Coca-Cola Wants People To Wear These Big Funnels Around Their Necks [THE BRIEF]

Good morning, AdLand. Here's what you need to know today:

Coca-Cola made a clever ad that teases people for being addicted to looking at social media on their phones. In order to encourage people to spend more time in the "real world" with family and friends, Coke is facetiously asking customers to wear what it calls a Social Media Guar:d, a giant funnel people put around their necks to prevent them from accessing their phones. Here's the ad:

IDK if you guys heard, but Facebook purchased the mobile messaging service WhatsApp for a staggering $19 billion. See all our coverage here to learn everything you need to know about the groundbreaking deal.

The New York Times eliminated the position of programmatic advertising director Matt Prohaska, perhaps signaling a reversal of course for a publication that seemed to be onboard with automated ad sales as recently as this past fall.

Unilever's Bertolli pasta and sauce brand appointed Mother London to run its global advertising business.

Major League Baseball named BBDO New York its multimedia agency creative partner for managing brand marketing and advertising. BBDO will handle the work for MLB's showcase events like Opening Day, the All-Star Game and the MLB Playoffs. Hill Holliday will stay on as agency of record for the MLB Fan Cave.

Reebok named Venables Bell & Partners its lead global agency. The account was previously held by DDB.

CP+B promoted Katie Kempner to chief communications officer from her previous role as EVP, executive director of global communications. Kempner has been with CP+B for her entire career.

Social competitive intelligence firm Unmetric hired Rick Liebling to be its head of global marketing. He comes to Unmetric from Young & Rubicam, where he worked as a creative culturalist and advised clients like Foot Action, Hillshire Farm, and Danon.

Previously on Business Insider Advertising:

• Why People Think Apple's Ad Sales Team Is 'The Best-Looking Girl At The Party, Forced To Wear A Bag Over Her Head'
• Facebook Is Becoming The Top Driver Of Retargeted Ad Clicks
• Samsung Made A Parody Of Apple's 'Pencil' Commercial For The iPad Air
• PHOTOS: Inside The Beer Pong Tournament That Pitted NYC Startups Against Each Other
• Samsung's New Commercial Slams The Teeny Tiny Screen On The iPhone
• Anti-Domestic Violence Group Releases Jarring Ad Featuring Topless Model