When Sarah Baker, creative director at stationery company Intelligent Change, posted a recent TikTok predicting that age representation in advertising would become “table stakes” in the next few years, she didn’t expect it to gain traction. But it did, racking up more than 100,000 views and 24,000 likes.

“I was just floored by how many women were speaking out and saying, ‘I agree. And I want that too,’” she told Marketing Brew.

Baker, who is in her 30s, said she felt inspired to speak out after noticing how few women her age were appearing in ads, telling us she feels “almost like the time that I’m relevant as a human in this world is ticking in terms of what media and advertising is projecting back at me.”

By the numbers: An analysis of 2019 Cannes Lions ads by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that only 7% of the characters were older than 60, and men outnumbered women two to one across all age groups. But that could be changing as more women—like Baker—speak out and are in decision-making positions in advertising, she explained. 

No longer invisible

In her work with modeling and talent agencies over the last few years, Baker said she’s noticed a slow but visible shift toward hiring diverse talent, including women of different ages. She attributes the rise, in part, to seeing more women in creative leadership roles. She said it’s exciting not just for representation, but also because it’s increasing the opportunities available for older models and talent.

• But some women haven’t been waiting around for the modeling industry to catch up. Baker named Lyn Slater (@iconaccidental), Grece Ghanem, Roslyn Griner, and photographer Ari Seth Cohen (@advancedstyle) as some of her favorite influencers promoting age diversity in fashion and beauty.
• Editorial and advertising images from brands like Redken, Missoni, Ilia Beauty, and 19/99 Beauty are shown in Baker’s TikTok. Other brands, like Baiia and Summersalt, feature women of all ages in their social media posts.
• Recently, model Paulina Porizkova has been open about the reality of aging, filming an ad with Laura Geller Beauty called “Let’s Get Old Together,” where she asserts, “Sure, I’m getting older. And I’m the best I’ve ever been.”

But she doesn’t think older women have anything to prove, pushing back on the idea of “aging gracefully” that often comes with campaigns starring older women. “When brands feature an older model or an older woman, and they talk about it ‘gracefully,’ I find it odd,” she said. “It’s like, why do we have to feature someone that’s older and talk about or reference them being older?”

Click here to read about how one beauty brand is trying to remove age from the conversation altogether.—KH

New Yorkers put up with a lot—horrible weather, the Knicks, and the sneaking suspicion that we actually are living at the center of the universe. In exchange, we get the fabled bodega, the corner stores that dot our neighborhoods, fry our bacon and eggs, and give us a sense of community in a town of nearly 8.5 million people.

Taking inspiration from these urban merchants, Coors Light debuted a pop-up bodega earlier this month to celebrate the brand’s latest sustainability initiative—ditching plastic rings on six-packs—by erecting a plastic-free corner store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The props: The beer brand went to great lengths to fill the shelves and aisles with all the (faux) goods you’d find in your average convenience store, but with a Coors twist. For example, it hawked Future Flour (“let’s bake a brighter future”) and Coors Light(bulbs). Our favorite? Coorsatelli pasta. “We were a little over ambitious,” said Teia Meigneux, a senior interactive producer at Droga5, the agency that worked on the pop-up. Roughly 100 products were made for the stunt.

Wouldn’t be complete without: As Meigneux noted, though every bodega has its own quirks, there are a few consistent features that the team had to capture, starting with fluorescent lights, a nonfunctioning ice machine, an ATM (in this case, an ACM, or “Automated Chiller Machine”), and, of course, a stuffed-animal bodega cat. Passersby were treated to scratch-off lottery tickets with the chance of winning a bottle opener, an air freshener, or a tote bag.

See photos (and read more) about the pop-up here.—RB

Everybody’s still talking about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. But you know who probably shouldn’t? Brands—at least according to marketers that we spoke with.

• Companies like MealPal and SunnyD made memes about the slap, depicting videos or images of Smith slapping Rock and adding their own branded captions.
• MealPal’s image, for instance, is a photo of Smith slapping Rock with text overlaid atop each of them. Smith’s text reads “MealPal,” Rock’s says “pays full price for lunch.” The words were, of course, in MealPal’s signature red.
• Retailer Fashion Nova also used the incident to plug a 40% discount it said it “slapped” on its site.

Zoom in: Charles Etoroma, senior social media manager, content, at Warby Parker, told Marketing Brew he’d seen a few brands making light of the confrontation with memes—and wasn’t a fan. “To me, it’s super inappropriate and insensitive,” he said. “Brands are doing what they do best in hopping in on a complex moment they don’t understand all for their own gain.”

Zoom out: “Brands so often miss the mark by seeing anything that happens within the Black community as somehow exploitable for their own gain,” Lola Bakare, a CMO advisor and inclusive marketing strategist, told us. Bakare suggested that brands should “leave this one alone, or better yet, react as if it was George Clooney who verbally abused an actress and then got slapped. Pretty sure there wouldn’t be any funny memes.”

Looking ahead: FWIW, Marketing Brew didn’t see that many brands posting about what happened, although some were quick to delete their posts. Maybe marketers actually learned something from the West Elm Caleb saga—namely, that it’s okay to sit one out sometimes.—PB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Engage: Here are nine Instagram trends you can incorporate into your social strategy this year.

Pins, please: Pinterest is expanding its Creator Fund with a $1.2 million investment in underrepresented creators.

Crunch it: Unfortunately, advertising sometimes involves math. But here’s a calculator for measuring engagement rates.

Take your brand for a drive and reach your target audience with Wrapify. Wrapify is your way to get measurable, high-recall, OOH coverage nationwide—with attribution and data visualization to back it up. Learn more here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Stat: Two-thirds of marketers say “they’ve hit pause on actively transitioning from third-party identifiers,” per a survey from Advertiser Perceptions cited in Ad Exchanger.

Read: “You can’t save the Oscars by making them sponcon,” writes Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson. Uh, we know one thing that can make them memorable.

Quote: “Hey, Elon Musk: please use your power to stop Bitcoin from wasting ours.”—Copy from a campaign to make Bitcoin less energy intensive is aimed at several crypto enthusiasts, including Jack Dorsey.

*Clears throat and begins sports-broadcasting voice* Sports lovers that moonlight as director-level or above marketing professionals, can you hear us? We’re convening the industry in Brew-style IRL on April 12 at 5:45pm ET in NYC, and we want to see you there. FaZe Clan’s COO and PepsiCo’s head of sports marketing will be talking about the evolution of sports, advising on spending, and authentically engaging fanbases. Register now.*

*Note this event has limited capacity.

Marketing is hard, no matter what the peanut gallery says.

Whether it’s trying to figure out the most efficient way to spend across an ocean of media opportunities, or trying to understand why your CMO is already out the door after just two years, navigating today’s marketing and advertising environment requires skills and knowledge that marketers from days-long-past didn’t need to have. While all that was required then was a four-martini lunch and a handshake, today’s marketers are responsible for not only driving people to the store, but following them out and making sure they return. That’s no small feat!

So, in order to help marketers—who, let’s face it, are very busy people (amirite, sellers?)—we are starting a series of editor’s picks to help folks understand the constant shift beneath their feet.

You’ll find some white papers, some books, some articles, some whitepapers, maybe even a few good Twitter follows, all designed to assist marketers in making better decisions. Because, really, do we want a future run on display ads?

If you have faves, let us know!

—Josh Sternberg, Executive Editor, Morning Brew

Books:

Ogilvy on Advertising: One of the foundational books on advertising. Even though it was written in the pre-internet Dark Ages (1985), it lays the foundation for much of what marketers and advertisers do. A must-read for anyone in the industry.

Subprime Attention Crisis: Is advertising the next subprime-mortgage crisis? Uh, maybe. Here’s a critical look at the murky world of digital advertising from a former Google employee.

Good stuff:

Marketing Profs: A comprehensive resource for all types of marketers, Marketing Profs takes a practical approach to helping marketers be better through trainings, events, consultancies, and resource guides. Lots of ’em!

The Ad Contrarian: Marketers can often look at the world through rose-tinted lenses. Bob Hoffman doesn’t. A distinguished career in marketing turned him into the skeptical voice the industry needs to hear.

Recent white papers:

A new playbook for CMOs: UK research firm Capgemini surveyed 1600 marketing executives about how they wrestle with data and spat out a 36-page report chock full of useful information.

Podcasts:

This Old Marketing Podcast: If you want to learn about content marketing, no better place for your ears to start than with the guy who literally wrote the book on content marketing, Joe Pulizzi. Each week, Pulizzi and Robert Rose take us through the do’s and don’ts and ups and downs of content marketing.

And of course, I’d get yelled at if I didn’t provide my favorite marketing/advertising trade publication, Marketing Brew.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• CNN+ aims to capitalize on interest in the news. Who will pay for it?
• Truth Initiative takes on mental health and vaping
• Monthly podcast listening is down for the first time in almost a decade