Marketing winners and losers of the week

This week’s marketing winners, losers and newsmakers. Winners Josh Cellars: The “Saturday Night Live” love for Josh Cellars wine keeps coming. The brand got a shout-out during the cold open of the Oct. 5 show. The skit depicted Kamala Harris, played by Maya Rudolph, pouring a glass of Josh Cellars Cabernet while watching the VP debate and wondering if she should have “picked Josh”—not Shaprio, but the wine. It marked the third time Josh got mentioned on “SNL,” according to a brand spokesperson, including last season’s “Big Dumb Cups” skit. Also read: Josh Cellars meme drives Gen Z sales See Ad Age’s 2024 Breakout Brand Leaders and Work here Pepsi: PETA bestowed the soda brand with a “Tech, Not Terror” award for only using computer-generated imagery instead of real tigers in its epic “Gladiator II” NFL ad. The animal rights group said it also sent one of the ad’s stars, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, tiger-shaped chocolates for his “realistic yet animal-friendly” performance as a tiger-fighting gladiator. Spirit Halloween: The destination for all things spooky is trying to replicate its Halloween success for Christmas. Spirit announced this week that it will be opening 10 holiday pop-up stores throughout the Northeast next month. Like Halloween stores, the shops will be temporary. They’ll offer Santa photo ops that customers can book in advance. Losers Perrier: The Nestlé-owned bottled mineral water brand is under scrutiny for the quality of its water sourced from a spring near Vergèze, France. As outlined in a Bloomberg report this week, heavy rains caused by climate change have resulted in traces of fecal matter being found in the water (forcing it to destroy more than 2 million bottles), following earlier allegations that pesticides were found near where the water is sourced. Perrier’s quandary is that French law deems that water marketed as natural mineral water cannot be filtered. Marriott International: The hotelier, along with its Starwood Hotels & Resorts brand, agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over customer data breaches from 2014 to 2020. The deal includes a $52 million fee. Marriott also agreed to give customers in the U.S. the ability to request deletion of their personal information. Qantas: The Australian airline came under fire for airing the R-rated movie “Daddio” as in-flight entertainment on a recent flight from Sydney to Tokyo. Travelers, including children, were unable to switch away from the film, which features sexually explicit content, as it aired on every screen. Qantas has since issued an apology, blaming technical issues. Quote of the week “In any sports advertising, the minute you use bad cliches, or jargon or do things that feel dated, you lose your audience immediately.”—Chad Broude, co-chief creative officer of Highdive, on why it was important that diehard hockey fans created the NHL’s new ad that pokes fun at Gen Z tropes. Social post of the week SPOTTED ON THE 7 TRAIN @mets pic.twitter.com/dY4dBdpSan— McDonald's (@McDonalds) October 8, 2024 Number of the week 2,500%: Increase in sales for Fazit Beauty in the 13 hours after Taylor Swift was spotted wearing the small business brand’s faux freckles makeup patch @aliettbutts Grateful to @Taylor Swift amplifying small female founded businesses and the @Fazit team 🫶✨ #taylorswift #fazitbeauty #fazit #erastour #smallbusiness #femalefounder #founder ♬ Bejeweled - Taylor Swift On the move StockX hired Nick Karrat as chief marketing officer. He had been CMO at Tommy John. ICIMS, a talent tech company, hired Jody Kaminsky as CMO. She was CMO at UKG. Walgreens appointed Jason Stenta as chief commercial officer. He was most recently senior VP of payer sales at Optum. Albertsons hired Julian Mintz as VP of sales for Albertsons Media Collective, its media business. He was most recently head of U.S. ad sales at Roku. Constellation Brands, whose brands include Modelo, Corona, Robert Mondavi Winery and more, hired E. Yuri Hermida as executive VP and chief growth and strategy officer. He previously held the president title at Sovos Brands. Contributing: Jon Springer Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Marketing winners and losers of the week

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