There’s nothing unwell about leading a media company, a beverage brand, and an ad agency—unless, of course, Alex Cooper is the one doing it.

Last month, the podcast host and internet personality announced Unwell Creative Agency, a new advertising outfit offering services like creating content, developing campaigns, and strategizing events, according to Unwell’s chief brand officer, TJ Marchetti. The agency’s unveiling was announced alongside a multiyear partnership with Google that includes Unwell’s use of Google devices and a new ad for Google Pixel and T-Mobile called “Get Lost.”

Cooper’s not the only well-known entertainment figure to dip into the advertising world in the past few years (see: Kristen Bell’s Dunshire Productions or Ryan Reynolds’s Maximum Effort), but she does straddle an interesting line between full-blown celebrity and internet-native influencer. The company is positioning Cooper’s understanding of her chronically online Gen Z audience as a strength that will allow its work to uniquely cut through the noise. Amid a growing field of celeb-led advertising expertise, the fledgling agency is framing Cooper’s unique perspective as the edge that sets Unwell apart.

“Alex is involved in everything we do. Some people think that, given all of the demands of Call Her Daddy and being the co-CEO, that she would be a figurehead or something. That’s not the case,” Marchetti told Marketing Brew. “This company is built on that DNA.”

Continue reading here.—JN

The tunnels of major sports venues have come to be known as fashion runways. For its latest campaign, United Airlines is turning tarmacs into very literal runways for athletes.

United, which serves as the official airline for eight NFL teams, caught wind of the growing crossover between fashion and football, including the trend of players posting their in-flight outfits when they touch down for away games, and saw an opportunity to get involved, Maggie Schmerin, United’s chief advertising officer, said.

“It has become such a priority, in a lot of cases, for these players to focus on their fits and their fashion,” Schmerin told Marketing Brew. “These players look like these superhero characters [with] beautiful aircraft behind them…That was happening organically, and we said, ‘Let’s actually turn this into something a bit more formal.’”

The resulting athlete-studded campaign, which will have a large out-of-home component as well as a presence in national print publications, is meant to bolster relevance and reputation for a brand in an industry that most people don’t engage with nearly as often as they watch football, Schmerin said.

Read more here.—AM

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

Lisa Hurst is chief client officer of Amp (Advantage Marketing Partners). She was previously at Upshot, which is now a part of Amp, for more than 20 years.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? One of my favorites is the Nick Offerman “Face Plant” campaign for regenerative farming. We took a complex issue—soil health and cover crops—and brought it to life through playful storytelling and humor. Nick literally plays the soil, going from tired and worn to renewed, and that surprise, combined with education, made it stick. It’s the kind of creative work that teaches, entertains, and inspires—and it also went viral!

What’s your favorite ad campaign? DoorDash’s “All the Ads” Super Bowl spot from 2024. It was such a smart use of the moment—taking the biggest ad stage of the year and turning it into something people could immediately interact with. They hid a promo code in the commercial and offered to deliver everything advertised during the game—cars, snacks, even mayo. To me, it blurred the line between awareness and conversion in a really clever way. I think that’s where we’re headed: more work that fuses brand-building with commerce creative. It wasn’t just entertaining; it gave people a reason to engage immediately.

Continue reading here.

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of Huggies, announced plans to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue in a deal worth almost $50 billion.
• Omnicom and IPG, meanwhile, are reportedly working together on a pitch for Kenvue’s global creative and media business, per Ad Age.
• NBCUniversal tapped iHeartMedia as its exclusive audio partner for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, extending a deal that began with the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
• TikTok expanded its brand-safety partnership with IAS to include an integration with its TikTok for Business ad network.