If 2020 Was a Lemon 🍋...

2020 handed out far more than its fair share of lemons, and a new Super Bowl spot has made the metaphor quite literal. A group of friends wonder when Bud Light Seltzer started making lemonade—a question answered in a flashback to everyone’s least favorite year as lemons rain from the sky, causing as much destruction as you’d expect of falling fruit. [Watch the chaotic, yet oddly charming fruit storm.]

More of the latest Super Bowl LV updates:

As you may have read, a battalion of day traders, long active on Reddit’s /r/WallStreetBets, collectively drove up the price of GameStop stock after hedge funds decided to short-sell it. The community has also propped up other companies that are past their glory days including Blackberry, AMC Theatres and Bed Bath & Beyond. Normally these “pump and dump” stock manipulation schemes are done in secret, said former SEC cyber crime official Jerome Tomas. But this community acted in broad digital daylight. 

“So these are either the worst fraudsters in the world or the best fraudsters in the world because they’ve literally said, ‘I am going to do this and see if you can stop me.’” It’s driven by what data scientist Steve Spalding calls “a fascinating combination of hope and spite.”

Adweek’s Scott Nover has the inside look at this recurring tune, played to the drum of sticking it to Wall Street.

Yesterday, investment app Robinhood fueled the fracas by restricting trading for GameStop—a move that was met with a tsunami of outrage, even from bipartisan lawmakers.

Read why strategist Austin Braun says the knee-jerk decision will plague the app brand forever.

We’ve officially concluded Adweek’s virtual event, Outlook 2021: The Year Ahead in Marketing and Media, and we’re all the richer for the deep, actionable insights provided by the pivotal industry players who shared their perspectives on the road before us. Here were a couple of key highlights:

Epsilon Data Management, which is owned by Publicis Groupe, has agreed to a $150 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over criminal charges of selling the information of 30 million consumers to the perpetrators of elder fraud schemes. The activity in question began in 2017, before Publicis acquired Epsilon.

Inside the case: $127 million of the settlement total going to compensate victims of these elder fraud schemes.

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Last week, Montreal's soccer team Impact announced that it is changing its name to Club de Foot Montréal, or CF Montréal, and releasing a new identity to better reflect the city's history. But there's no such thing as a rebrand that makes all fans happy. Enter the fray.

Join Adweek for the 2021 Challenger Brands Summit, a Brandweek virtual experience on Feb. 22-25 for four days of Main Stage insights, Breakout sessions, marketer-led Masterclasses, virtual networking experiences and more.

Register now and learn from top challenger, incumbent and legacy brands such as Hello Products, Prose, Pearle Vision, Burger King, Roblox, WHOOP, House of Harlow, iRobot, Once Upon a Farm, Bombas and many, many more. Don't wait — prices increase on 2/9.

The actor shops after hours at CVS, giving contactless payment and etiquette tips.

Clues will lead fans on a 24-hour chase across multiple accounts.

And hate it a little, too.

Advertiser interest in the event is strong, says NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.

A new report from Future Commerce outlines what matters to shoppers in 2021.

Event unifies Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. and HBO Max.