coverage that pulls together an
A NOVEL APPROACH TO NEWS. unfolding story in an uncommon way,” McGann said. “I see
it as an outgrowth of my own career, moving from a highly
BY MARK STENBERG verticalized process to an increasingly collaborative one.”

34 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

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TO OUR HOT LIST
WINNERS!

Conan O’Brien More Sauce Podcast Network

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 MEDIA HOT LIST
HOTTEST IN SUSTAINABILITY
GRIST
MEDIA EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR GRIST MADE WAVES last month by promoting editor in chief Nikhil

TRAVIS MONTAQUE
HE’S IMPROVING BLACK-OWNED MEDIA
AD SPEND AND HELPING BRANDS INVEST
IN A MORE INCLUSIVE FUTURE.
BY LUCINDA SOUTHERN
IN ITS FIRST YEAR, Group
Black—launched in June 2021
with a mission to transform the
face of Black-media ownership
and investment across three core
pillars—has been responsible for
facilitating $500 million in ad spend
commitments toward Black-owned
M O N TA Q U E : C O U R T E S Y O F G R O U P B L A C K ; T I M E M A G A Z I N E S : T I M E C O V E R P H O T O G R A P H E D M A X I M D O N D Y U K F O R T I M E , A R T B Y A R T I S T J R F O R T I M E
has driven incremental revenue
through programmatic advertising.
As a more consultative service
for Holler Studios, Group Black
provides monthly reports across
the platform’s social channels to
help it better utilize data to make
more informed decisions around
Swaminathan to CEO, but it has been making waves for more than 20 years
in its quest to help reshape the climate narrative from doom and gloom
to equity and justice. Its recent package on infectious diseases, which
garnered almost 176,000 readers, described the concerns of experts that
rising temperatures are creating the ideal conditions for new diseases to
emerge, spread and impact human health. The nonprofit publisher said it
currently reached almost 1 million readers last month on its site, growing
from 632,000 last January. Grist introduced an environmentally-focused
indigenous affairs desk, and in August, it took home the National Edward R.
Murrow Award for overall excellence for a small digital news organization.
Grist currently tallies 56 employees overall, with 24 on its editorial staff.
Swaminathan told Adweek when his promotion was revealed: “We want
to build up our audience in places where people are suffering the impacts
of climate change but are less educated about it. We have the potential––
because we look at our work as a public good––to become a climate desk
for the entire country.” —D.C.

media, from advertisers like P&G to content production.

agencies like GroupM and Dentsu.
And given that there’s only
around $2 billion of Black-owned
media inventory today, it’s easy
to understand why that speed
is impressive.
“It’s a very serious and
meaningful amount of progress to
be made in a short space of time,”
Group Black CEO and co-founder
Travis Montaque said, in order to
“drive the industry toward making
the kind of change we want to see.”
Currently, brands invest
approximately 0.5% of their
budgets in Black-owned media,
said Montaque—Adweek’s Media
Executive of the Year—with some
like GM committing to grow that to
8% by 2025. In the U.S., that could
be roughly $3 billion a year in
investment. But due to a historical
lack of funding, most Black-
owned media is not set up to serve
that amount of ad spend. Just
1% of Black-owned companies
have more than 10 employees,
according to Montaque, hindering
their ability to seek out big-budget
partnerships, invest and grow.
Enter Group Black.
Group Black has more than
200 members, including publisher
Essence, festival Afropunk and
plant-based food blog Black
Girls Eat. It offers members
infrastructure like technology tools,
sales support and creative strategy
as well as all-important access to
ad spend from the world’s largest
media buyers. For members like
AllHipHop.com, DiscoverTV and
titles on SHE Media network, it
In 2021, the market responded—
at first—with intrigue and little
HOTTEST MAGAZINE COVER OF THE YEAR
action. Now brands like Hennessy,
McDonald’s and Always Ultra have THE RESILIENCE OF UKRAINE
run campaigns with the group.
Montaque pointed to consumer-
packaged goods giant Procter &
AND THE AGONY OF UKRAINE
Gamble as the platinum standard
in using the power of its media (TIME)
dollars to drive change. In Cannes,
Group Black co-hosted a lunch TIME HAS A PARTICULARLY fixed canvas for its covers: Its entire
with P&G for its Widen the Screen message must be outlined by a red border. Despite these parameters, the
initiative. Widen the Screen, magazine managed to depict a particularly nuanced rendering of the war
which predates P&G’s work with
in Ukraine where a double cover for its March 17 issue showed both the
Group Black, has created career
horror of war and the courage of Ukrainian people. The cover came out
opportunities for several hundred
creators, said Damon Jones, P&G’s days after journalist Brent Renaud, on assignment from Time to cover the
chief communication officer. refugee crisis, was fatally shot in the fighting, giving the issue particular
Given the economic climate, poignancy. One cover, titled “The Resilience of Ukraine,” features an image
clients are nervous about a of a young girl from the photography street artist JR, superimposed above
potential recession, and budgets a drone-taken photograph of hundreds of her fellow Ukrainians in the city
for Black-owned media are in of Lviv. The second cover, called “The Agony of Ukraine,” is a photograph
danger of being cut first. To of a mother and child being forced to evacuate, photographed by Maxim
mitigate, some marketers aim to Dondyuk. The covers struck a nerve with readers, garnering 8 million
have annual spend commitment combined impressions across Time social accounts and selling 7.5%
deals in place from clients by the better than the average Time cover on newsstands. —C.P.
end of October, increasing revenue
certainty going into 2023.
Group Black—part media
collective, part tech platform, part
advocacy group—aims to work in a
nonjudgmental way with marketers,
guiding them in what they don’t
know. It’s a trusted comrade trying
to drive change, consulting with
brands on how they can tap into
culture to drive business outcomes
and developing strategies beyond
just serving media.
“Inclusion as a business model
drives performance,” Montaque said,
“but it’s also the right thing to do for
the world.”

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022

 HOTTEST DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY IN A MAGAZINE
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE YEAR IN PHOTOS: THE WAR IN ETHIOPIA

N E W Y O R K T I M E S : F I N B A R R O ’ R E I L L Y F O R T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S ; R O E V . W A D E : C O U R T E S Y O F P O L I T I C O ; T H E W A S H I N G T O N P O S T: B I L L O ’ L E A R Y / T H E W A S H I N G T O N P O S T
ON NOV. 4, 2020, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed waged a military campaign against the
HOTTEST MAGAZINE country’s northernmost region, Tigray, in an attempt to repress political party Tigray People’s Liberation

OF THE YEAR Front (TPLF). The Ethiopian government issued a regional blackout, isolating the entire region from the
world and depriving civilians of all media access and communication. The government’s genocidal tactics

NEW YORK MAGAZINE against Tigray, such as invoking famine and lack of medical attention, resulted in a death toll of more than
half a million. “One of the biggest challenges was filing our pictures. There was no internet,” freelance Times

(VOX MEDIA)
IN A YEAR that began by signaling a coming
“vibe shift,” New York Magazine enjoyed another
period of growth. Its subscription revenue was
up 47% year over year by the end of 2021, and
it continued on that trajectory this year as
The Cut entered the commerce space, further
diversifying revenue. New York Magazine
launched at least three new podcast series,
spanning a culture series from Vulture, Into It;
a new interview show with tech journalist Kara
Swisher; and an investigative series about the
potential for abuse with psychedelic therapy,
Cover Story: Power Trip. It’s added several
newsletters to its roster of 26, including daily
evening culture newsletter Dinner Party and
weekly food newsletter The Year I Ate New
York. While media outlets could not ignore the
giant stories of the year, such as the seismic
shift in abortion rights and the war in Ukraine,
photographer Finbarr O’Reilly said in an end of year roundup on the war. Through the hassle of obtaining
a Visa and the government yanking all communication after the national military left from Tigray, O’Reilly
managed to get proof of the region’s conditions other outlets didn’t have access to, challenging what the
Ethiopian government was selling to the press. In one photo, two Tigrayan fighters tread through smoking
wreckage with automatic weapons over their shoulders, which made the front page of Times’ July 12, 2021,
print issue and was updated with additional photos in a series on the web last November. In March, The
Washington Post reported: “The world’s deadliest war isn’t in Ukraine, but in Ethiopia.” —M.A.
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ROE V. WADE (POLITICO)

the title altered the lens: The Cut published
a practical guide to abortion clinics and how
to reach them, and New York’s March issue
told the story of Russia’s invasion through the
perspective of the country’s youth, all of whom
have only known an independent Ukraine. The
above-mentioned “vibe shift” article, published
in February, detailed a change in cultural trends,
setting off a jokey discourse across social and
mainstream media. And The Cut’s Lindsay
Peoples breathed new life into its digital cover
stories, which featured conversations between
two women, including pairings between Sophie
Turner and Jessica Chastain (for its May/June
cover) and Tracee Ellis Ross and Megan Thee
Stallion (in April). —L.S.
POLITICO’S REPORTING by national security
reporter Alex Ward and senior legal affairs reporter
Josh Gerstein in May on the Supreme Court opinion draft
that would later overturn Roe v. Wade in June has been
labeled “one of the biggest scoops in American journalism
history” by CNN. From the moment the news broke, its
magnitude was visible not only on news sites and social
media but also in how it gripped the entire nation and
beyond, spurring nationwide protests. Further reporting
across other publications also revealed the continued data
leakage across prominent digital platforms, underscoring
the need for robust federal privacy framework from
lawmakers (which is currently stalled with Congress).
With 12.5 million pageviews and counting, according
to Politico, the article is the most trafficked story in
Politico’s 15-year history. —T.O.
aim to give its audience that feeling. The label’s
podcasts talk all things sex, music, politics and
religion on shows including Lovers and Friends
with author and sexologist Shan Boodram; Reality
With the King hosted by reality TV producer
Carlos King, who worked on Real Housewives of
Atlanta and New Jersey; and Rory and Mal hosted
by Rory Farrell and Jamil “Mal” Clay, who signed
with SXM months after departing their previous
gig at the Joe Budden Podcast late last year. The
podcast industry is scarce with diverse talent,
but More Sauce gives its Black personalities a
platform to be authentic and unapologetic in their
storytelling, allowing their audience plenty of
room to relate. The label has fetched more than
15 million downloads across all shows on Apple
Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher since its launch
in 2020 and has attracted advertisers such as
Hinge, T-Mobile and Cadillac. —M.A.

38
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 Perspective
ON THE ORIGINS OF BR ANDS AND THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THEM

THE PLAYERS
The U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office
Twister «

HOW A FUNNY—AND OCCASIONALLY

records Twister as
a ‘game wherein the NAUGHTY—FLOOR GAME WRANGLED
players constitute ITS WAY INTO AMERICA’S HOMES.
the game pieces.’
BY ROBERT KLARA

THE NAME
It changed to
Twister after
execs found out
that Pretzel, the
game’s original
name, was taken.

THE TERRAIN
Milton Bradley
almost didn’t buy
Twister because it
had never made a
floor game before.
 The Definitive Guide to Public Relations
Coups—if there were such a book—would
surely record a groundbreaking event in
1966. That spring, a publicist from Milton
Bradley placed a call to NBC and got a new
game called Twister onto The Tonight Show.
The episode aired the evening of May
3. With Ed McMahon and fashion designer
Oleg Cassini looking on, Johnny Carson
and Eva Gabor took off their shoes,
looked down at a plastic mat of green,
yellow, blue and red dots, then followed
the instructions. “The referee spins the
spinner, then calls out the body part and
color. Each player must try to place the 1 2
called-out body part on a vacant circle of
the called-out color.”
Within minutes, the dapper host and
the Hungarian coquette (in a décolleté, no
less) were in a knot on the floor. The studio
audience went wild—as 12 million Americans
C O U R T E S Y M I L T O N B R A D L E Y ; 1 : N B C / T H E T O N I G H T S H O W ; 3 : B U Z Z M A G N U S O N / S T. P A U L P I O N E E R P R E S S ; B A C H E L O R : R I C K R O W E L L / D I S N E Y / G E T T Y I M A G E S

watching TV at home took it all in.

By the following morning, Twister was
a national phenomenon.
And it still is. Now believed to have
been played by more than 65 million
people, the Hasbro game has popped up
everywhere from an episode of Friends
to R.E.M.’s 1992 hit “Man on the Moon”
to Billie Eilish’s “Lost Cause” video last
year. The National Toy Hall of Fame even
inducted Twister in 2015.
But all of it came close to never
happening.
In 1964, Reyn Guyer, whose father ran
what Guyer called a “cheap gift” company,
was trying to think up a promotion for
Johnson Wax’s shoe polish.
“He first had the idea for a game that
uses people as the playing pieces and
a mat on the floor as the game board,”
Hasbro Gaming svp and general manager
Adam Biehl said. “The first attempt at this
game was called King’s Footsie. He pitched
the game to 3M, where it was rejected.”
So Guyer hired game developers
Charles Foley and Neil Rabens, who
formalized Twister as we know it now.
Milton Bradley bought the game but hit a
wall. Even for the swinging ’60s, Twister
was considered too risqué.
As Guyer later related in his book Right
Brain Red, “The idea of being that close
to someone—especially someone of the
opposite sex—was socially unacceptable.”
A company sales rep groused that Twister
was simply “sex in a box.” That gay men
would themselves one day indulge in
games of “strip Twister” was impossible to
even contemplate at the time.
When Sears refused to put the game
in its holiday catalog, the cause was
seemingly lost. But that’s when the
anonymous publicist placed that fateful
call to NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., and
made a twisted bit of history.
4
BELIEVE IT OR KNOT
If it hadn’t been for Johnny
Carson and Eva Gabor playing
Twister on The Tonight Show
in 1966 (1), Twister—whose
3
patent (2) specified that people
would be the game pieces—
6 would never have made it to
store shelves. The game’s three
inventors, including Charles Foley
and Neil Rabens (3, l. and r.), sold
Twister to Milton Bradley, which
showed adults on the original box (4)
because it feared younger players
being tempted to inappropriate
behavior. But while young people did
take to Twister—like the party crowd
in this Billie Eilish video (5)—it’s
been a hit with all age groups. Maybe
5 that’s the reason for the nebulous
players shown on today’s box (6).
FUNNY BUSINESS While Hasbro (which bought Milton
Bradley in 1984) positions Twister as family-friendly, there’s
always been an unspoken understanding that Twister can lend
itself to decidedly non-family activities. Some proof might be
found in the fact that Milton Bradley once included a booklet
of Seagram’s 7 drink recipes with every box. (And the wet and
wanton Twister game on ABC’s The Bachelor, shown here,
didn’t even require liquor as a social lubricant.) Even in the early
days—and despite its insistence that Twister was a kids’ game—
Milton Bradley could see college students were Twister’s most
ardent fans. “We had a run of stories about teens throwing
parties where they’d play Twister in the nude,” the late Mel
Taft, MB’s research and development chief, told The Guardian in
2014. “I thought that was going to harm us. It didn’t.”

ADWEEK | OCTOBER 10, 2022

®
41
 LOOK BACK

1953

Your
Chromium
Colleague
Amid all the prognosticating
about artificial intelligence,
there’s an anxious quip that
AI will eventually put us
media types (publicists and
reporters especially) out of
a job. These worries aren’t
unfounded. In the early 1800s,
the Industrial Revolution cost
countless farmhands their
livelihoods. Automation in the
mid-1900s made telephone
switchboard and elevator
operators obsolete. Then,
in 1953, came Garco—the
world’s first robot PR guy.
In this promo shot for the
sci-fi flick Gog, actor Sally
Mansfield looks on as Garco
“bats out a hot press release.”
Chess and lively conversation
were among the automaton’s
other reported skills. Too
bad it was all baloney. A
tinkerer named Harvey
Chapman had built Garco out
of old airplane parts, using
a radio transmitter and an
electromechanical control
arm to give his invention
“personality.” (The routine
was convincing enough
that Walt Disney made a TV
appearance with Garco in
1957.) But robots didn’t put
any journalists or PR people
out of work and still haven’t.
For now. —Robert Klara BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

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42 OCTOBER 10, 2022 | ADWEEK ®

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