The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Megan Graham reports on the sprawling Disney upfront event yesterday, when representatives from all corners of the company’s various content kingdoms came to help make the sale:

Disney’s global ad president, Rita Ferro, said what many of us would have after Paul Anthony Kelly—who starred as JFK Jr. in Hulu’s “Love Story”—introduced her at Disney’s Upfront presentation Tuesday afternoon, calling himself her biggest fan: “Oh my god. I’m dying right now.”

Ferro previewed major cultural moments ahead for Disney such as the Grammys and the Super Bowl next year on ABC, the network’s first time carrying the game since 2006. Execs were joined by New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson, free to make an appearance while his team awaits its opponent for the Eastern Conference Finals; sportscaster Joe Buck; tennis champion Billie Jean King; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell; and actors including Sarah Paulson, Lindsay Lohan, Robert Downey Jr. and William H. Macy. Singer Olivia Rodrigo showed up to perform songs including her new single “Drop Dead.”

Also onstage for his first upfront in his new gig: Josh D’Amaro.

“This is my first upfront as CEO of The Walt Disney Company,” D’Amaro said after being brought out by Anne Hathaway. “So, naturally, we decided to keep the pressure low and put a few thousand media executives in a room just to stare at me.”

In the midst of a Knicks playoffs run, D’Amaro admitted he was a Celtics fan (to a mix of cheers and jeers). And he waxed philosophical about Disney’s position in media.

“We’re all racing to assemble something—studios, streaming services, sports rights, live events and brands—that audiences feel something about,” D’Amaro said. “It is, in a way, a real compliment to this company, because what they’re racing to assemble is more or less a picture of what we already are….You can't acquire 100 years of trust. You can’t put generations of belonging onto a balance sheet. Disney is part of people’s lives in a way that few brands have ever been, and in a world of infinite choice and constant distraction, that kind of presence is rare.”

And late-night host Jimmy Kimmel quipped about his recent run-ins with President Trump.

“I’ve been through so much bulls—this year, it actually made me appreciate this bulls—,” Kimmel said, referring to the annual ad presentation. “I cost our company a lot of money this year. Billions. It is very possible that no employee in the history of any company has cost their employer more. Hiring me 24 years ago, just from a purely mathematical standpoint, was the worst personnel decision that Disney Corporation has ever made. Not even the captain of the Exxon Valdez did more damage. So it would help me a lot if you could kick in a little extra this year.”

More: “This will be the first Super Bowl on ABC in 20 years, and we are going to milk the bejesus out of it,” Kimmel said during his routine. “We are going to spend the whole year promoting the already most popular thing, and as if the country isn’t already divided enough, we put the game on Valentine’s Day.” [Variety]

Despite fans’ hopeful speculation about a change of heart at ABC, there will be no “Bachelor” or “Bachelorette” on the fall schedule for the first time since before the pandemic. [Deadline]

TelevisaUnivision’s upfronts pitch meanwhile emphasized sports, microdramas and cultural moments. “You’ll see a lot of other publishers talk about exploring short-form content,” sales executive John Kozack said. “We’re already doing it, and we’re scaling it.” [Marketing Brew]

Telemundo’s new slate leans on more reality TV, including an adaptation of Peacock’s “House of Villains.” [Deadline]

TV’s big upfront pitches conclude today with presentations by Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and YouTube, which will argue that it’s a great place for ad spending redirected from TV—and just about anywhere else.

“We think TV budgets could be spent on YouTube,” Google exec Sean Downey told Patrick Coffee for a WSJ Leadership Institute upfront preview:

YouTube for many years used videos by legions of creators around the world to compete for TV ad dollars. Now the creator economy it helped build has also spawned rival ad businesses on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. And brands and creators can post sponsored videos without necessarily paying platforms for ad inventory.

The streaming colossus’s ad presentation this year will emphasize YouTube Shorts, its vertical videos in the style of TikTok, and “creator partnerships,” where brands turn clips of a creator’s material into ads and pay YouTube to amplify them.

YouTube will further press its one-platform-fits-all strategy with a new AI tool that it says will custom-build ad packages around cultural events that interest advertisers but aren’t on the company's calendar of upcoming content.

The tool will be exclusive to upfront buyers, a spokeswoman said.

Katie Deighton writes for the newsletter about a big event that has nothing to do with the upfronts:

Amid this week’s upfronts and ahead of next month’s Cannes Lions and the summer’s FIFA World Cup, you’d be forgiven for forgetting there’s another tentpole event on the horizon: America’s 250th birthday celebration, culminating on the Fourth of July.

Sponsors from Amazon to Walmart have signed up to back the official, nonpartisan semiquincentennial organization called America250.

The occasion has also encouraged some marketers to embrace often-politicized, and therefore-sometimes-avoided, notions of patriotism and pride in the American flag.

• Steak ’n Shake in January was offering a “Patriot Milkshake” for $2.50.
• PepsiCo is temporarily selling Mountain Dew under the name American Dew.
• Kraft Heinz on Tuesday unveiled “The United Tastes of America,” a splashy multi-brand campaign that celebrates both the country and the company’s condiments.

And then there’s Stellantis-owned Jeep, which on Wednesday revealed perhaps the most patriotic campaign consumers have seen in recent memory. The brand worked with Disney’s Marvel to design a special America250 edition of the Wrangler, featuring plenty of red, white and blue details and a Captain America Shield Tire Cover. It also cast U.S. military veterans in a wider forthcoming advertising campaign called “The Original Superheroes.”

“We felt there was an opportunity to do something more meaningful than just putting an American flag on a car and calling it a day,” Olivier François, Stellantis’s global chief marketing officer, said at a press conference held Tuesday. “Jeep is a very passionate brand, and we are very passionate marketers.”

Teens helped bring malls back to life. Now they’re getting banned following waves of disruptions. [WSJ] 

Priceline brought back its Negotiator ad character, with Randall Park taking over from 95-year-old William Shatner. [Ad Age] 

Honey is stepping into the beauty spotlight thanks to buzzy brands like Activist and Aunu. [WSJ]

Ian Colley, who was most recently CMO of The Trade Desk, was named chief marketing officer at DeepIntent, a digital ad platform for healthcare marketers. [Adweek]

Fanatics named Jamie Gersch CMO of its e-commerce apparel business. She had been chief marketing officer at Rothy’s and was previously CMO at Old Navy. [WWD] 

SAT and ACT training service hired former “Fortnite” and Houseparty marketing executive Kimberly Kalb Baumgarten as chief marketing officer. [Citybiz]

“The Tonight Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will air repeats on Thursday, May 21, to avoid competing with the final episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” [THR]