This week's winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

Culver’s: After suggesting a fried cheese curd sandwich as an April Fools’ Day joke, Culver’s fans wanted one IRL. The CurderBurger debuted on Oct. 15 — national cheese curd day — and was an instant hit. The 800-unit chain sold 136,000 CurderBurgers and announced that 20% of its restaurants notched single-day sales records. A certain Ad Ager got to taste one and is still talking about it, two weeks later. Now, the only question is, when will it return?

Coca-Cola Co.: Coke’s new “Real Magic” campaign is getting mixed reviews, including some negative reactions from gamers whom the soda was trying to appeal to in the debut ad. But no one can question the broader company’s business results after it reported strong second quarter results this week that beat analyst expectations. 

Retail media networks: Seemingly every retailer is launching one, from Lowe’s to Dollar Tree. And with good reason: Forrester is projecting major advertiser interest in them in 2022. 

Losers

Facebook.. .err, Meta: The company’s high-stakes corporate rebranding exercise could turn out to be a winner in the long run. It’s too soon to tell. But in the short term, the move to the Meta moniker seems poorly timed. To many outside observers, it appeared to be a cynical ploy to change the conversation from the negative news coverage driven by allegations, from whistleblower Frances Haugen, that the social network put profits above the well-being of its users. “The biggest issue Facebook faces is a lack of consumer trust that it has a greater purpose,” John Weiss, co-founder and partner at creative agency Human Design, told Ad Age. “And rebranding as Meta does nothing but serve to reinforce consumers' fears that Facebook is only concerned about itself.

John Lewis: The U.K. brand, known for its blockbuster Chirstmas ads, of late has dealt with a bust: This week it pulled an ad that showed a boy donning his mom’s clothing, jewelry and makeup in the wake of criticism that it was sexist.

EBay: The the online marketplace reported a holiday outlook that disappointed financial analysts and raised concerns that the boost iit got during the pandemic is waning.

Tweet of the week

Number of the week

17: The age of Mikey Williams, a high-school hoops star who just inked an endorsement deal with Puma, making him one of the youngest players ever to sign with a global sneaker brand, Bloomberg News reports.

Quote of the week

"This is the introduction of our brand to the world."— Crypto.com Chief Marketing Officer Steven Kalifowitz on the crypto currency platform’s new global ad campaign today starring Matt Damon.

On the move

Nick Chavez is leaving Nintendo of America to become chief marketing officer of KFC U.S.

Contributing: Jessica Wohl