This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

Reggie Bar: Reggie Jackson’s namesake candy bar is back and, well, it’s a home run. The baseball legend teased the return in an Instagram post a few weeks back. The return is pretty limited so far, but it is flying off the shelf—NJ.com NJ.com reports swift sales at Bobb Howard’s General Store & Auto Repair in New Hyde Park, New York. The bar originally debuted in 1978 from the same company that made Baby Ruth and the Yankees gave away thousands of them to fans, who promptly tossed them on the field after Jackson hit a home run, as documented by History Channel.

Panera: The sandwich and soup chain this week became the first restaurant to use Amazon One for payments and loyalty. The technology allows Panera’s loyalty members to link their MyPanera loyalty and payment by hovering their palm over a sensor in stores. The technology saves time and allows Panera employees to greet participating members by name, while members get frictionless redemption of rewards, the companies said.

Nike: The sportswear giant posted third-quarter results that exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue increased 14% from a year earlier, to $12.4 billion. Net income, though down 11% from last year, was $1.2 billion as Nike battles some excess inventory issues and sales declines in China. CEO John Donahoe talked up Nike’s direct-to-consumer strategy as helping to attract shoppers.

Losers

“We❤️NYC”: Apparently not, in campaign form. The newly imagined ads hyping New York City, unveiled early this week, appear to have missed the mark with New Yorkers, admittedly a judgy bunch. On the bright side, the campaign paved the way for some cleverly snarky tweets—now that’s why we love NYC! Below, a sampling:

Gap: The clothier has been struggling for years to improve its retail business, so it might not come as much of a surprise that a new business category isn’t panning out for Gap Inc. either. Weeks after reporting disappointing results, including a $273 million quarterly loss and a 6% sales decline for the holiday season, Gap confirmed it was pausing its nascent retail media business, according to a report in Insider. It’s not much of a revelation that Gap might want to hop on the retail media bandwagon, considering the category is expected to attract $85 billion of ad dollars in the U.S. by 2026. But prevalent issues around measurement and standardization might hamper that growth as brands like Gap realize figuring out the category might just not be worth the trouble.

Hyundai and Kia: The sibling auto brands remain under pressure for their vehicle theft risks. They have been targeted by TikTok videos showing how to steal versions of the vehicles that lack safeguards such as push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices. The brands released software upgrades to address the problem last month. But this week, a group of 22 attorneys general said Hyundai and Kia need to do more, Reuters reported. Plus, the automakers are now telling owners of more than 571,000 SUVs and minivans to park them outdoors because the tow hitch harnesses can catch fire while they are parked or being driven, AP reported.

Tweet of the week

Number of the week

$24 billion: Collective amount that consumers plan to spend on Easter this year, a 15% rise from last year and a higher amount than 2020’s record high of $21.7 billion, according to an annual survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, which found that 81% of U.S. consumers will celebrate the holiday this year. 

Quote of the week

“There are less political concerns about data and who gets what like with TikTok, but if we see this protectionism of domestic retailers, we might see some anti-Shein, anti-Temu rhetoric. But this is going to be a harder narrative to push because so much of what is sold by retailers already is sold by Chinese retailers—half of Amazon and eBay sellers are Chinese.” –Juozas Kaziukenas, founder and chief executive of Marketplace Pulse, which analyzes e-commerce marketplaces, on the U.S. marketing rise of online retailers from China.

On the move

FaZe Clan promoted Matt “BK” Augustin, a former Ad Age 40 Under 40 honoree, to VP of strategy. He had been director of brand and creative strategy.

The Ironman Group appointed Marieka Barnard chief marketing officer. She was most recently VP of event marketing, EMEA.

Contributing: Jon Springer