Brands, newspapers, Big Tech and stocks respond to a Biden win: Monday Wake-Up Call

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Brands respond to Biden presidency
Good morning and welcome to the first Wake-Up Call under a new president-elect. Having been relatively quiet last week while the votes were counted, marketers have been responding to the outcome of the 2020 election on social media after Joe Biden was declared the winner on Saturday (although the result is still disputed by Donald Trump who is refusing to concede.)
As Ad Age’s Ilyse Liffreing reports, brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Bumble and ClassPass, along with ad agencies like McCann and R/GA, have reacted to the news with varying degrees of overtness. While Ben & Jerry’s made its position clear in a blog post, calling on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to create “a new, more just and equitable normal,” Oreo and Potbelly made subtle celebratory nods (“It's a Double Stuf Oreo type of day” tweeted the cookie brand.)
Others focused on celebrating Harris’ historic win or messages of unity, rather than celebrating a win for the Democratic party. Dating app Bumble said “It’s about damn time” that a woman has been elected vice president. MTV and Seventh Generation thanked people for voting. And Fearless Girl had something to say too: McCann shared a photo of the famous statue with an American flag wrapped around her.
'You’re Hired'
Newspapers across the world devoted their Sunday front pages to president-elect Joe Biden. Ad Age’s Simon Dumenco shares a roundup of the U.S. headlines here, from the straight-shooting New York Times' “Biden Beats Trump” to the New York Post’s jubilant “It’s Joe Time,” and the Kansas City Star’s dig at Trump’s “Apprentice” years with “You’re Hired.”
Meanwhile, over in Germany, writes Dumenco, news weekly Der Spiegel reworked its February 2017 cover by artist Edel Rodriguez showing a knife-wielding Donald Trump holding the Statue of Liberty’s head. The new illustration from Rodriguez shows Biden, responsibly masked to prevent the spread of COVID-19, “un-beheading” Lady Liberty—restoring democracy—under the headline “Make America great again.”
However, in Scotland, as the Guardian reports, the Ayrshire Daily News, whose patch includes the Trump-owned Turnberry golf course, took a more local look at the result: “South Ayrshire golf club owner loses 2020 presidential election,” read its headline.
Global stocks surge, business leaders congratulate Biden
Global stock markets reacted to a Biden win this morning by surging to record highs. In Japan, the Nikkei stock exchange reached its highest level since 1991, with Europe and the U.S. also expected to make gains. And Bloomberg News reports that MSCI All-Country World Index rose as much as 0.5% to 595.98 on Monday morning, surpassing a previous high set Sept. 3.
Top tech CEOs meanwhile offered their congratulations to Biden and Harris. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (a noted Trump critic) celebrated Biden and Harris’ win in an Instagram post, saying their victory signifies that “unity, empathy and decency are not characteristics of a bygone era.” Bill Gates also congratulated the pair on Twitter, while Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg singled out Harris in a Facebook post, saying “I'm thinking with joy about young people across the country watching the news today and thinking, 'Maybe I can lead this nation too.'”
Election ad spend by the numbers
With the election cycle almost wrapped up, Ad Age has put together a “final(-ish)” Campaign Ad Scorecard that reveals the numbers: more than $6.1 billion was spent on trackable campaign advertising across all of the presidential, gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and House races.
The findings, from Ad Age Datacenter Director of Data Management Kevin Brown in partnership with Kantar/CMAG, include that Joe Biden’s campaign spent way more than Donald Trump’s campaign; and that traditional broadcast TV networks still drew the lion’s share of political ad dollars. But perhaps the real winners are people who own TV and radio stations in Pennsylvania. Take a look at the charts here.
Just briefly:
Santa in a Coke truck: In Coke's version of Christmas, Santa Claus doesn't steer a sleigh—instead he captains a soda delivery truck. Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz writes that the brand's global holiday ad portrays the epic journey of a father going to extremes to deliver his daughter’s letter to Santa in the North Pole (and wouldn't you just know that a Coke truck could get there too.) The big-budget effort was directed by Taika Waititi, the New Zealand filmmaker best-known for 2019 Oscar best picture nominee “JoJo Rabbit.” Watch the ad here.
The Week Ahead: Tomorrow (Nov. 10), Ad Age Next: Streaming will bring together some of the most important names in connected TV to discuss the future of video outside of cable. Also this week: McDonald’s reports third-quarter results, while (appropriately, following the election) it’s World Kindness Day. Check our weekly roundup here.
Now get some sleep: Wearable tech brand Oura Ring tapped into its user data to help shed light on the amount of sleep Americans lost watching the polls close. Its campaign, adorning one of the most prominent billboards in New York’s Times Square, revealed that America lost 138,833,045 hours of sleep on the night of Nov. 3. Check out Ann-Christine Diaz’s story over at Creativity, and don’t forget to catch up with our livestreamed Top 5 ideas of the week from Election week.
That does it for today’s Wake-Up Call. Thanks for reading and we hope you are all staying safe and well. For more industry news and insight, follow us on Twitter: @adage.
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