Inside Unilever's Decision to Boycott

Unilever has been a leader in driving the brand safety conversation forward. Back in 2018, former CMO Keith Weed wanted to pressure tech companies into increasing their resources on cleaning up the platforms, using Unilever's $9 billion ad budget as incentive to clean things up. In 2020, Unilever threw its weight around again: It took the Facebook ad boycott to a new level by pulling out of the platform—and Twitter—for the rest of this year.

On the first day of Adweek's virtual NexTech conference, Jennifer Gardner, Unilever’s senior director of media, North America, explained that decision. “Advertisers need to have more visibility on the content that you’re allowing on your platform and why you’re allowing it.” You can read more about Unilever's decision here.

Today's NexTech lineup (all times E.T.):

Register for NexTech here.

Many brands have embraced the Black Lives Matter movement wholeheartedly, but when many look into the mirror, they see executive teams that are largely white. In a side project, two Goodby Silverstein & Partners creatives have made that contrast abundantly clear. The pair whited-out logos by the percentage of the brand's executive team that is white. The results are eye-opening.

I bet half of you are drinking a cup of coffee as you read this newsletter. Now think about where that coffee came from. Now think about where your coffee used to come from pre-March 15. Odds are your routine is drastically different. As a result, Starbucks, Dunkin' and Panera—read more about Panera's pursuit to become the Netflix of coffee here—have heavily invested in digital experiences to keep their brews in your cups even if you aren't leaving home. Learn more about their strategies in this week's issue of Adweek magazine.

Elsewhere in this week's edition of Adweek:

We'll cut Dr. Anthony Fauci a break. He's obviously been too busy with, ahem, other things to practice his pitching skills for Washington's Opening Day ceremonial toss last week. Lucky for him, his pitch, which missed its target not by inches or feet, but by yards, turned into a golden opportunity to be immortalized by Topps. The baseball card brand instantly created a collectible card out of the moment. The sales for Fauci's card doubled any previous Topps Now card. See the commemorative card here.

Aardman revisits its classic short "Creature Comforts," this time with audio from Brits in quarantine.

The virtual collapse of this year’s upfronts series has underlined the necessity for the TV advertising landscape to evolve or die, and more importantly learn the lessons from the current/historic pain-points endured by media owners from the digitization of the traditional print sector. Register for free and join over 3,500 attendees tuning in at 1pm ET to explore Video Convergent ATV/CTV with WarnerMedia Entertainment, NBCUniversal, Verizon and more.

Join us in this lively discussion about the current state of the travel industry, how to position a team for a comeback, how he grew in his career, where he finds inspiration and how he is always pushing the boundaries. And don’t miss the hysterical story on how he missed his flight to meet with his now CEO, who he didn’t think he’d ever work for.

Beer brand launches new artist-in-residence program.

Exploring the digital frontier on Yeah, That's Probably an Ad.

The Big Bang Theory, South Park also crack Top 25 in first two months.

The agency will service the client through a North Star unit consisting of talent from across the network.

Its next move is partnering with Kroger to help shoppers find Black-owned grocery brands.