ADWEEK

The ads that aired during the FIFA World Cup got plenty of eyes, but how many of them actually resonated with those viewers? TV data and measurement company EDO has calculated the effectiveness of every ad during the World Cup and has shared the results with ADWEEK. The ads are ranked by EDO’s TV Outcomes Score, which measures the impact of every ad during the entire FIFA World Cup tournament across English and Spanish language broadcasts, based on the immediate consumer engagements most predictive of future sales. Get the full list here 👉 https://adweek.it/4fkUaVG

94% of Fortune 500 companies are not investing in women's sports. That leads to a ripple effect, says Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment's Laura Correnti, resulting in brands losing out on $64 billion in earning potential. With eyes on the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) All Star Weekend, it's worth noting which brands are activating with the league and its players, and which brands are still sitting on the sidelines.

It’s been a week, and we’re still reminiscing. Fanatics Fest 2026 really was the ultimate four-day sports fan takeover—wall-to-wall moments, big energy, and a card show that went crazy. From Tom Brady sitting down with Lionel Messi to surprise celeb sightings like Justin Bieber, it felt like every aisle had a headline. Here a quick glimpse at what we saw on the ground.

The Coca-Cola Company’s rollout of a new global visual identity by JKR sparked an unexpected backlash over its new slab serif typeface, Better With, which many consumers said looked like Marlboro branding when paired with Coke’s red-and-white palette. Although the fonts aren’t actually the same, the resemblance was enough to fuel online criticism and highlight how deeply people feel attached to familiar brand cues, especially longtime identifiers like typefaces, echoing past uproars over redesigns from brands like IKEA, Tropicana Brands Group, Gap, and JLR.

Brands poured millions into FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States ads, but Samba data suggests only some truly hit their viewership goals: more than 75% of U.S. households watched at least one match and 62% watched three or more, creating huge engagement for sponsors. Samba tracked 6,000+ advertising brands, yet just 267 reached at least 1 million unique households; Google led total U.S. TV ad impressions through strategic partnerships despite not being an official FIFA sponsor, with impressions spanning Search plus Pixel 10 and Gemini, while Food & Beverage dominated overall, led by Michelob Ultra and Modelo, with The Home Depot, Universal Pictures, and Verizon also strong in Spanish-language coverage. Here are the top 10 brands for the World Cup, ranked by total TV ad impressions in the United States. 👇

Large agencies are notoriously slow. With countless stakeholders who need to weigh in on ideas before anything can move forward, nice&frank's Laura Petruccelli says "some of that magic gets lost over time." Do you agree?

The revolving door of chief marketing officer hires and reshuffles keeps spinning. 👉 Behr Paint Company promoted Andy Lopez to CMO, expanding responsibilities across product strategy, marketing, and innovation amid a broader digital transformation and the rollout of new AI tools. 👉 Allyson Witherspoon is departing as Nissan Motor Corporation CMO after 12 years to lead marketing for General Motors’s Buick and GMC. 👉 Johnson Outdoors appointed Andres Baptista as CMO. Baptista will support brands including Minn Kota, Humminbird, Old Town, Jetboil, and others. 👉 kate spade new york named Allison Badea as CMO. 👉 Magic Spoon hired Sarah Barnes as CMO, bringing experience from Kraft Heinz and RXBAR, and most recently Chosen Foods.

VOICE | "Nobody gets into advertising to become a manager. But if you’re good at it, that’s where you end up. Inevitably, your job moves from making things to nurturing your teams’ ideas, managing their careers, and taking the hits so they can do the work. It’s the hardest pivot in our business outside of landing your first job. And the industry is terrible at preparing creatives for it. I struggled with this transition more than I’d like to admit. Watching other managers helped. The great ones showed me what to aim for and the bad ones showed me what to avoid. But osmosis has its limits," writes VML's Glendon Scott.

Fox Corporation & Friends has been a consistent and reliable performer for Fox News. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, cable news’ highest-rated morning program shows no sign of slowing down. Built on the premise of informality, the trio of Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Billy Jones III is seated on the show’s signature couch, discussing the day’s top stories. The fourth member of the morning show, Steve Doocy, appears on location from around the country reporting on special projects for the telecast. For our latest 5 Questions For… series, we spoke to Kilmeade on the morning show’s longevity, which he says stems from them talking with their viewers, not at them. Kilmeade was also all in on the just-concluded FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States, revealing he attended five matches, including the final.

A 1975 Play-Doh ad featured a boy named Jeff defending his lumpy blue “dog with a long nose” that looked more like an elephant, but today the brand’s ads showcase elegant clay bouquets of orchids, lilacs, and peonies, because they’re aimed at adults, not kids. Sets like Blooms by Play-Doh are part of a broader push by legacy toy brands including Crayola, Mattel, Inc., and the LEGO Group to market directly to anxious, overstimulated “kidults,” many of whom are burned out by digital life and report widespread “digital fatigue.”