Apple Makes the Ultimate WFH Ad; The Redskins Are Changing Their Name: Tuesday's First Things First

Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Apple Just Made the Definitive Ad About Working From Home, and It’s Hilarious The ultimate ad about working from home is here. Apple’s 2019 hit ad "The Underdogs,” [Watch it here], which Adweek named one of the best ads of 2019, showed a ragtag team of coworkers racing to design a prototype for a big pitch. Now, the team is back in an equally entertaining sequel that perfectly portrays the trials of being on a creative team in quarantine. Both ads promote the Apple at Work product suite—and this one points out several often-overlooked features that can help professionals working from home. Watch below, and read more about the ad here. [kickout id="1"] The Washington Redskins Will Change Their Team Name After recent pressure from sponsors and retailers, the Washington Redskins announced that it will retire the racist team name, ending a decades-long fight by Native American advocates. But why now? A couple of weeks ago, Adweek's Mary Emily O'Hara recently asked 10 major brands why they still supported the team and pointed out the hypocrisy of sports teams like the Redskins supporting the BLM movement. After that, three separate letters signed by 87 investment firms and shareholders worth a collective $620 billion asked Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to terminate their business relationships with the team unless the team agrees to change its controversial name. Pressure mounted as brands including Nike, Amazon, Walmart and Target made the decision to stop selling Redskins merchandise, and Native American leaders sent a letter detailing list of provisions about racist team names to the NFL. A long-overdue change: Explore how the efforts of Native American advocates led to the change. Related: The Edmonton Eskimos announced that it would be accelerating their review and research of the Canadian Football League club’s name. Publishers Looking to Grow Ad Revenue Now Have a New Google Hurdle to Deal With Starting in August, AdSense publishers will no longer be allowed to serve ads promoting GPS trackers, surveillance equipment or software that monitors the call and text message history on a person's phone without consent. Surveillance equipment includes products “marketed with the express purpose of spying,” including cameras, audio recorders, dash cams and nanny cams. These new Publisher Restrictions policies mean that publishers will have to more closely monitor their monetization partners or risk Google throttling demand. Yet another hurdle: With ad spend hard to come by, many publishers have been aiming to use as many monetization partners as possible—and overly aggressive keyword blocklists are exacerbating the situation. The Pandemic Helped Grow Food Delivery Apps. Now, They’re Innovating to Keep Customers After the initial pandemic boom, food delivery services DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber Eats and Postmates have begun to utilize acquisitions, promotions and diversified services to combine forces and carve out larger portions of the market. Postmates and Doordash jumped on advertising and innovation right away, with the former adding groceries, alcohol and office supplies to its delivery offerings and the latter launching its “Open for Delivery” campaign encouraging delivery from local restaurants. Now, alliances are forming—notably, partnerships between DoorDash and Chick-fil-A and GrubHub and Taco Bell. Uber Eats has partnered with brands including Starbucks, Chipotle, Dunkin’ and Shake Shack. More to come: These platforms are leveraging strategies such as subscription services and customer experience enhancements. More of Today's Top News & Highlights With Peacock’s National Rollout, NBCU Creates ‘the Future of Advertising’ Trio of LA Filmmakers Launch Creative Studio to Champion Underrepresented Talent PepsiCo Sees Gains in Snacks, but Drops in Beverages Starbucks Is Crowned the Most Intimate Brand in Fast Food While Still Up Double Digits, Podcast Ad Revenue Forecast Cut in Half Mediaocean to Buy 4C Insights Amid Changing Television Landscape Adweek Together: The Future of Culture Johnnie Walker Whisky Will Come in Paper Bottles Next Year [kickout id="2"] How would you feel about drinking your whisky from a paper-based bottle? Diageo is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability with a new partnership, called Pulpex Limited, which will make plastic-free bottles made from sustainably sourced pulp. The first product to get the new treatment will be Johnnie Walker, which will be sold in new paper-based bottles. Is paper the future? Unilever and PepsiCo are also part of the Pulpex Limited partner consortium and are expected to launch additional paper-based bottles in 2021 as well. More of the Latest When It Comes to Brands, ‘Cancel Culture’ Is the Right Approach After Nearly 25 Years, Ford Brings the Bronco Back, Chasing Innovation-Seeking Consumers These Agency Leaders Want Their Talent Site to be Successful Enough to Put Them Out of Business McDonald’s Turned Plastic Straws Into Swimsuits to Highlight Its Shift to Paper in Austria Popeyes and Postmates Create a Chain-Reaction Chicken Sandwich Giveaway Adweek Podcast: Honoring Women Trailblazers Leading the Marketing World