Marketing and advertising teams sure were pulling at our heartstrings this week. Many brands recently launched new campaigns featuring moving, inspiring or simply light-hearted messages. Catch up on the top stories of the week in our Weekly Must Reads.

Today Girls Rise

In a new commercial from media website Refinery29 and agency Ogilvy, we see the recent inauguration of the first female vice president, Kamala Harris, through the eyes of young women around the country. The video, called “Today We Rise,” follows kids’ true reactions to the historical moment, capturing their looks of excitement and wonder at finally seeing a woman in the White House. It was released just hours after the inauguration aired. There was no voiceover or script for the video. Instead, the focus is on the raw emotional reactions and audio from the ceremony.

The campaign comes as a partnership with Girl Up, a gender equality and leadership initiative created by the United Nations Foundation. According to Simone Oliver, Refinery29’s global editor in chief, the video “was about representation and showing our girls what’s possible, and that possibility offers hope.” Check it out here: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/simple-and-powerful-this-ad-filmed-girls-as-they-watched-vp-kamala-harris-be-sworn-in/?itm_source=parsely-api

Kraft Heinz’s Ketchup Challenge

When people think of ketchup, they think of the Heinz brand. That’s the argument Kraft Heinz Canada is making in their latest interactive campaign. The brand kicked off a contest via social media last week. To enter, Kraft Heinz asked people to simply draw a bottle of ketchup from memory for the chance to win a customized bottle. As it turned out, many people’s renderings of ketchup resembled a somewhat-accurate bottle of Heinz. These drawings are now being featured on digital billboards, and a select group of 250 designs will be featured on limited edition Heinz labels.

In recent months, Kraft Heinz has been trying to generate more engagement and interaction with followers on digital channels. In October, the brand utilized TikTok to connect with users about their Halloween preparations in order to promote a Halloween-inspired ketchup bottle. Learn more about their latest campaign here: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/kraft-heinz-canada-flips-amateur-artwork-into-ketchup-labels/593794/

Kids Join the First “Board of Imagination”

Forget the Board of Directors. Snack brand Sun-Maid is encouraging kids to embrace creativity through their newly-created “Board of Imagination.” The new initiative, part of the brand’s larger “Imagine That” campaign, asks parents to nominate their school-age children for a spot on the Board, which will focus on creating activities for a new company holiday, “Imagination Day.” The goal is to inspire employees to think outside the box and enhance their creativity.

The campaign also serves as a scholarship of sorts. Each child selected for the Board will receive a $5,000 college savings grant, along with donations to their current school. Find out more about the brand’s new focus on imagination here: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/sun-maid-recruits-kids-for-first-board-of-imagination/593628/

The Week of the Bernie Sanders Meme

There were many highly publicized moments from last week’s inauguration, but nobody caught social media’s attention quite like Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders was photographed at the inauguration all bundled up in mittens and a face mask, looking like he barely cared about the event going on around him. Within hours, the photo had gone completely viral. A number of brands quickly hopped on the trend, photoshopping the Senator into their retail stores and other brand-relevant settings. Many of the posts earned hundreds and even thousands of likes, comments and shares.

Even Sanders himself got in on the joke. His campaign team quickly designed a t-shirt featuring the famous photo and began selling it on their website, with all proceeds benefiting Vermont’s Meals on Wheels program. Using memes to benefit charity is definitely a marketing tactic we can get behind. Scroll through some of the best version of the meme here: https://adage.com/article/media/18-craftiest-brand-memes-featuring-bernie-sanders-and-his-inauguration-mittens/2307616