This week’s roundup features the notable departures of Google’s founders, McDonald’s testing the chicken sandwich waters, a true-blue color winner and the Peloton ad that cycled out of control
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google more than two decades ago, are stepping down from their executive roles at Alphabet. The two will remain directors on Alphabets board and the companys two largest individual shareholders, as well as retain a majority of the companys voting shares. Google CEO Sundar Pichai will become the chief of both Google and Alphabet.
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McDonalds is testing a new crispy chicken sandwich, featuring a fried chicken filet topped with butter and pickles on a potato roll (a deluxe version is also being tested with tomatoes, lettuce and mayo). The chain already serves a McChicken and has tested other chicken sandwiches, but the latest version will compete more directly with Popeyes and Chick-fil-A. The new sandwiches are only being tested in Houston and Knoxville, Tenn.
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Peloton released a 30-second holiday ad about a month ago in which a man gifts a woman one of the brands bikes. She then documents her workout journey and eventually shares it with her male partner. Social media exploded with negative hot takes on the ad (including), with some calling it sexist. The company responded that it was disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial, but continued by noting the support it received from fans.
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Its a dance-off! Instagram has launched a new video-music remix feature to go toe to toe with Chinese social media juggernaut TikTok and its 1.5 billion monthly users. Limited to Brazil, where its called Cenas, Reels lets users choose from Facebooks enormous music catalog for their video content, or borrow audio from other video sources. With 500 million Instagram users already opening the Stories and Explore features each month, Reels opens up new potential for viral video content marketing.
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, a taxi service owned by Alphabet Inc., has logged more than 100,000 trips since launching in the town of Chandler, Arizona one year agoa momentous achievement considering Waymo cars are self-driving. Many of these trips have included a safety driver who can take control of the car should the AI encounter an issue, but since last summer, the company has offered the full-service experience to a few hundred commuters. The advancement in self-driving technology promises an entirely new domain for marketers to explore, however at this point the technology hasnt been fully adopted by the largest auto manufacturers including General Motors and Ford Motor Co., although the companies are confident they will rise to meet the challenge.
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named Classic Blue its 2020 color of the year. The brand pointed to the state of the world as its inspiration. Were living in this time now where things seem to be, around the world, a little bit, I dont want to use the word unstable, but lets just say a little shaky, said Laurie Pressman, the vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. Nothing is absolutely certain from one moment to the next.Classic Blue, the company says, provides a refuge, calling it nonaggressive, easily relatable and honest.
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Google photo by Pawe Czerwiskion
