Social media trends move pretty fast…If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss them. Or something like that.

While it can be hard to remember what went viral even last week, we felt it was important to look back at all the brand moments that caught our attention and flooded our timelines this year. Let’s review.

Tucker’s Achilles high heel: Yes, we’re talking about the sexy M&M’s debacle, which happened at the start of 2023. Did bemoaning a cartoon candy’s loss of high heels lead to Tucker Carlson’s untidy exit from Fox News? We can’t be sure, but we know the green M&M remains comfy in her sneakers to this day.

Tarte, indeed: The response was anything but sweet when makeup brand Tarte took a group of influencers on a brand trip to Dubai in January.

“Deinfluencing” enters the repertoire: The term and movement to think critically about consumption in light of a bombardment of influencer ads and recommendations popped up in the early months of this year, and it’s still being discussed today.

Super social Bowl: Some brands, like State Farm, opted out of TV ads at this year’s Super Bowl and went all in on social. With 2024’s game on the horizon, we’re watching to see if advertising on the second screen continues to encroach on the first.

The hearing that made us stop scrolling for a minute: Remember when TikTok looked like it might be banned in the US after CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in front of Congress in March? Suddenly, creators were rethinking their posting strategies. And while Montana also tried to ban TikTok within the state, a recent pause on that ban from going into effect, plus dwindling support for a federal ban, makes it seem like the clock app could be here to stay…for now.

Continue reading here.—KH

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We get it, you’re good at journalism!

There was some amazing reporting and writing published this year, and we compiled a list of some of our favorite stories we read in the past 12 months from publications other than our own. We broke it down based on the subjects we focus on the most—and we hope you take the time to read some of these great stories from across the web.

Social:

• Vox exposed “the lie of ‘deinfluencing,’” ending all hope that anyone on social media will ever try to help curb our shopping habits.
• The New York Times dove into Gen Z’s disillusionment with brands turning everything into a joke, and also explored more serious topics like internal documents about how TikTok was sharing user data and research that found “YouTube ads may have led to online tracking of children.”

Streaming:

• Rolling Stone reported on HBO CEO and chairman Casey Bloys’s habit of directing staffers to use secret Twitter accounts to troll “television critics with snarky responses from a fake Twitter account—and [drop] pro-HBO comments on trade publication stories.” (After the report, Bloys ended up apologizing.)
• CNBC’s Alex Sherman dug deep into Bob Iger’s return to the CEO post at Disney, the ouster of former CEO Bob Chapek, and the executive turnover and company turmoil that accompanied it all.
• GQ profiled Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Apple’s services division, who is leading Apple’s aggressive push into live sports rights.

Sports:

• The WNBA had quite a year, and on the heels of the league’s finals, the Washington Post took a look at the strained relationship between some of its players and the media.
• Speaking of the WNBA, the New York Times put one of its biggest stars on everyone’s radar: Ellie the Elephant, the “twerking mascot” of the New York Liberty.
• Aaron Rodgers’s torn Achilles was one of the biggest stories of this NFL season so far, and the Wall Street Journal quickly reported out sponsors’ reactions.

Check out the rest of our 2023 reading list here.—AM, KH, KS

This week, we’re sharing with you some of our favorite stories we’ve published in the past year. This feature on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter was originally published on January 30.

There’s never just one winner in the Super Bowl. Sure, there’s the team that holds the Lombardi Trophy, but there’s also the place that the winning team represents, the fans, and the halftime performers embracing the limelight—who could forget Left Shark?

And then there are the advertisers that pay ungodly sums for America’s eyeballs. Though it’s not always clear whether that investment is worth it, at least there will be a champion come Monday morning, thanks to USA Today. Since 1989, the publisher has released an annual list of the most-liked Super Bowl spots, voted by a team of thousands of panelists.

Rick Suter, digital revenue strategy and custom content project manager for USA Today Sports Media Group, has overseen the Ad Meter since joining the company in 2019. (FWIW, his favorite spots are Jeep’s “Groundhog Day” ad and Snickers’s Betty White commercial.)

According to Suter, the publisher noticed audience interest in the ads—and how much advertisers were spending—in the late ’80s, so it wanted to capitalize on the moment.

“It was really just to gauge consumer opinion…more people were talking about the commercials in the game,” he said.

Ratings game: Back then, they’d bring people to USA Today’s office in McLean, Virginia, to observe them and gauge their reactions. Today, the Ad Meter is a digital-only affair. Leading up to the game, brands and ad agencies can submit commercials to USA Today. Only national spots are considered, and they must run between the coin toss and the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.

• On the Wednesday before the Super Bowl, USA Today opens up voting to anyone who registers to become a panelist.
• Those who do can then view and rank the ads on a scale of one to 10, up until 1am ET the night of the game.
• Panelists must rate every ad in order for their votes to count; usually, more than 50 run each Super Bowl.
• Results are published the Monday after the game online and will be broadcast during NBC’s Today show this year.

Keep reading here.—RB

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