Experience Ad Euphoria; Updates from NewFronts: 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. Extra Gum’s Back-to-Normal Ad Is a Euphoric Release After more than a year of lockdown, we’re all ready for a moment of cathartic release. Extra Gum provides exactly that in a new spot by Energy BBDO that shows people waking up on a wonderful day when everything reopens all at once. In a perfect blend of relatability and humor—accompanied by Céline Dion belting “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”—the world roars back to joyous life. You may not see an ad better than this at capturing the euphoria of society reopening. Watch it here. More of today’s top creative campaigns: Hotels.com’s mascot Captain Obvious has already been to the future—and how he’s traveling back in time for an ad that recalls cringey PSAs and cheesy sitcoms.Playing with dolls has been shown to improve kids’ emotional, academic and social development, according to neuroscience research that Barbie leverages in an aspirational new campaign. Harmon Brothers is well known for quirky, cinematic ads that achieve viral status. The agency has come up with a new ad starring an evil car and featuring both humor and disaster for auto coverage company Olive.In its new ad about “uncomfortable truths,” Durex is marketing its natural lubricants to women as a means of busting stigmas around women’s pleasure and providing a solution to uncomfortable sex.Planned Parenthood and Universal Standard are celebrating every angle of what it means to be a mother in a special Mothers Day t-shirt campaign. Starting Today: Join Adweek for Social Media Week NYC Social Media Week New York kicks off today, and we’re looking forward to insightful and entertaining sessions with more than 100 speakers including experts from TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Hootsuite, as well as brand innovators from Lego, Mastercard, McCormick & Company and many more. Join us May 4–7 to experience the magic and discover what’s next for an increasingly social world. Adweek will also honor our Creative Visionaries at a special celebration on May 6. Join the live awards show for presentations, music performances, special guests and a chance to win a limited-edition NFT. News from the Front: The Latest NewFronts Updates NewFronts week is already in full swing, and streamers are surging into a new future. Among today’s biggest updates was the revelation that Amazon Prime Video will be the exclusive home of NFL Thursday Night Football—a year earlier than planned. And also in Amazon land, it’s looking back to move forward via IMDb TV, which plans to draw in audiences and advertisers with programming you might find on traditional daytime TV. More highlights from NewFronts: Ad-supported streamer Crackle Plus, which includes the AVODs Crackle and Popcornflix, will relaunch later this year with redesign optimized for multi-device content discovery.After a year of record-breaking growth and an acquisition by Fox Corp, Tubi is branching out into originals.Vizio is aiming to move its advertising business from linear to streaming with Vizio Features, which pairs first-party data with content partners.Roku is courting advertisers with its OneView platform, which provides Nielsen reach and frequency reporting across linear, TV streaming, desktop and mobile.Samsung Ads talked up its three new ad offerings and is relying on the strength of its in-house AVOD offering Samsung TV Plus to lure buyers.FuboTV and LiveRamp are partnering to help advertisers use first-party data to create advanced audience segments, and it’ll host coverage of the 2022 World Cup. Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo for $5 Billion There’s big news about AOL and Yahoo today. (Insert Robin Williams “What year is it?!” meme.) Last decade, Verizon bought the two companies in two separate deals. Now Verizon is selling its media assets, which includes this duo along with TechCrunch, Engadget and more, for $5 billion—about half of the total it bought AOL and Yahoo for. Get the details. Briefly: Exclusive: David Miami Names CCOWalgreens Now Offers Same-Day DeliveryAre We Seeing a Slowdown in Health and Fitness Products?A Look at Dentsu’s Global Health OfferingWith Its Grocery Business Booming, Instacart Shifts Its Focus to AdvertisingWe’ve Been Spending Way More on Our Pets During the PandemicFrench Mattress Retailer’s Brand Campaign Led by Well-Rested Yodeling CockerelMcDonald’s Pushes Its Coffee Credentials in Latest UK Spot Sun Bum Dressed Dolly Parton—and 49 Other Notable Figures—in a Banana Suit on Saturday Sevierville, Tenn.'s, Dolly Parton statue was sporting a new accessory this past weekend. Sevierville, Tenn., is the birthplace of beloved country-music legend Dolly Parton, and as such, there's a life-sized bronze statue of her there. But for a few hours this past weekend, nobody recognized her—because she was dressed like a banana. Find out why Sun Bum dressed her up. More of the Latest: Pepsi Gets Into Food Delivery With Its Own RestaurantLinkedIn Tells the Story of a Man and His Plant as They Job HuntThis SoulCycle Creative Is a Love Letter to the Brand’s Devoted FollowingKroger Will Deliver S’mores to Your Summer Barbecues via Drone7-Eleven Debuts a Stylish Campaign That’s as Eclectic as Its ConsumersTraditional Trade Shows and Live Events Are Returning—and Better This TimeBritish Soft Drink Vimto Releases Its Largest Communications Campaign to Date

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Experience Ad Euphoria; Updates from NewFronts: Tuesday’s First Things First

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Extra Gum’s Back-to-Normal Ad Is a Euphoric Release

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Jess Zafarris