The idea for the latest 30-second ad from pet product maker Whisker was simple: Do nothing. Well, almost nothing.

“When you look through your feeds or you’re watching something, ads are in overdrive: poppy music, fast cuts, super dynamic,” said Joe Ciccarelli, head of creative at Whisker, the maker of the self-cleaning litter box Litter-Robot. “This one was like, ‘Let’s do none of that.’”

Instead, for an ad that ran on Fox, CNN, C-Span, and Bloomberg as well as YouTube, Whisker had a single shot of a cat sitting in the company’s litter box, seemingly doing its business for nearly the full 30 seconds of the ad, while elevator music plays.

“It’s a cat just sitting there looking at you, and then paying it off at the end by saying, ‘Hey, we just gave you that because we care about you,’” Ciccarelli said.

Whisker’s in-house team of creatives is among a contingent of marketers looking to scale back and do less with their ad creative. During broadcast and cable election coverage late last year, mental health app Calm offered viewers 30 seconds of silence as a respite from the breakneck coverage. During the Super Bowl broadcast in February, toilet-paper brand Angel Soft gave viewers a break from the game (and the ads) by telling them to use their 30 seconds to head to the bathroom—complete with a countdown clock and soothing music.

For some brands, it’s not a matter of budget or altruism driving them to do less with their allotted time. Instead, there seems to be a recognition that, at a time when consumers are inundated with more advertising than ever before, positioning a brand as a pressure relief valve can be powerful.

“It’s a bit of a counter-trend,” Allison Arling-Giorgi, head of brand for advertising shop Method1, said. Given the “information overload” that people are experiencing today, she added, brands and marketers that take this approach are “expressing a level of empathy and humanity to consumers.”

Continue reading here.—KM

When the Formula 1 team McLaren won its first Constructors’ Championship in more than 25 years last season, it was the only team on the grid without a naming rights sponsor. Halfway through the 2025 season, McLaren is firmly in the lead for the constructors’ again, but its naming rights are now spoken for.

Say hello to the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 team—as of 2026, that is.

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer, told Marketing Brew that while McLaren was the only team with naming rights available, he still had talks with a handful of other top teams before deciding on the partnership. The goal for the sponsorship, which is reportedly the largest F1 title sponsorship and the biggest commercial deal yet for McLaren, is to drive brand awareness and affinity through unique activations, he said.

“We are now predominantly an experiential marketing organization, not an advertising-led organization,” Rajamannar told Marketing Brew. “Our approach is not just about flashing our brand, but bringing our brand to life through experiences that money cannot buy.”

Read more here.—AM

Brands talk a lot about evolving marketing to keep up with the speed of culture, but how are they updating their measurement capabilities?

For Lindsay Vogelman, NBCUniversal’s SVP of strategic partnerships and partner marketing, platform distribution and partnerships, measuring impact and navigating growth is central to her work helping to boost streamer Peacock along with partner brands. Ahead of Vogelman’s participation in a panel at the Marketing Brew Summit on September 10, she shared more about her approach and how there’s still room for improvement in the measurement world.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

What trends have you noticed in recent years in regards to the fragmentation of content, especially in the streaming landscape, or changing consumer behavior that may be affecting measurement? Viewers are no longer just watching—they’re engaging, dual-screening, shopping, and sharing in real time. The act of viewing has become layered, with audiences moving between screens, platforms, and conversations. The value of content is no longer only measured by who tunes in, but also by the actions their tune-in sparks. The real challenge is capturing this broader definition of engagement across an increasingly fragmented landscape.

How is NBCUniversal leaning into these trends? We’re evolving our approach to meet audiences where they are. Love Island USA on Peacock is a great example of a cultural moment that drives appointment viewing and invites fans to actively participate. Our Megan Thee Stallion partnership was seamlessly integrated with a viral in-show appearance that sparked online conversation, making the show shoppable and drastically extending the life of the episode.

Our success metrics have also shifted accordingly. We’re focused on both qualitative and quantitative measurements, including daily usage, share of time on platform, and community and fan engagement.

For us, it’s about building daily habits, giving fans more of what they’re already doing, and finding ways to participate in those activities on our platform.

Continue reading here.—JS

Executive moves across the industry.

• Coinbase named former Cash App CMO Catherine Ferdon as its CMO.
• OpenAI hired Michael Tabtabai, formerly Coinbase’s VP of creative, to serve as the brand’s first-ever VP of global creative.
• NBA CMO Tammy Henault is leaving at the end of the month.
• Perplexity’s head of ads and shopping, Taz Patel, left the company, per Adweek.
• Nestlé dismissed CEO Laurent Freixe over a relationship with a subordinate.