The Breaking and Entering Show – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Happy Thursday. It's the last stream of the week, which means we got rowdy at our office down in the heart of the Financial District of New York Friggin City.

We started off today with our WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL™. Wendy's is looking for a new media agency; Publicis Groupe's Spark Foundry was the longtime incumbent, but they've declined to participate in the pitch. Dua Lipa is joining forces with Nespresso as their new Global Brand Ambassador, alongside George Clooney. Charlie Sheen is in the press again for hot butts (an old cigarette ad that resurfaced from Parliament Cigarettes – a Japanese cigarette brand). David Bar is fighting back against claims that they are falsely advertising their calorie count by saying... no, they are advertised correctly. Skittles made a gaming flute for gaming.

Ross Martin, President of Known, joined the show to discuss the McDonald's All-American Games documentary. Known has been on a hot streak; they earned a lot of press for their award-winning billboard with Stephen Curry literally shooting the moon in Los Angeles. We chopped it up with him, and he and Geno got into a little brawl in the beginning of the segment.

Next up, the agency Main Character has come to life – and is now PLAYABLE ;) Founded by Stacey Gersten and Courtney Worthman, they are especially focused on actually getting celebrity deals done. They know the ins and the outs. They've done over 20 Super Bowl campaigns, and have more than 20 years in the space. They joined us for their FIRST LIVE PRESS INTERVIEW. We talked about celebrities, influencers, and everything in between – including how brands can effectively use these personas in their advertising and marketing efforts.

Move over Safdie Brothers. The McKelvey Ad Brothers are making waves in the marketing industry. Nike and Beats just dropped the Powerbeats Pro 2, and tapped on MIRIMAR (helmed by the McKelveys) to make the spot with LeBron James. LeBron's out there golfing, getting heckled from every direction (including by the grasskeeper). It's chaos and it works.

Kendra Barnett, Reporter at ADWEEK, broke down the beef between Publicis Groupe and The Trade Desk. There was some stuff that went down; we talked about the straw that broke the camel's back. Jack and Geno compared it to when you're in a bad relationship, and you're already looking to break up with the other person, and they do something small like leaving the dishes out, and that's when you end it. It's not BECAUSE of the dishes, but there was a lot of built-up resentment that led to that breaking point. All things come back to love and dating. All is fair in Love and Advertising, as said by the great Leo Burnett... Or was that Lee Clow? Who knows?

To close the show, we concluded that this was the first FLAWLESS stream. Shoutout to the production crew, as well as our dazzling hosts Geno Schellenberger and Jack Westerkamp. We'd be remissed if we didn't thank our guests as well, so thank you to Ross Martin, Stacey Gersten & Courtney Worthman, Luke McKelvey, and Kendra Barnett. We appreciate all y'all's time.

Until next time. Cheers, fam, and bottoms up this weekend.

Hump dayyyyyy at the Breaking & Entering Show was nothing short of fabulous.Todd Kaplan, CMO of Kraft Heinz, joined the show to talk about the Kraft Heinz partnership with the NFL. They recently canceled their brand breakup between Kraft and Heinz, and they're unrolling new products in a $600M growth push. They're beginning the NFL partnership at the NFL draft in April, in Pittsburgh – which happens to be (maybe a coincidence, maybe not) the hometown of the brand Kraft Heinz. By coincidence, Kraft Heinz also shot a commercial in Jack's brother's backyard.

Next on the show was Katie Deighton. You know her if you work in advertising, and you've probably read her work. She's a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. She joined the show to deliver the State of the Advertising Union. We discussed agency structures, brand marketing, and in-house vs. outsourcing of creative and strategic talent. We got into Gap, hot takes, and brand entertainment do's and don't's. Barbie, Lego, Hershey's – all the good stuff and what it means for marketers in the future. Is this building brand equity? Driving more sales? Increasing brand favorability? Who knows? Katie knows. Tune in to hear her expertise.Leanne Fremar joined us to chat all things JPMorganChase. They're luxurizing the credit card industry, one campaign at a time. They've been with Hailey Bieber, Michael B. Jordan, A’ja Wilson, Stephen Curry, Kevin Hart, and more. They're continuing to drastically change the space which was previously seen as a bit dull or boring. But JPMorganChase continues their efforts to make credit cards sexy. And (glaze alert) they're doing a pretty damn good job at it.NEW SEGMENT ALERT!!!!!! THE GIRLS' ROOM!!!!!!! Hosted by Ellie McCarron, our spokesperson for all campaigns and creativity in this space. She brought to our attention some drama at the Oscar's including Misty Copeland and Merit taking shots at Timmy Chalamet. Reformation and the Seattle Opera House also joined in and had a couple great social posts as well as some unique email marketing. We don't hear about email marketing too much nowadays, but when it's effective, it's effective. And this one broke through the noise of those typical constant emails we're bombarded with.

The Super Bowl just ended and AI dominated the advertising conversation. We break down the best campaigns, the worst misses, and what it all means for the industry. Then: WPP is consolidating its creative agencies, Kraft Heinz reverses its breakup plans, and the NBA flies 200+ influencers to All-Star Weekend. In CREATIVE CORNER, we dissect McDonald's horizontal billboard campaign, CeraVe's Kevin Durant collaboration, and NASCAR's loudest billboard in the world.Then we sit down with Oren John (the internet's creative director who's posted for 1,000 days straight), Chris Beresford-Hill (Global CCO at the agency that won the Super Bowl), and Kate Rouch (CMO of OpenAI) to talk about the Super Bowl, the Claude controversy, and where AI is actually headed.

TIMESTAMPS

1:25 – AD NEWS ROUNDUP

1:30 – Super Bowl: AI campaigns, winners, losers, memorable spots

2:30 – Kraft Heinz reverses breakup plans

3:10 – WPP consolidating VML, Ogilvy, and AKQA

4:00 – Omnicom PR agencies consolidating

4:35 – NBA brings 200+ influencers to All-Star Game

5:20 – CREATIVE CORNER

5:40 – McDonald's horizontal campaign

7:45 – CeraVe and Kevin Durant collaboration

10:25 – NASCAR's loudest billboard in the world

13:00 – INTERVIEWS

13:45 – Oren John: 1,000-day posting streak, Super Bowl takes, personal branding

39:00 – Chris Beresford-Hill: Inside the agency that won the Super Bowl

59:45 – Kate Rouch: OpenAI CMO on the Super Bowl, Claude controversy, New Media and AI

1:22:10 – SITUATION MONITOR

More from Breaking and Entering Media:

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📖 Read our Publications⁠ https://www.breaking-entering.com/blog⁠

💬 Join our Unlocked GroupMe⁠ https://groupme.com/join_group/102437...

✉️ Subscribe to The Vault⁠ https://breakingandenteringadv.substa...

📹 Subscribe to our :60 Advertising News Videos⁠ https://breakingandentering.beehiiv.c...

🏆 Check out the Crowbar Awards to break into advertising⁠ https://www.crowbarawards.com/⁠

🤝 Work With Us - Email: ⁠breakingandentering@smoothmedia.co⁠

Welcome to the teaser to the next big thing in marketing.

While all our Irish friends were out housing Guinnesses at the local pub, we were hosting the ST. PATRICK'S DAY EDITION OF THE BREAKING & ENTERING SHOW. Work hard, play hard. We'll have some Guinness later.

We kicked things in-person with Matt Repicky. Geno and Jack came in spiffy with their nice suits and green hats, only to be outdone by Mister Matt, absolutely outfit-mogging them both. He joined us for the World Famous Two Minute Drill.

We then talked with Matt about the latest Men's Wearhouse campaign – tapping into comedy in anxious consumers. He dropped some real insights as to why they're leaning into comedy, and the new casual clothes that Men's Wearhouse is pushing to their peeps.

Then we slid over to Marvin Chow, VP Consumer and AI Marketing @ Google, the Appointed AI General. Gemini is doing a lil collab with the college basketball tournament™ where you can make predictions on who is going to win the college basketball tournament™. We hope to see a perfect bracket from Gemini this year. The odds are only 1 in 9.2 quintillion, so good luck to the Gemini team. And thanks for the time, Marvin.

Then we had Zach Canfield (ZACHY ZACH!!!!) on the Show to talk about his latest product launch. We know what you're thinking, the person we predicted-to-be-President of GS&P started his own product? Yes, that's true. And yes, he started a supplement brand to help you live longer. Death is inevitable, and so is meeting the Grim Reaper, but why not delay your meeting with him? That's what Zach's brand aims to do, and that's their positioning.

A team in Dallas is making waves with their latest content, trolling the corporate overlords who run the world. They're making b2b content for their brand Verso Jobs, but it's so cleverly disguised,most people just follow them for their comedy. They're doing something really cool here, and we talked with them about their plan going forward. P.S. Sometimes locking someone in a shed can yield extremely high social results, but this is purely anecdotal.

Natalie Wills joined the show!! She's the SVP Marketing at Expedia Group. They've recently launched a campaign at hotels.com. We talked about the brand equity, the importance of the name, and how simple the marketing needs to be. It's literally in the name... hotels.com. That's it. They brought this work in partnership with Mischief @ No Fixed Address. Headphones, chicken fingers... these things aren't what they sound like. hotels.com is a hotels website. Simple as that. Great insights from Natalie Wills.

Lastly, and certainly not least, Zach Roif came on the show to discuss Mother's latest campaign with Uber, where they leaned into the Irish eXit for UberX. Once again, simple as that. A copywriter's dream. The campaign is IN the name for the idea. Irish exit with UberX. They brought this to life with Maura Higgins, someone who could run you over with your car and you wouldn't be mad at. She's just got that kind of energy to her. She was the perfect actress for this one. It was meta, as a good amount of Mother's work is, and she actually irish exit-ed the shoot mid-commercial. The campaign was brought to life in 6 weeks. Zach gave us 6 minutes of his time before pulling off an Irish exit of his own. Very clever, and very Mother of you, Zach. Thanks for coming on.

We then chatted the Oscar's, Ellie gave the lowdown on Sinner's, and Ross threw some shade at Marty Supreme. Geno pointed out that while Marty was more popular publicly, Sinner's clearly won the critic vote – JUST LIKE THE SUPER CLIO VS. THE AD METER. omg omg omg

00:00 – Starting Soon 

3:27 – Ignore this 

10:01 – Intro 

14:10 – 2 Minute Drill 

25:10 – Men's Wearhouse New Campaign w/ Matt Repicky

38:47 – college basketball tournament™ w/ Marvin Chow at Google Gemini

53:36 – Reaper's Remedies Product Launch w/ Zach Canfield

1:07:50 – Verso Jobs w/ Seamus Harvey and Johnny Brask

1:21:36 – hotels.com New Campaign w/ Natalie Wills

1:33:58 – Uber St. Patty's Day campaign by Mother w/ Zach Roif

We took the Breaking & Entering Show to SXSW – thank you to Framer for making this possible!In this yeehaw cowboy-studded episode of The Breaking & Entering Show, we talked with creative leaders at the coolest anti-marketing marketing conference in the world, SXSW. It's so much more than a conference, and you'll know if you've been, but there's everything from lectures to concerts to comedy to film screenings. Austin is the coolest place to be in mid-March in any given year. We sat down with some of the coolest in this ep.We started off HOT with Sean McBride, Chief Creative Officer at Arnold Worldwide. The legend from the city that starts with a B and rhymes with Austin joined us to talk creative philosophy, and he played us some guitar at the end of his segment. His name is now with the greats like Willie Nelson and Sublime (they both recorded albums in the studio).Then we brought in Beth Keamy, Chief Digital Officer at TBWA, the Disruption agency. She discussed with us where the agency was headed, her thoughts on SXSW, and more.Craig Allen joined the show. He is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at CALLEN, the crazy wacky Austin-based shop. They talked about the Austin culture and the SXSW culture. They're okay with owning that they're the misfits of the Austin ad world. There's a lesson to be had in that.Krystle Loyland, CEO at PREACHER, joined us to SPREAD THE GOOD WORD about the Austin-based shop. They have gospel choirs at their parties. Blood, sweat, and tears go into hosting these parties, but they have "a blast" doing them – so it's worth it. It's all for the Love of the Game.On the horn we got Jorn (but he came in person and wasn't really on the horn). Jorn van Dijk, Founder of Framer. We showed off our sharpied-in Framer logos on the mics. Shoutout Framer btw. And we talked about the culture of SXSW changing, from someone who's been going for several years now. Btw, did we mention that Framer is cool? We talked website innovation, Dead Internet Theory, the marketing bottleneck, and creativity vs. business results. Yo, btw, shoutout Framer for making this possible. And thanks Jorn for a scorchin' hot convo.And l-l-last but not least, we got Jay Russell, Chief Creative Officer at GSD&M to close out this star-studded cast in the SXSW Edition of The Breaking & Entering Show, presented by Framer. Jay played some guitar, cracked some jokes, and talked all things Austin – all while drinking a Lone Star beer. That's so Jay... Thanks for tuning in to today's special edition of the B&E Show. We'll catch ya tomorrow for our regularly scheduled programming.More from Breaking and Entering Media:💼 Follow on LinkedIn⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/company/breaking-entering-podcast/⁠📖 Read our Publications⁠ https://www.breaking-entering.com/blog⁠💬 Join our Unlocked GroupMe⁠ https://groupme.com/join_group/102437585/xg5Z5tei⁠✉️ Subscribe to The Vault⁠ https://breakingandenteringadv.substack.com/⁠📹 Subscribe to our :60 Advertising News Videos⁠ https://breakingandentering.beehiiv.com/⁠🏆 Check out the Crowbar Awards to break into advertising⁠ https://www.crowbarawards.com/⁠🤝 Work With Us - Email: ⁠breakingandentering@smoothmedia.co⁠

Creators, the Youth, Culture! We got into the heart of it on today's episode of The Breaking & Entering Show.We started with the 2 Minute Drill, as per usual. Playboy has a new Chief Brand Officer, Guinness did some really cool work timed with the Premier League. mind uppin the chune bruv?? That ad was fire, and it was Campaign UK's Ad of the Day, made by VML UK. Budweiser made cans for the brand's 150th anniversary (also in time with America's 250th (woah, they could do something epic). B Dubs made an espresso proteini drink... And DraftKings hired Translation and Rosewood Creative, per Ad Age.We spoke with Thom Glover, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at American Haiku. They recently acquired Basement Freaks, who did a thought-provoking, world-changing campaign for Mozilla to promote a human-first future. The work was sick, and American Haiku was recently named Ad Age's Newcomer Agency of the Year. Full circle moment because we spoke with Greg Hahn (Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Mischief), and he had some advice for Thom and American Haiku. Thom also is an Emmy-nominated creative director and writer, and his agency has been working with brands like New Balance, Yahoo, Away, Chase Sapphire, and Sakara.We then went to the Gen Alpha Expert Casey Lewis to get the lowdown on the youngest generation. She discussed their consumer habits, interests, and cyclical trends. She's got a really popular newsletter called "After School" where she breaks down all these topics in even more detail, and she's got tens of thousands of readers.Brett Dashevsky, Founder of Creator Economy NYC, joined the show to talk about IRL vs. URL events. He's been developing his organization to get creators connected with each other, learning from each other along the way. He brings together markets, creators, and hosts events and conversations to talk about where the industry is headed.Lastly, but certainly not least, Michelle Blaser, longtime friend of the program, joined the show! She is the author of The Pollinatr, a Substack newsletter focused on how brands connect with culture and stay relevant in fast moving moments online. She has been a key supporter and advocate for Ross's dating life, and in this interview, she gave the advice about "banana bread baddies." That's the hook, you gotta watch the show to learn more about the triple B's. You don't wanna miss it (Thanks Michelle, –Ross).Post-show, we talked about Bushwick DJ's vs. Park Slope Podcasters. See ya tmrw gang.

It's been a week! Yesterday, Ad Age's A-List 2026 came out. We're here to celebrate the list and talk with the leaders at the top agencies. We hopped in the 2 Minute Drill, with SPECIAL GUEST Justin Bajan, Co-Founder at Familiar Creatures. 3 Guys, 2 Minutes (x6 topics). Kofi stepped down from DoorDash, Ford gifted the Pope a Chicago Custom Ford, Disney did another crazy billboard, Delta & American Airlines had Media Reviews, the new Coca-Cola campaign was sick as h*ll, and Dakota Johnson and Olivia Dean did some cool things which Producer Ellie (Elisabeth McCarron) provided her expertise on.Then we got into it with Senior Reporter at Ad Age Brian Bonilla! – longtime friend and supporter of the program. We appreciate his time when he's probably got hundreds of people trying to get some time on his calendar. He gave his insights on the Ad Age A-List 2026, the broader throughlines, but also some of the so-called "superlatives." We also talked about our high school superlatives. Brian was "Most Likely to Cover the Advertising Industry as a Senior Reporter at Ad Age," so I guess the prophecy is fulfilled.After Brian, we smoothly transitioned to Aaron Starkman, Global Chief Creative Officer and Partner at Rethink – the agency that took home #1 Agency of the Year! He talked about what led to their success, their CRAFT process, and that they are generally a process-driven agency.We then went to Mr. Greg Hahn, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Mischief USA – and he said the opposite! They are more focused on principles rather than process, and actually said they had no specific process. This juxtaposition between the #1 and #2 agency just goes to show that you have to do what rings true to you, and if you do that, you'll find success. The decade is halfway over, who will win Agency of the Decade? Geno says it's already been determined. Congrats to both of these agencies on their success.We took some interest in design today. Snapple rebranded, and is going for a nostalgia play, while not being fully rooted in nostalgia as a new brand guide. But that's the inspiration. We spoke with EVP and Chief Design Officer at Deutsch, Adhemas Batista, and he gave us the lowdown on Snapple's new branding. We spoke with the veterans, so we figured we should shine some light on the rookies of the industry. We spoke with 4 VCU Brandcenter students who sent a balloon to space to show their unique perspective. John Marenic, Josef Pellegrini, Noah McKee and Nick Luna created "Big Ideas Need Space."That's all for today, catch you tomorrow ad family!

In this episode of The Breaking & Entering Show, we get straight into business (with some shenanigans along the way, of course).

We start off piping hot with the 2 MINUTE DRILL. Apple's launched the Neo Macbook – their smallest Macbook yet. Charles Leclerc's had a wedding, and his agency Sidequest created content for it. WPP elevated Nancy Hall to CEO of WPP Media. Uber Eats launched a campaign called "Almost Anything." And Mr. Clean is back (was he ever gone?)!!

Then we got into the "Seriously Serious" Graza work, chatting it up with Graza CEO Andrew Benin as well as the nice&frank Co-Founder Laura Petruccelli (nice&frank is the agency behind the work).

Then (in-person!!!) we talked with two of the hottest Gen Z-ers to know, Coco Loomis and Sarah Solovy. The creative duo has helmed campaigns for brands including the NHL, Build-A-Bear and Jeep – and honestly, they've just been killing it. They are only 23 and 25 respectively, we're hyped to see where they'll be in just a few years (maybe they'll be taking over the ad world!).

Because we were moving so fast, we took a lil halftime break, and gave flowers to our partnerships team Smooth Media. If you are a Knowledge Creator, and want to get involved with them (you should), reach out to hi@smoothmedia.co for more info on that.

Then, we BROKE THE NEWS (yes, actually BREAKING NEWS) that Mojo Supermarket is the Social AOR for Burger King. For this announcement, as well as to talk about the BurgerBite, we spoke with Joel Yashinsky (CMO of Burger King) and Mo Said (Founder of Mojo Supermarket). We dug up some old emails of Mo's, saying "please please please, can we work with BK," and had some laughs as well as a one-way transfer of relationship advice (because Lord knows Jack & Geno need some help in that department).

We had some hiccups and technical difficulties, but that didn't stop us from chatting with Jason Harris (CEO of Mekanism) and Tony Benna (sick-ass film director). They made a film called André Is an Idiot which premieres tonight in New York City. The film is about someone's cancer journey as they passed up an opportunity to get a colonoscopy (get your stuff checked). Lastly, as usual, we closed out the week of The Breaking & Entering Live Show, by talking about our weekend plans and our dates (or lack thereof) coming up. (Jack didn't mention any such dates. Neither did Geno.)

Until next week, people!

In this episode of The Breaking & Entering Show, we get into the latest and greatest in the marketing world.

We start with the 2 Minute Drill... The McDonald's CEO Big Arch Fiasco (more on that later), VML wins L'Oréal, and Rhode x Sarah Pidgeon. 

Then we hop over to talk with Maru Sokolowski, Chief Operating Officer at Founders Agency, where she brings in years of experience from leading teams at Grey and at McCann.

Then, in their first logo redesign in 50+ years, NPR is asking questions like: how, who, and why. We spoke with the CMO at NPR, Mishka Pitter-Armand to break down the decisions behind the move, and their reasons for working with award-winning agency who's been on a hot streak since they were founded in 2020 – Mischief @ No Fixed Address. It's an incredible campaign, and feels very timely.

Then we run over (pun intended) to Saucony, with Gus Johnston – their Global Creative Director – to discuss their latest one-shot 4-minute film which is honestly just dope as heck. It's kind of crazy they pulled that off. It's also got an intriguing story, but zero dialogue. Insanity!

Second-to-lastly, we spoke with the LEGEND quote "instant celebrity after 33 years" Michael Farmer, who's written multiple books about Madison Avenue, the advertising industry, and payment models within traditional agency structures. We also spoke to him about Jell-O shots, and he reveals his favorite flavor (watch to find out.)

Then we closed things out with Jack re-enacting the McDonald's burger fiasco and talking about our dates.