| View in Browser | |  | | | | Happy Thursday, Timothée Chalamet may not have scooped the Academy Award for his starring role in Marty Supreme. However, I have to say his performance as an intense soccer fan and fixer in Adidas' World Cup ad is honestly pretty Oscar-worthy. Bad Bunny, a young David Beckham, and Lionel Messi also appear in the ad, which shows Chalamet assembling his dream street soccer team. It's a brilliantly crafted, nostalgic piece of creative work, and the first World Cup ad that's stirred me and made me excited to don my Scotland jersey in June. Elsewhere today, our columnist Mark Ritson takes a closer look at WPP's results from last week, Disney's new CEO reveals some new AI developments, and a brand has made Cannes Lions history over a month out from the awards. Grab a coffee and keep scrolling. Rebecca Stewart, brand editor |
| | | 1. Timothée Chalamet Builds His Dream Soccer Team in Adidas' World Cup Short  Timothée Chalamet’s latest role isn’t as table tennis legend Marty Mauser. This time, he’s playing a heightened version of himself: a diehard soccer fan. The film runs just five minutes, and it won’t be screening in theaters. Instead, it's the centerpiece of Adidas’ marketing push around the 2026 World Cup. “This is a big deal for us,” Adidas North America’s svp of brand marketing, Chris Murphy, explained as he took Robert Klara behind the scenes. Read more |
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| 2. The Real WPP Story Is in the Margin, Not the Revenue  Mark Ritson unpacks the numbers WPP shared in its Q1 earnings update last week.
He writes that despite winning business, the ad network's revenue continues to fall. On a like-for-like basis, gross revenue declined 4.0%, while net revenue declined 6.7%. "Winning accounts while revenue drops is the diagnostic signature of a business defending share by cutting price," Ritson says. "Every account won on tighter terms resets the floor for the next pitch." Read more |
| 3. New Disney CEO Reveals the AI Enhancements Coming to Disney+  Bill Bradley has covered the first earnings update hosted by Disney's new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, where revenues were up 7%. The leader laid bare how Disney+ is the “digital centerpiece” of the company. He also noted it made “meaningful progress” on the platform in the quarter and is benefiting from the integrated Hulu and Disney+ experience as it looks to reduce churn. Read more |
| 4. AB InBev Wins Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year for a Historic Third Time  Cannes Lions has named AB InBev as its 2026 Creative Marketer of the Year. The Budweiser and Stella Artois owner is the first company in the festival’s history to be honored with the award for a third time. The brewer previously won the title in 2023 and 2022. Read more |
| 5. Advertisers Spent $1 Billion on Criteo in Q1, Up 8% Year-Over-Year  We've also got the latest numbers from Criteo, with total revenues down 9%. Revenues derived from retail media decreased 32% partly due to changes to its relationship with Roundel and Uber Eats, announced a year ago. Read more |
| | |  - Jameson Irish Whiskey brings together music, fashion, and fans ahead of the World Cup, (ADWEEK).
- Airbnb, meanwhile, lines up some once-in-a-lifetime experiences for soccer fans, (Airbnb).
- SpaceX strikes deal to give Anthropic access to its Colossus 1 supercomputer, (FT).
- Following that, Elon Musk says xAI will soon be dissolved, with future products instead developed under SpaceXAI as part of SpaceX. Is anyone else confused? (X).
- TDBank is making marketing more human, (ADWEEK).
- How mall brands won big at the Met Gala, (WSJ).
- National Ovarian Cancer Coalition launches campaign to break the silence around the disease, (NOCO).
- When culture says ‘me,’ enduring brands stand for ‘we’, (ADWEEK Branded with Texas A&M University).
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| | |  - Old Navy has a new chief customer officer in Michael Francis, (ADWEEK).
- Ziff Davis has acquired four media brands from Recurrent Ventures: Dwell, Domino, and Business of Home, along with the science publisher PopSci, (ADWEEK).
- Brand USA has appointed M+C Saatchi North America as its influencer marketing agency, (M+C Saatchi).
- David Bogotá names Rafael Reina chief creative officer, (LBB).
Ryan Joe will be back tomorrow with your Friday update. |
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