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Trump’s Map Sends Sharpie Trending; WeWork Gets a Refund for the ‘We’ Trademark; MillerCoors Wins Again |
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Score one for Sharpie? The marker brand became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter yesterday after President Trump displayed a government map of Hurricane Dorian’s projected path, altered to include Alabama. The touch-up, the theory goes, was meant to back up the president’s erroneous tweet Sunday listing the state as still potentially in harm’s way. And the president’s predilection for Sharpies is well-known. Asked by a reporter about the map mark-up, the president said, “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.” Here’s where Sharpie really won the point: It didn’t say a word about it on Twitter. |
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| We Co. CEO Adam Neumann in January. PHOTO: MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES FOR WEWORK |
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When WeWork rebranded itself the We Co., it paid $5.9 million to a company that its own CEO controlled in order to buy its, uh, prescient trademark on the word “We.” It was a smart business move by someone! But it was not a great signal from the We Co. as it prepares to drag massive and widening losses across the threshold of a planned IPO. As NYU professor Scott Galloway noted in reaction last month, “YOU. CAN’T. MAKE. THIS. SH*T. UP.” After that criticism and a lot more, the We Co. yesterday recouped the $5.9 million. Under pressure on another front, it also added its first female board member. |
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| PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS |
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Stores and fast-food chains should remember the people who have to actually read their flashy digital signs. On a lunch break from his sales job at a construction company in Illinois, Steve Kovacs saw a picture of a chicken sandwich on the digital menu at McDonald’s. Once it was his turn to order, he pointed at it. But the sign had flipped to a new screen and he was now pointing at a burger. Mr. Kovacs couldn’t remember the name of what he wanted, and with 20 customers behind him, he just got the burger, the Journal’s Britton O’Daly reports. Only after he finished eating did the menu flash back to the chicken. In a happy but presumably atypical ending, he jumped up and ordered that too. |
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Google is using secret web pages to provide personal data on Chrome users to other companies for ad targeting, according to privacy-branded browser (and Google antagonist) Brave. “I had no idea this was happening,” Johnny Ryan, chief policy officer at Brave, told the Financial Times. “If I consulted my browser log, I wouldn’t have had an idea either.” Mr. Ryan submitted his allegations to the Irish data regulator, which oversees Google’s business in Europe, the FT reports. Google said it hadn’t seen the details of Mr. Ryan’s findings. “We do not serve personalized ads or send bid requests to bidders without user consent,” a Google rep said. |
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| Halt! (Sometime in the Next Six Months) |
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| PHOTO: COURTESY MILLERCOORS |
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A judge knocked another peg out of Bud Light’s broad campaign to tar rivals with corn syrup, this time issuing a preliminary injunction to prevent it from using packaging declaring it corn syrup-free. Miller Lite and Coors Light don’t contain corn syrup either, and MillerCoors is suing to stop Bud Light’s suggestions to the contrary. The packaging doesn’t even mention Miller Lite and Coors, but the judge found the implication clear enough for a potential jury to catch, Brewbound reports. It still could be a long winter for MillerCoors: The judge gave Bud Light until March 2020 to sell its way through the forbidden packaging. |
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Heinz Canada repositioned its ketchup-bottle labels to be upright only when people tilt the bottle the right amount to pour. [Ad Age] A pencil drawing of a nearly 90-degree angle on Twitter is driving designers over the edge. [Creative Bloq] Kellogg’s Morningstar Farms got in on the plant-based fake meat alternative under a new brand name: Incogmeato. [Bloomberg] The NBA’s Lonzo Ball says his own Big Baller brand shoes constantly ripped when he wore them on the court. [Deadspin] American Eagle plans to introduce a beauty business under a new brand before the holidays. [CNBC] Democrats on the FTC said Google should have faced worse than a $170 million over privacy violations on YouTube. [WSJ] A group called Truth in Advertising filed an FTC complaint accusing the YouTube channel Ryan ToysReview, which is hosted by a 7-year-old, of misleading viewers with paid videos that look organic. The host’s father says it follows the rules. [NYT] Marriott Global Marketing Officer Karin Timpone is leaving at the end of the year, the company said. [Adweek] Review: Google’s new logo for Android is much, much better. [Brand New] |
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We bring you the most important (and intriguing) marketing news every day. Write me at nat.ives@wsj.com any time with feedback on the newsletter or comments on specific items. We want to hear from you. And follow the CMO Today team on Twitter: @wsjCMO, @natives, @alexbruell, @sizpatel. |
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