• Instagram will now allow users to choose whether or not they want the platform to use data about their activity interacting with advertisers offline and on third-party sites to personalize ads. Users will see a one-time notification in their Instagram app directing them to review their ad settings, where they can opt out of ads personalized using data shared by Instagram’s partners. (Adweek)

• Home Depot Inc. beat expectations in its third quarter and reported a 24.1 percent increase in same-store sales, with net sales up 23.2 percent to $33.54 billion, as consumers stuck inside look to spend discretionary income remodeling and repairing their homes. The home improvement retailer also said it would increase its spending on employee compensation by about $1 billion per year, and make some temporary weekly bonuses and increased paid time off benefits associated with the pandemic permanent. (Reuters)

• KFC is re-releasing its 1966 and 1971 U.S. holiday chicken buckets, along with a vintage-inspired 2020 bucket, for the holiday season as brands lean into nostalgia marketing to provide a sense of comfort during the pandemic. The chicken chain said a limited supply of the vintage buckets, which feature KFC’s retired tagline “North America’s Hospitality Dish,” will be available nationwide starting on Nov. 24. (Business Insider)

WPP is combining two more agencies in another sign of consolidation at the world’s biggest ad holding company
Patrick Coffee and Claire Atkinson, Business Insider Premium

Ad holding company giant WPP is folding retail agency Geometry Global into WPP’s larger network VMLY&R, according to sources with direct knowledge.

Twitter Debuts Carousel Ads With Up to 6 Images or Videos
Matt Southern, Search Engine Journal

Twitter is rolling out carousel ads which contain 2 to 6 horizontally swipeable images or videos.

Airbnb says Google’s competing travel sites push its listings down in search results
Jennifer Elias, CNBC

Airbnb, in its S-1 filing, wrote that it believes its search results have been adversely affected by the launch of Google Travel and Google Vacation Rental Ads.

Magnite Hops Aboard The Unified ID 2.0 Train
Allison Schiff, AdExchanger

Magnite is the latest ad tech company to throw in with the Unified ID 2.0 initiative, an open source ID spearheaded by The Trade Desk.

Facebook Expands Creator Access to Rights Manager, Collect Ad Earnings Tools
David Cohen, Adweek

Facebook added new monetization opportunities for creators on its platform, expanding access to its Rights Manager and Collect Ad Earnings tools, along with adding an in-stream ads toggle to its Creator Studio application.

Big-box retailers are changing their marketing messages to avoid a Black Friday crunch
Anna Hensel, Modern Retail

Retailers are now advertising multiple days of deals ahead of Black Friday, rather than just offering sales between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, as they’ve mostly done in years’ past.

Brands Approach Holiday Ads With a Dose of Pandemic-Related Reality
Minda Smiley, Adweek

Instead of avoiding the pandemic altogether, brands ranging from Etsy to the United States Postal Service are instead incorporating it into their holiday messaging.

Hulu to Increase Price of Live TV Offering
Natalie Jarvey, The Hollywood Reporter

The streamer is raising the price of its Hulu + Live TV service to $65 per month beginning in December. That represents a price increase of $10 per month.

Cinemark Signs Deal With Universal to Shorten Theatrical Window
Jeremy Fuster, TheWrap

Theater chain joins AMC as the second company to radically change how long it can exclusively screen Universal’s films.

Jenna Lyons Is Back With a New HBO Max Show. Does She Still Have What It Takes?
Rory Satran, The Wall Street Journal

The former J.Crew mastermind reveals the inner workings of her new creative company on “Stylish With Jenna Lyons,” her new fashion reality-show.

NCAA Will Stage All of 2021 March Madness in Indianapolis ‘Bubble’
Laine Higgins, The Wall Street Journal

After canceling its lucrative marquee event in 2020 because of the pandemic, college basketball seeks to boost its chances of holding a championship next year.

CVS becomes first national retailer to offer support for PayPal and Venmo QR codes at checkout
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

The additional checkout option will also expand the number of ways customers can pay “touch-free” at CVS — a way to transact that’s become increasingly popular as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the country.

HBO Max Is Finally Coming to Amazon Devices
Drew FitzGerald and Joe Flint, The Wall Street Journal

AT&T Inc. reached a deal to offer its HBO Max streaming service through Amazon.com Inc., removing a distribution barrier that has checked the app’s growth since its launch.

More image and video takedowns might be coming to Facebook and Instagram
Ashley Carman, The Verge

The company announced today that it’s going to allow all page admins around the world to submit images and videos for rights protection, expanding the reach of the feature outside of the limited group of partners who piloted the image copyright launch.

Fox News’s ‘partisan right’ audience on YouTube is dropping, researchers say.
Daisuke Wakabayashi, The New York Times

Disinformation about election fraud is thriving on YouTube, and right-wing outlets that most aggressively push false information are gaining new, conservative viewers on the video service, according to new research.

Walmart Sales Surpass Expectations With Buyers Still Stocking Up
Matthew Townsend and Leslie Patton, Bloomberg

U.S. comparable sales at Walmart stores rose 6.4% when excluding fuel, beating estimates for a 3.8% rise, with online demand soaring.

Airbnb Reveals Falling Revenue, With Travel Hit by Pandemic
Erin Griffith, The New York Times

The drop was $1.2 billion for the first nine months of 2020, in the first comprehensive look at the company’s finances as it moves to go public.

Is the DTC brand aesthetic bad for business?
Cara Salpini, Retail Dive

Sans serif font and bright colored backgrounds are hallmarks of digitally native brands, but it may not matter if they all look the same.

After 30 years, PepsiCo redesigned the two-liter bottle. Here’s why
Mark Wilson, Fast Company

PepsiCo is beginning the rollout of a curvier new bottle that’s easier to grip and balance in your hand, while consuming slightly less plastic in the process. The update will come to all its major soft drink brands.

Retail Sales Seen Posting Sixth Consecutive Monthly Gain in October
Harriet Torry, The Wall Street Journal

Consumers likely took advantage of retail promotions marking early start to holiday season.

“If gatherings are dramatically smaller — or on Zoom — will anyone even bother with a giant turkey?”
Gloria Oh, Marker

One of America’s largest turkey producers is scrambling to prepare for an unpredictable Covid Thanksgiving.

Beer for breakfast? New Waffle House collaboration brew smells like bacon
Mike Snider, USA Today

The Atlanta-headquartered restaurant chain has teamed with Oconee Brewing Company to concoct a new bacon-infused beer that delivers an aroma of breakfast meat.

Francesca’s will close 140 stores, may file for bankruptcy
Melissa Repko, CNBC

It is among the retailers that have take a huge financial hit during the coronavirus pandemic after weathering temporary store closures and struggling with a drop in shopping mall traffic, while trying to manage the shift to online sales.

Levi’s is betting you’ll buy more of its jeans at Target than at a department store
Phil Wahba, Fortune

A major sign of trouble for department stores that sell Levi’s came last year when the denim-clothing maker announced that Target would start selling Levi’s signature Red Tab jeans at 140 of its stores.

Amazon jumps into the pharmacy business with online prescription fulfillment, free delivery for Prime members
Christina Farr and Annie Palmer, CNBC

Amazon Pharmacy is designed to make it easy and convenient to order prescription medicines online.

Those New G-Suite Logos Everyone Hates? They’re Actually a Smart Idea
James I. Bowie, Marker

A contrarian take on Google’s unpopular rebrand.