4 Creative Campaigns to Ease the Quarantine Blues: Thursday'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. 4 Creative Campaigns to Ease the Quarantine Blues A few weeks ago while writing First Things First, I mistyped the phrase "streaming service" as "screaming service," and joked to my colleagues that, honestly, I'm in the market for both. The release of NBCU's Peacock yesterday scratched the former itch, but little did I know that Iceland's tourism board would oblige the latter with its latest campaign. If you, too, feel like screaming, the latest ad for Promote Iceland [Watch it here] invites travelers to do so in many of the scenic locations in the nation's stunning wilderness. As a matter of fact, this campaign was one of several ads aimed at curing the Covid-19 doldrums yesterday. Blue Bunny joined forces with experiential agency FCBX with an initiative that allows people to upload images of receipts for canceled or postponed events for a chance to win prizes. In what might be the most wholesome campaign of the year, Country Time (with help from Leo Burnett) created a bailout fund for kids who haven’t been able to generate pocket money by running their curbside lemonade businesses this summer. (The campaign is a spin off of when it covered legal fees for kids whose stands got shut down.) Doritos chipped in with a variation of its former "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign, which, from 2006 to 2016, encouraged aspiring filmmakers to create their own 30-second commercials. Now it has revived the same concept with "Crash From Home." The winning video will nab $150,000 and air during the NFL Sunday Night Football game on Sept. 13. Barack Obama’s, Joe Biden’s Accounts Accessed in Large-Scale Twitter Breach Among the high-profile Twitter accounts hacked on Wednesday were those of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Others included Kanye West, Mike Bloomberg, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos, along with the corporate accounts for Apple, Uber and Cash App. Variations on this message were sent out via these accounts: “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you sent $1000, I will send back $2000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.” Chaos on Twitter: As a result of the hack, all verified accounts ("blue checks") were prevented from sending out or quoting tweets for several hours. Premium | Here Are the 2,085 Agencies That Received PPP Loans of $150,000 or More There are approximately 14,000 agencies in the US. Of those, 2,085—representing 15% of the industry—have received loans ranging from $150,000 to $10 million through the federal Paycheck Protection Program intended to boost businesses that suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic. These loans will go toward retaining 67,000 jobs. Many of the agencies that received larger loans were those that depend on hard-hit client industries, like Las Vegas agency R&R Partners, which is using its loan in the maximum range ($5 million to $10 million) to support 276 jobs. By the numbers: Explore a list of all of the agencies that received loans and their approximate amounts. Adweek has its thumb on the pulse of the marketing world. With an Adweek Pro Subscription, take advantage of the full breadth of our team's intelligence and learn what you need to know to get ahead. Premium | Political Conventions Are Muddled, but Candidates’ Digital Ad Spend Is Clear [kickout id="2"] Everything is weird, upside down and unusual—except, apparently, for the ad spending habits of presidential candidates. Political ad spend for the 2020 election is projected to reach $15 million, and a bit more than half will air on local TV channels, which is fairly normal. Trump's campaign is targeting Google and Facebook at $50 million, a $6 million increase over 2016. Biden's spend on those channels is only at $23 million (similar to Hillary Clinton's 2016 spend). Digital ad spend is expected to grow even more to compensate for in-person events. But there's a hitch: The spotlight is on social platforms, especially Facebook, over accusations of enabling the spread of misinformation. Related: The Stop Hate for Profit Facebook ad boycott puts big-name brands participating in the boycott in a precarious position: There’s no easy answer for when they should return their ad dollars to Facebook and Instagram. More of Today's Top News and Highlights Holding Company DE&I Leads Share How They’re Spurring Change and What Comes Next Lessons in Bankruptcy and Recovery from PJ Solomon, Go-to Financial Advisor for Retailers Hulu Rolls Out Self-Service Ad Tool to Woo Smaller Businesses Competing UVC Cleaning Robots Show the Need for Prevention, Not Reaction News Corp’s Stephanie Layser Is Tired of Big Tech Bullying Consumers Want Brands to Respond to BLM by Hiring and Promoting More People of Color Zeotap Scoops $42 Million as CrossFit’s Eric Roza Joins Board Visa Seeks to Consolidate $200 Million Global Creative Account This Time Is Different. Facebook’s Issue Is More Pervasive New York City Looks to Locals to Boost Its Recovery The Big Apple is now in the Renew stage of its ongoing reopening plan, aimed at "inspiring New Yorkers and those within a short drive" to explore safely, and NYC & Company is working with local businesses and restaurants to create itineraries for featured neighborhoods. Following this period will be the Recover stage, emphasizing confidence in travel and visiting restaurants in a campaign similar to Restaurant Week. These efforts are aimed at leveraging locals to help boost the economy and bring the city back to life. [kickout id="1"] More of the Latest With the Olympics Postponed, Airbnb and Athletes Will Host a Virtual Summer Festival Why Deepak Chopra Created a Bilingual Meditation Program With Reggaeton Icon J Balvin The NRF Calls on Retailers to Require Shoppers to Wear Masks Nationwide Why Hiring Multicultural Agencies Is Good Business for Brands That Want Diverse Fans Adweek Radio: Frog Design’s President on Leading Through Crisis Snapchat Will Now Let (Some) Brands Have Their Own Profiles