Picture this: It’s a cool October day. You’ve been peacefully asleep in your cozy cabin under your nightcap for 50 years straight. But today, a day ostensibly the same as any other, the folks at Celestial Seasonings decided to put an end to this slumber party.

That’s what happened to the brand’s Sleepytime Bear mascot, who woke up last month and basically morphed from a Frog and Toad Storybook–esque creature to more of a bombastic Crazy Frog.

• He became a meme long before he woke up, but now, videos across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram depict the once-peaceful Sleepytime Bear catching up on what he’s missed after 50 years of snoozing.
• He’s into restocking videos, at-home exercise bikes, reality-TV shows, and TikTok dances, per a press release about the Great Awakening sent to Marketing Brew.

Don’t believe us? See for yourself here.

Why the wake-up call: You might wonder who is behind this…molting of the bear. Turns out, it’s an increasingly familiar culprit: Gen Z. Specifically, it’s a ploy to get more Celestial teas into Gen Z paws as the generation’s interest in the category accelerates just in time for Sleepytime Bear’s 50th anniversary.

But here’s the catch

Despite its quest to reach Gen Z, the brand didn’t do much testing with the audience it’s hoping to reach.

• “We didn’t do official consumer testing that we might’ve done in some more traditional campaigns,” Melinda Goldstein, CMO at The Hain Celestial Group, told Marketing Brew.
• Rather, both internally and at Deutsch New York, the agency behind the campaign, a few Gen Z staffers voiced their opinions about the bear’s personality to higher-ups.

Do your homework: Doing external testing on a large group of people is particularly important when it comes to Gen Z, Cultural consultancy sparks & honey’s VP of product strategy Courtney Emery told us, because Gen Z is the most diverse generation the US has ever seen.

“They are arguably the hardest to distill down to a singular, like-minded generation. And so I think with them in particular, doing external research is very important because they don’t have a singular source of information or identity. A larger sample size of Gen Z is always going to benefit your brand, especially when it comes to rebranding a mascot,” Emery shared.

Read the full article here.—PB

Flexible talent marketplace We Are Rosie (aka a company that matches freelance marketers with projects at brands like Bumble and Hulu) has a new tech thingamabob it claims will help solve the industry’s diversity, equity, and inclusion problem.

• Dubbed the Rosie Roster, the tool matches its freelance talent with clients based on factors that aren’t résumés and “records of privilege and bias,” as We Are Rosie puts it, like titles (CC: the kid in your intern class whose dad got him the job).
• It’s out with the résumé, in with the job description: For instance, the tool takes actual work experience into account rather than titles (think: “I’ve managed a team of creatives” rather than “I was a senior creative strategy manager”), Jessie Kernan, We Are Rosie’s head of product and strategy, told us.
• Kernan mentioned other data points the tool’s algorithms work off of as well, such as what a candidate is most passionate about.

Additionally, rather than presenting a LinkedIn profile pic or a traditional headshot to hiring managers, Kernan told us job seekers can choose from one of 18 avatars and different hair styles, skin tones, and accessories to represent them.

“We’re trying to eliminate the attractiveness bias—which has been a big factor in people getting hired for a really long time—and also enable people to identify as they’d like to identify. We make a lot of assumptions when we see people about who they might be, and those assumptions can impact their career trajectories,” Kernan said.

Why it matters: This is more of a next step for We Are Rosie than a one-off effort—the org is known for its DE&I efforts. “This is our opportunity to infuse diverse talent into organizations that have traditionally had gates on getting in the door, like, ‘Do you have a college education? Have you held a specific title?’” Kernan explained, adding that some of the factors contributing to exclusion in the industry “go out the window” with this tool.—PB

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski is facing outrage after text messages between Kempczinski and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot were revealed last week, in which he appeared to blame the parents of two children killed in Chicago shootings this year, one at a McDonald’s drive-thru lane.

• In texts to Lightfoot from April, disclosed through a Freedom of Information Act request, Kempczinski reportedly wrote “the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
• The texts refer to the deaths of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was killed by a Chicago police officer in March, and seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams, who was killed by gunfire while at a McDonald’s drive-through in April.
• Last Tuesday, Kempczinski addressed the texts, saying his response lacked “compassion and empathy,” as reported by the Chicago Tribune. (Lightfoot’s spokesperson also released a statement criticizing his comments.)

The Service Employees International Union is running ads in the Chicago area, which began on Monday, calling for Kempczinski to meet with McDonald’s workers and community leaders, per Ad Age. The ad ends with a message urging viewers to call McDonald’s customer-service line to put pressure on the fast-food CEO. (McDonald’s declined to comment to Ad Age. Marketing Brew reached out but had not received a response at the time of publication.)

CNBC reported that Kempczinski did meet with workers on Monday and has also shared apology messages to employees, franchisees, and suppliers.

Zoom out: The uproar over the texts comes as fast-food workers around the country call for better pay and treatment. Last month, McDonald’s workers in 12 cities held strikes over alleged sexual harassment in stores. Earlier this year, a Black franchisee filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging racial discrimination.

+1: Earlier this week Byron Allen, owner of Entertainment Studios, called on the McDonald’s board of directors to fire Kempczinski in ads in the Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, and Wall Street Journal. McDonald’s pledged in May to more than double spending with diverse-owned media operators. Also in May, two divisions of Allen’s media group filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, alleging a pattern of racial discrimination in the chain’s ad structure.—ZS

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

Blog it: Editorial content is becoming more and more important for small and large businesses alike. Here’s why a humble blog can help build your business.

It takes all kinds of types: Sure, we know what email marketing is, but what about inbound marketing? The folks at Hubspot put together a list of 41 types of marketing you can invest in.

Water cooler: Returning to the office and not sure how to act? Find solace with this guide.

Flawless webinars: It’s a lot easier than it looks. Vimeo’s Webinar Solution, Vimeo Events, can help you produce stunning virtual events and webinars like a pro. Drive registrations, prep your event in advance, create customized visuals, and easily measure event impact. Get started here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Stat: Santas, the ones you might find in the mall, are making about 12% more this holiday season, according to the Wall Street Journal. Oh yeah? What about elves?

Quote: “We cannot afford to ignore the voice of this generation, which has much greater personal awareness of their values and the impact they want to have on the world than previous generations. These are the voices of future leaders, and they’re joining the business world with an inherent distrust.”—Gordon Wilson, CEO of software firm Advanced, talking with Digiday about how young people want “more than just a job”

Read: Everything you need to know about virtual fitting rooms, put together by our newsletter cousins Emerging Tech Brew and Retail Brew.

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