Barbie pink is the hot shade this summer. Greta Gerwig’s movie adaptation of the iconic doll is set to be released this summer, and Barbie-maker Mattel has already told investors it expects a boost in sales.

It’s one of several brands getting the Hollywood treatment this year: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Nike, and Pop-Tarts are also taking on main-character status in films throughout 2023.

Brand involvement varies: While Mattel is involved with Barbie, Air director and actor Ben Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter he “did not have a conversation with Nike” about the movie, which tells the story of how the company pursued Michael Jordan in the ’80s.

However involved with a movie a brand may be, it does raise the question: At what point does a movie about a brand become something of…a commercial?

Turns out, people still want to see movies about them regardless, according to a survey commissioned by Marketing Brew.

• 60% of Americans said they were “more interested in seeing movies that depict their favorite brands in some way,” according to the Harris Poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 US adults.
• Nearly 60% said their opinion of a brand wouldn’t change if it was “involved in the production of a movie depicting them.”

But it should be tasteful: Over half of respondents said they worried that too much brand involvement could make films feel “like commercials instead of stories,” with a little less than half saying it “would lead to poorer-quality storylines.”

Test case: Among those who saw Air, 67% said it felt “less like a movie” and “more like an advertisement for Nike,” despite Affleck’s claim to the contrary. FWIW, only half of respondents familiar with the movie, which came out in April, “found it believable that Nike had no involvement in the film’s creation.”

However, Nike probably isn’t too worried either way. Nearly nine in 10 respondents who saw Air said they were more interested in purchasing something from Nike after seeing it.—RB

It’s not always easy to see the signs. But if your PDF brand guidelines are inflexible, inapt, and impossible to keep track of, it’s probably time to ditch PDFs and move on to something better.

Frontify wants to introduce you to a newer, easier way to format your brand guidelines in their new guide: Why you should dump your PDF brand guidelines. In this guide, they present modern, cloud-based solutions as a much better way to document your brand guidelines.

With cloud-based solutions, you can:

• set up one centralized online hub that everyone can access
• configure any brand element you can imagine
• create targeted content for different countries
• work with guidelines that are up to date and easy to use

Learn how to switch in 3 easy steps.

When Caden investor Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo in 1994, he and other early internet pioneers probably couldn’t have predicted that roughly 30 years later, their innovations would be at the center of political and ethical questions related to user data privacy, according to tech entrepreneur John Roa.

In those early days, people weren’t as aware of the data extraction that was happening, he explained. “We thought we were just connecting with our college buddies on Facebook,” Roa, who sold his design firm to Salesforce in 2015, said. “But in reality, we were just siphoning data to the powers-that-be and creating trillion-dollar companies that never really explained to us they were doing that.”

In 2021, Yang approached Roa to build Caden, an app that lets users consent to sharing their data with companies like Amazon or Uber for advertising purposes. In exchange, users receive a slice of revenue.

The app, which recently soft-launched, markets itself as a sort of solution to mounting data privacy concerns in recent years that have seen a number of tech juggernauts, such as Meta and TikTok, come under fire.

Read the full story here.—JS

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Alicia Underwood is founder and principal strategist at TwentyThree, a digital communications studio.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? My favorite project was definitely with the United Soybean Board. A local agency contracted me to run a pilot program for three directors. The project aimed to educate and empower these farmers to activate and utilize social media daily. At the end of the program, it was so fulfilling to see these farmers sharing their expertise, passion, and joy in the agriculture world online. I helped grow their page from zero followers to 20k, making them somewhat influencers online! 

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Hands down, “Proud Sponsor of Mums” by Procter & Gamble for the 2012 Olympic games. As a mother to two little boys, the commercial successfully evokes deep emotions about the dedication and love that comes with motherhood.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? I danced ballet for 10 years and represented Malaysia at the Children’s Festival in Korea in 1999.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? This is a hot topic, but I’m really excited about AI in marketing. From ChatGPT to AI Images, I think it continues to push the boundaries of marketing and allows us as humankind to be creative in a new, innovative way.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? I love Partnership Unpacked by Mike Allton, head of strategic partnerships at Agorapulse.

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

Mmm: These takeaways from TikTok highlight how marketers can use media mix modeling (MMM) within campaigns.

Scrollin’: Take a look at these LinkedIn posting tips gleaned from an analysis of real-life posts on the platform.

Catch up: Check out the biggest agency leadership moves and account changes from last week.

Talk it out: Learn how to have those “cringe-worthy” convos and get better at your job with our Difficult Conversations at Work sprint. Sign up here.

Peace out, PDFs: There’s a better way to format your brand guidelines, and it’s using modern, cloud-based solutions. Frontify has the details on why you should dump your PDF brand guidelines. Get their new report.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Jenny Craig, which recently announced it would cease operations, counted numerous celebrity spokespeople over its 40 years of operations. Which of the people listed below didn’t ever partner with the weight-loss brand?

1. Jason Alexander
2. Queen Latifah
3. Mariah Carey
4. Jessica Simpson

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

• Anna Wintour unveils Vogue World London and more at Condé Nast’s NewFront
• Court dismisses FTC’s suit against Kochava…for now
• Hollywood writers’ strike begins, casting a shadow over upfront negotiations