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Pharma fresh

Madison Avenue creatives typically scoff at the boring ads that come from Big Pharma, but it’s looking pretty sexy right about now. Agency talent is flocking to pharmaceutical accounts as the sector has been one of the most resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Ad Age’s Lindsay Rittenhouse.

In recent months, agency staff may have even noticed more co-workers jumping at the chance to take pharmaceutical assignments. Forums like Fishbowl are filled with such talk. “It probably feels very frustrating to see a lot of your mentees and even colleagues go over to pharma during this dry spell. Especially knowing what may be waiting for them creatively,” one Saatchi & Saatchi employee said. “But here’s what’s also waiting for them: a shit ton of cash, the opportunity to provide for their family, less ego and less pressure to be ‘always on.’”

WeWork’s flexible message

The shared-office space company is coming out with a new marketing campaign to position itself as a flexible alternative to long-term leases in an uncertain economic climate.

Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli talks with WeWork’s new chief marketing officer Roger Solé to get the story on the new ads. “The objective of the campaign is to wake up interest again in flexible workspaces,” Solé says. “One of the most amazing features of WeWork that we need to resurface is it’s extremely adaptable to the post-COVID world.”

This is an important public push for WeWork, which stumbled in an embarrassing IPO period last year. “It’s certainly a new tomorrow for WeWork,” Pasquarelli writes. “It hired former Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy as interim chief marketing and communications officer late last year to try to restore the brand’s image.”

Swinging for states

Ad Age Datacenter returns with another campaign scorecard to show where all the dollars are flowing in this campaign season. The money race shows where Democrats and Republicans are battling the hardest, especially in hotly contested Senate races.

North Carolina is the epicenter of the action, according to Ad Age’s Simon Dumenco and Kevin Brown. “From Jan. 1, 2019, through Election Day 2020, North Carolina will have seen at least $162.3 million in U.S. Senate campaign ads, thanks to the astonishing sums spent before and during the primary season,” they write.

Fantasy fulfillment

Since the National Football League expects most games to be played in empty stadiums this season, it is coming up with new ways to get spectators involved, reports Ad Age’s Ethan Jakob Craft. The NFL and brands are turning to fantasy football to make fans’ dreams come true.

In one promotion, Bud Light will deliver a case of beer to fantasy players who draft Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II in the first round. And the NFL, which runs its own fantasy platform, will give fans a chance to FaceTime with players to collaborate on touchdown dances.

“The desire of the fan is to feel like they’re connected to their sport,” Michael Steiner, the NFL Media Group’s VP of Marketing, tells Craft. “We wanted it to feel like you didn’t need a lottery ticket [to win a prize].”

The week ahead

Ad Age’s weekly industry calendar points to the biggest happenings in advertising, tech and media. This week, AdColor 2020 runs Tuesday through Thursday with a virtual conference that will feature some of the most important voices in the industry, and address some of the most pressing issues, especially around diversity.

Also this week, the NFL season gets underway on Thursday when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Houston Texans, broadcast by NBC. For more events this week, visit here.

Just briefly:

Netflix’s remote pain: The Wall Street Journal catches up with Netflix co-Founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings who laments the rise of working from home. “I don’t see any positives,” Hastings says in the wide-ranging interview.

Blockbuster or bust?: “Tenet,” the new Christopher Nolan film, brought in $20 million at the box office this weekend, a smaller haul than the director typically commands. But it was an early test of whether Americans would go back to the movies during the pandemic, reports The USA Today.

Apple video hire: Tim Connolly, previously at Hulu and most recently at Quibi, is joining Apple’s video division. Connolly is a known Hollywood dealmaker who will add more depth to the company’s streaming team, reports 9to5Mac via The Telegraph.

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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