Welcome back. Today, Alex Lubar leaves Omnicom just before big changes; Meta designs stores to amplify its marketing message; and Disney’s Mormon phenoms take over screens across America.

DDB Global CEO Alex Lubar has left the Omnicom agency network to become chief executive officer at Fundamentalco, a brand consultancy catering to private-equity firms and their portfolio companies, Patrick Coffee reports for CMO Today.

He exits as Omnicom has nearly completed its acquisition of Interpublic, a deal that will create the world’s largest ad conglomerate. DDB declined to comment on whether it will fill Lubar’s position.

Lubar said he made the move partly to explore a different kind of business after a somewhat conventional trajectory in the agency world. Leaders of a firm like Fundamentalco are more likely to work directly with clients’ CEOs and boards than at a traditional creative shop, he said.

Lubar in his new role reports to Jonny Bauer, the Droga5 veteran who spun Fundamentalco out of Blackstone last year.

A departure in more ways than one: Fundamentalco employs roughly 35 people—a bit leaner than DDB, whose headcount tops 10,000.

Meta Platforms has opened a 5,000-square-foot, two-story retail space in Midtown Manhattan to promote its wearable tech, Meghan Bobrowsky and Isabella Simonetti write.

The Instagram and Facebook parent has been on a retail spree since last year after its Ray-Ban AI glasses became a surprise hit, planting pop-ups in Las Vegas and Burlingame, Calif., plus a permanent store in Los Angeles.

All are meant to be eminently Instagrammable.

“We want people to take pictures. We want them to come with their friends. We don’t want them in and out of the store quickly,” said Matt Jacobson, Meta’s vice president and creative director for AI wearables.

The skateboarding-themed space displays all of Meta’s smartglasses and VR headsets. A laser-engraving station is available to customize glasses cases.

There are also free cookies. “It wouldn’t feel right for us to build just a super clean, super efficient, selling-returning machine,” Jacobson said.

More AI: Pioneering AI researcher and Meta Platforms scientist Yann LeCun says large language models are a dead end, not the path to superintelligence. [WSJ] 

An Instagram series auditioning AI actors is giving human performers some welcome reassurance. [Ad Age] 

Disney is busily spinning the success of Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” into portfolio-wide synergy, Allie Jones writes:

• Taylor Frankie Paul, the 31-year-old mother of three who kicked off the series by openly discussing “soft swinging,” is ABC’s next Bachelorette.
• Two other Mormon wives were cast on this season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
• And an “emotional affair” between the show’s Jessi Draper Ngatikaura and a cast member on Hulu’s “Vanderpump Villa” takes center stage in the third season of “Mormon Wives.”

The cast’s increasingly large paydays and contract negotiations in turn have become a major plot on the show. “The breaking of the fourth wall has been great,” said Rob Mills, the executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television.

Mills said to expect more crossovers in the future—the husbands of the Mormon wives are scheduled to visit “Vanderpump Villa” next season, for example—and potential spinoffs.

More TV news: Disney and YouTube TV signed a deal returning channels such as ESPN and ABC to roughly 10 million households after a 15-day standoff. [WSJ]

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