Since the Supreme Court draft opinion leak on Roe v. Wade, corporate America has remained…mostly silent, perhaps at the advice of some communications teams.

• Rewind: Last month, Popular Information reported that PR agency Zeno, which has worked with clients like Coca-Cola and Expedia and is owned by Edelman, was advising clients to “not take a stance you cannot reverse, especially when the decision is not final” the same week the draft came out. The leaked email from its EVP of media strategy, Katie Cwayna, called abortion “a textbook ‘50/50’ issue.”

By the numbers: According to Gallup, a majority of Americans identify as pro-choice, and more than 70% don’t want to see Roe overturned, according to a Marquette University Law School survey of 1,000 American adults with an opinion on the decision.

However, a Marketing Brew survey sent out last month found that of the more than 300 readers who responded, there was a nearly even divide on how brands and agencies should proceed. Around 54% said brands should take a public stance on abortion, yet only ~48% said agencies should encourage them to do so.

While agencies seem to be leaving it up to clients to bring up the conversation around abortion, that’s not stopping some of them from speaking out themselves.

Your statement, your choice

Kate Rush Sheehy, SVP of strategy and insights at Texas-based agency GSD&M—which has worked with clients like Hilton and Tyson—told Marketing Brew that despite the agency’s public support of abortion rights, it is not actively encouraging clients to speak out. “It’s a personal choice for each company and they have to look at what’s true for them and when it’s appropriate to do so,” she said.

Curtis Sparrer, principal and co-founder of Bospar PR, which has worked with companies like Paypal and Logitech, said that while the agency has offered support should clients want to speak out, not every client has expressed interest. “Some companies have told us that they feel like they would be an interloper on the issue. And, ultimately, good PR is listening to your client and making sure you understand where their priorities lie,” he told us.

Continue reading here.—KH

It’s hard out here for a CMO. They’re often in the line of fire when their brands misstep, and in today’s cutthroat social media landscape, the Twitter masses can be friends one day and foes the next.

“CMOs are blamed if things don’t work, and they often don’t get credit when things do work,” OkCupid’s global CMO Melissa Hobley told Marketing Brew’s Katie Hicks last week during our latest CTA event, which tackled the ever-changing role of the marketer.

For those who couldn’t be there, below are some of the highlights.

Embracing rejection: Edgy campaigns aren’t right for every brand. But Hobley said that some of OkCupid’s bold (and at times controversial) campaigns have paid off over the years.

• For its “DTF” campaign that debuted in 2018, designed to flip the script on the phrase, OkCupid wanted to address the fact that some people are…less than enthusiastic about dating apps. “People hate them, and I get it,” Hobley said.
• OkCupid worked with a social anthropologist to analyze the word “queer,” which was considered derogatory before the LGBTQ+ community reclaimed it, Hobley explained. Similarly, “DTF” is known to have negative connotations associated with shaming women, so OkCupid set out to change that.
• The resulting campaign included phrases like “down to fall head over heels,” copy that was accompanied by an image of a lesbian couple, which was not common for an ad campaign at the time, according to Hobley. That doesn’t mean it didn’t work.

“The campaign brought us back to life in every metric that you look at,” she said. “People were talking about us…that image of the two women, people recreated on the subway.”

Read the full recap here.—AM

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

Haley Thorpe is content marketing manager at Fohr, an influencer and ambassador marketing company. She told us she “worked as a marketing generalist spanning social media, email marketing, website design and development, brand strategy, and copywriting for six years before joining Fohr in 2021.”

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? I write, but I also collate the insights of our team to generate blog articles, reports, guides, videos, newsletters, and manage all things copy.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? We launched a new weekly video series on YouTube called Negronis with Nord that’s equal parts entertaining and educational. It’s a lot of fun to produce.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I always liked the Snickers campaign, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” Totally relate.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? I have nearly 30 first cousins and many of us talk almost every day!

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m biased, but influencer and ambassador marketing is growing so rapidly and people are really starting to understand the value. I’m still wrapping my head around where NFTs are going to go.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? The newsletter Stand the F*ck Out and mini course by Louis Grenier, and the Instagram account @metav3rse, [are] really on top of navigating and breaking down this new world.

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Keep it prompt: Twitter analyzed how users responded to prompts encouraging them to reconsider posting offensive tweets, and whether it improved the health of conversations on the platform.

Control it: Meta is rolling out additional parental controls on Instagram, including time-of-day limitations.

Share with me: Brush up on the basics of SOV, or share of voice, including how to track it and tips to improve it.

Right place, right time: Place ads in front of your target customers without them feeling like you’re tracking their every move. StackAdapt’s new ebook explains how contextual advertising can increase user engagement. Read it here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Want to get a jump on finding your next marketing role? Check out the Marketing Brew Job Board for newly posted job openings!

Today’s featured openings:

• Growth Marketing Manager at Groundswell
• Consumer Insights Manager at Whirlpool
• Entry Level Market Researcher at The Sound

See more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• One great place for streamers to find new audiences: 35,000 feet up
• Media agencies have trimmed their growth forecasts, but still expect the advertising industry to grow this year
• Travel podcasts are ripe for advertisers headed into the summer

“Whassup,” in which four friends greet each other in increasingly comical tones, is one of Budweiser’s most iconic commercials, winning major advertising awards and becoming a pop-culture phenomenon after first airing in 1999. What was the tagline that accompanied the campaign?

1. Nothin’
2. True
3. Right
4. Havin’ a Bud

Keep scrolling for the answer.