YouTube suspends Trump content, newcomers join Super Bowl line-up: Wednesday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's the link to sign up for our Wake-Up Call newsletters. YouTube suspends Trump content YouTube is the latest Big Tech platform to bar President Trump from posting online, announcing last night on Twitter that it has suspended his account to new uploads for a “minimum” of seven days. It also said it would be disabling comments on President Trump’s channel indefinitely. According to the New York Times, the video that finally prompted YouTube’s suspension was one of Trump’s remarks yesterday in Texas, where he said that the speech he made ahead of the Capitol violence last week was “totally appropriate.” But yesterday had also seen widespread calls for YouTube to take down Trump’s accounts, including from celebrities such as comedian Amy Schumer. The move follows those by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to silence the President at least temporarily, while right wing social network Parler has also been taken offline by Amazon. The YouTube ban comes as impeachment of President Trump moves ever closer, with a vote expected today. The Times also reports that Senator Mitch McConnell “has concluded that President Trump committed impeachable offenses and believes that Democrats’ move to impeach him will make it easier to purge Mr. Trump from the party.” Newcomers join Super Bowl line-up Brands continue to reveal their Super Bowl plans; among them, Frito-Lay brands Cheetos and Doritos which return to the big game. Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl writes that their in-game spots will plug new products Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix and Doritos 3D Crunch, respectively. Joining the old-timers are some newcomers. As Jeanine Poggi reports, Scotts Miracle-Gro is embracing the increased interest in lawn care with plans to air its first in-game commercial. A spot created by VaynerMedia will reflect on what the outdoors means for people during the pandemic. Meanwhile Fiverr, an online platform for freelancers, will also air an ad in the game, and Vroom, an online auto retailer, will make its Super Bowl debut dramatizing the painful process of car shopping. For a rundown of who’s advertising, check our full list here. And join Ad Age on Feb. 2 for a look at how brands are navigating the pandemic and addressing diversity in their ads for the 2021 game. Lincoln Project takes aim at Pence The Lincoln Project dropped a new ad last night taking aim at Vice President Mike Pence, shortly after Pence ruled out invoking the 25th Amendment against President Trump. It’s pretty brutal stuff. “Mike Pence has proven that sometimes, doing nothing is the most courageous act of all,” it begins. “And no one has done nothing more than Mike Pence...hasn’t.” It goes on to point out that: “Mike Pence, using his decades of experience, knew that the best thing to do was nothing at all.” Together with some inevitable footage of Pence’s infamous fly-on-the-head moment, there’s yet more snark: “He’s speaking less to Donald Trump than he would to a female subordinate at a lunch meeting.” Ouch. Ad Age charts political unrest With more brands and media companies being pulled into the political fray in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, Ad Age has started a new blog charting the marketing industry’s response to the political unrest. We’ll be updating it regularly with items on how marketers, media players and agencies are responding; latest news includes a speech by Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard at virtual CES, in which he said he “sees progress from social platforms enforcing their rules against hate speech.” Just briefly Live at 10AM: GM Global Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl joins Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz for a live edition of Ad Age Remotely today at 10AM EST. She'll be discussing the company’s new logo, plus its electric vehicles for the masses strategy and how it’s using CES to hype its new innovations. Bedding in: Bed, Bath and Beyond has hired MUH-TAY-ZIK HOF-FER as its new lead agency as it attempts a turnaround, reports Ad Age's Adrianne Pasquarelli. It's also tapping M Booth for PR and We Are Social for social on Buy Buy Baby, as well as hiring new marketers with experience at Target and Macy's. Egg troll: Mondelez-owned Cadbury has defended a new U.K. campaign in which a gay couple passes a Creme Egg from mouth to mouth, after the spot attracted both celebrity praise and homophobic trolling on social media. You can watch the ad over at Creativity. Poetic deodorant: Sweaty armpits and poetry aren't typical bedfellows, but Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant appears in a new campaign from Unilever deodorant brand Degree with a distinctly poetic feel. Ad Age’s Jack Neff writes that the BBDO campaign celebrates sweat marks as “tears of joy”, rather than focusing on masking them, in an attempt to disrupt the category. 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. From CMO Strategy to the Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, we’ve got newsletters galore. See them all here. Subscribers make the difference. 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YouTube suspends Trump content, newcomers join Super Bowl line-up: Wednesday Wake-Up Call

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