Yesterday was a busy (and buzzy) International Women’s Day, with advocates, nonprofits and brands alike taking to social and launching campaigns in support of women and their pursuit of a more equitable future. Adweek’s Kathryn Lundstrom collected some of the most notable initiatives from the brand world.

Here are just a few examples:

• DoorDash’s Made by Women program allows users to search for women-owned businesses on the platform and its premium service Caviar.
• Spotify launched a campaign, “Equal,” which highlights women artists, musicians and podcasters.
• Google has set aside $25 million for “pathways to prosperity” for women and girls that will be developed by nonprofits around the world.

Watch and learn: Plus, find out how Häagen-Dazs is highlighting Arab women and more.

As for campaigns that didn’t go over so well…

Burger King attempted to turn a sexist trope on its head by tweeting “women belong in the kitchen” from its UK account, followed by a thread about its initiative supporting female chefs, but the stunt didn’t stick the landing, to say the least. The initial tweet was widely shared and criticized, with the following clarification tweets buried and less visible, while many people criticized the message’s bait-and-switch tactic with a tired trope—not to mention the way it attracted actual sexist trolls. Eventually, the brand deleted the tweet (though it is accompanied by a print counterpart).

Women have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic’s hardships over the past year—with women losing jobs at a dramatically higher rate than men in 2020, while disproportionately remaining responsible for home life too—and often their voices have gone unheard. Adweek’s David Griner asked 100 women who work in marketing for their perspectives, and gave them the floor in this collection of their experiences, perspectives and wisdom. 

“It’s like doing five jobs all at once.” Learn about the challenges women professionals have endured and their strength in overcoming them.

Google dropped a bombshell on ad-tech companies, publishers and agencies with its announcement that it wouldn’t support alternate identifiers. In response, Adweek assembled an emergency town hall to address the issue, featuring perspectives and insights from The Trade Desk’s Dave Pickles, Havas Media Group’s Jamie Seltzer and News Corp’s Stephanie Layser. Watch highlights from the three sessions.

Film studio MGM released a logo upgrade—one that retains the classic appeal of the mark it has used since 1924, lion and all. The biggest changes are to the brand’s typography and to “Leo the Lion” who has been recreated in CGI (but still roars just as proudly). Check out the revamp here.

Jack Dorsey had turned his first-ever tweet into an NFT—but if you want to buy it, you’re going to have to dish out a fortune to beat out Sina Estavi, CEO of cryptocurrency platform Bridge Oracle, who leads the bidding at $2.5 million. Estavi has no plans to sell and will instead retain it “forever.” Explore what tweets as collectors items mean for the future of NFTs and cryptocurrencies.

Briefly:

• Sen. Ron Wyden Calls for ‘Tough Love’ on Ad Industry, Giving Control to Consumers
• NCAA March Madness Live Platform Doubles Down on Streaming and Connected TV
• What the Saks Spinoff Signals About the Future of Luxury Shopping
• MediaCom Hires Execs to Lead Investments, People
• Study: Portrayal of Women, Underrepresented Groups in Online Ads Still Need Work

For International Women’s Day, DTC brand Billie created a website and an unconscious bias exercise, the Billie Brain Scan, that ask participants to imagine scenarios with cues not traditionally associated with women. At the end, it asks when a woman—especially a woman over 50—came to mind. Learn more about the project.

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