The Breaking and Entering Show

Google's Biggest Search Upgrade in 25 Years, OpenAI's Bailey Richardson, & Priceline's Life After William Shatner

Presented by Rothmans — 100 years of taking New Yorkers as they are and dressing them better.In the WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL: Google just announced the biggest upgrade to its search bar in 25 years at I/O 2026 — an AI-powered box on Gemini 3.5 Flash that understands text, images, video, files, and open Chrome tabs. Is traditional search donezo? Finch dropped its first-ever campaign. The Ordinary put a bus on the road and it is very good. Ford Global CMO Lisa Materazzo is leaving effective June 1 after three years and the "Ready Set Ford" global brand platform with Wieden+Kennedy. And Denny's: went private for $620 million in January, is closing 150-plus locations, and a Grand Slam now costs $17.99.First up: Bailey Richardson, who leads Community and Culture at OpenAI and was one of the first ten employees at Instagram. We talk about how OpenAI is trying to build trust with a generation that is simultaneously excited by AI's potential and deeply skeptical of what it is doing to creativity, culture, and human connection.Then Craig Crawford, Founder of Black Noise. Their CMO Open Letter project created three long-form ads inspired by "Think Small," "We Try Harder," and "Where's the Beef?" — three of the most iconic ads ever made. Agency self-promotion done right. We talk about why they built it and what they are trying to prove.And to close: Lesley Klein, SVP of Marketing and Branding at Priceline. William Shatner aired his final Priceline Negotiator spot last week at 95 years old. Randall Park is the new face with indie shop Mirimar. We talk about the handoff, the new campaign, and the forward strategy for one of travel marketing's most iconic brand voices.

Publicis Acquires LiveRamp for $2.2B, YETI x Wieden+Kennedy, Javier Campopiano Exits McCann, Gerry Graf at Joan & Gen Z Digital Wellness with Larz May of HalfTheStory

Spotify turned 20 this week and celebrated by swapping its iconic green app icon for a glittery 3D disco ball — and the internet immediately lost its mind. Users called it hideous, pixelated, and confusing. Some said they thought the app was stuck downloading an update. Spotify's response on X: "We know glitter is not for everyone. Our temp glow up ends soon." The icon is already being reversed in beta. But here's the real question: was this the most efficient marketing campaign ever — a 300% spike in brand mentions, the whole industry talking, zero media spend — or a genuine brand fumble? We're debating it today. In the WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL: Publicis is acquiring LiveRamp for $2.2 billion in an all-cash deal — giving them ownership of the data collaboration infrastructure that most of their competitors rely on. LiveRamp's RampID is the most common shared currency in programmatic advertising. Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun says this is about winning the agentic transformation market. Every other holdco is now doing math on what this means for them. YETI and Wieden+Kennedy dropped a new four-letter campaign — go watch it. Javier Campopiano, who led McCann's global creative, is exiting months after the Omnicom-IPG merger closed. McDonald's France launched an office delivery campaign that is very good. And DoorDash just brought on a former Amazon exec as its new CMO. First up: Gerry Graf. Business Insider once called him the most creative man in advertising. Ad Age named him the most awarded creative director in the world in 2008. He created the first-ever "You're Not You When You're Hungry" Snickers spot, Starburst's Freaky Little Lad, and Skittles Midas Touch. He founded Barton F. Graf and Slap Global. This week he was named Global CCO of Joan Creative. We talk about the new role, what brought him here, and what he's building. Then Nick Kaplan, Founder and CCO of Another Thing, joins us to talk about Vermont Creamery's butter sculpture campaign — one of the more unexpected and delightful brand moments of the week. Chapin Clark, ECD at R/GA, joins the show Chapin has been the voice behind R/GA's Twitter since 2009 — one of the most celebrated agency accounts ever run His secret: "Trying to please everybody is more dangerous You end up being really bland and nobody likes you" We get into the work and what 25 years at one agency actually looks like And to close: Larz May — Gen Z mental health advocate, Founder of HalfTheStory, one of the first youth-led nonprofits focused on digital wellness, and Co-Founder of Ginko, an AI platform helping families navigate tech and screen time. She has spoken at the United Nations, SXSW, and TED. We talk about how algorithms are shaping the next generation and what brands and platforms actually owe young people.

TBWA Global CCO Chaka Sobhani on the Titanium Lions, Kareem Rahma & Adam Faze on Keep the Meter Running, Ogilvy Singapore Crushes the One Show & Cannes Gets Stricter

Cannes is less than a month away and today's lineup could not be more fitting. Chaka Sobhani, Global CCO of TBWA and President of the Dan Wieden Titanium Lions Jury at Cannes 2026, joins the show. She led DDB Worldwide to Cannes Network of the Year in 2025. She has worked with McDonald's, adidas, Google, Disney, and P&G. Campaign UK named her one of the top ten creative leaders in the world for five consecutive years. Today we ask her what actually deserves Titanium, what the industry gets wrong, and whether a disrupt-or-die mindset applies as much to agencies as the work itself. In the WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL: Air Transat and Courage Montreal dropped "Tickets-Tickets" — a real-time campaign comparing the price of a single World Cup match ticket against the cost of flying directly to that country For the price of one game you could go live in the culture yourself Sharp, reactive, earned-first work. Instagram is launching Instants — a new disappearing photo feature combining elements of Snapchat and BeReal. Ogilvy Singapore's "Vaseline Verified" swept the One Show this week — a campaign that verifies authentic skin tone representation in online beauty content. Cannes Lions is tightening its entry rules this year — agencies say the new requirements add burden but most agree the crackdown on case study inflation is necessary. And Gerry Graf just became CCO of Joan. First on the show: Nathan Monteith, Executive Creative Director at Highdive — part of the team behind two consecutive number one finishes on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter and a key contributor to Highdive's Ad Age Small Agency of the Year recognition. He joins us to talk about Jeep and Captain America joining forces for America's 250th birthday. And to close: Adam Faze and Kareem Rahma. Kareem built SubwayTakes — quick NYC street conversations turned into a cultural media phenomenon with a massive internet following. Adam is a Hollywood Reporter Top 50 most influential creator-economy figure who has produced hundreds of millions of views across short-form series. Together they built Keep the Meter Running — a long-form expansion of what SubwayTakes proved was possible. It is internet-native television. We talk about what brands can learn from all of it.

[LIVE from Mirren]: Jacq Steele of Wieden + Kennedy on the Panic Pivot Trap, Grey's Gab Schmitt, Anomaly's Franke Rodriguez & Murder Hornet's Alex McGinnis, and Mirren's Brent Hodgins

Today is a special one. We're broadcasting live from Mirren in NYC — the sold-out agency new business and growth conference at 3 World Trade Center. 700+ senior agency leaders, 70+ speakers, two days of the most important conversations the industry is having right now. We set up shop on the conference floor. Three big interviews coming. First on the show: Jacq Steele, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Wieden + Kennedy and a 15-year W+K vet. Her Mirren Live keynote is "Fighting the Panic Pivot Trap" — the idea that when agencies start worrying about their pipelines, the instinct to become everything to everyone is almost impossible to resist. She breaks down how to reclaim authenticity, simplify the value prop, and differentiate by leaning hard into what you actually do best. Then Gab Schmitt, Global Chief Creative Officer at Grey. We get into what global creative leadership looks like at one of the most storied networks in the business. And to close: a joint conversation with Franke Rodriguez, Partner and CEO of Anomaly New York and Toronto, and Alex McInnis, President and Co-Founder of Murder Hornet. They just got off a Mirren panel together on new agency models — agencies built to be more efficient, more profitable, better positioned against what clients actually need, and priced for higher margins. Two of the most distinct independent shops in the business in the same room with us. We get into all of it. This episode is Presented from Mirren Live.

Caitlin Clark x Eli Lilly's "Start How You Can," Inside Adidas' Backyard Legends with LOLA USA, Upfronts Week Breakdown & Retail Media with WSJ's Megan Graham

Caitlin Clark is starring in Eli Lilly's new "Start How You Can" campaign from Wieden+Kennedy Portland — and it is a meaningful shift in how a major pharmaceutical company is showing up in culture. The campaign positions exercise, not medication, as the frontline message for health. It launched at the Indiana Fever opener and rolled out nationally across TV, social, print, cinema, and major city takeovers. Joining us to talk about it: Lina Polimeni, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Consumer at Eli Lilly. In the WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL: WPP US President Michael Houston is stepping down after 24 years at the holding company — transitioning to senior advisor as CEO Cindy Rose continues reshaping the operating model. It is upfronts week in New York. NBCU celebrated its 100th anniversary at Radio City with a sports-heavy pitch, AI-powered live contextual advertising launching in Q4, and Vin Diesel announcing four Fast and Furious shows coming to Peacock — Tina Fey joked they were "throwing themselves a huge birthday party so they can sell ads during it." Fox went all-in on the World Cup and Tubi at NYC Center — 100 million monthly active users, a new AI-native ad operating system called Fox Fan OS, and James Corden is coming back to host a late night show after World Cup matches. Amazon went big at the Beacon Theater — Oprah, Chris Pratt, Michael B. Jordan, Diplo, Kacey Musgraves, and the official greenlight for Fourth Wing. And Xavier Blais posted about Heinz rival wipes and it's very good. Then JD Jurentkuff, CCO of LOLA USA, and Mo Adlouni, Global Senior Director of Marketing at adidas, join us to go inside "Backyard Legends" — the five-minute World Cup film that dropped last week and is already being called an instant classic. The agency is brand new. The film is enormous. We get into how it got made. Then it is B&E's voicemail segment — listener call-ins with their best ideas and pitches played live on the show. And to close: Megan Graham, reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins us to break down what is actually happening at the upfronts from a retail media and advertising perspective. Retail media is reshaping how media gets bought. Billions of ad dollars are at stake. This one is retail media upfronts for the rest of us.