Mark Wahlberg does not come to mind as our go-to guy on matters of religious faith and prayer. But playing against type on multiple levels is precisely what helped his Super Bowl ad for the prayer and meditation app Hallow succeed. Or at least it seemed to break through the serial abuse of faded celebrity that drives most Super Bowl ads.

The second-hand retail model has pretty much been associated with cluttered consignment boutiques and used book shops or, worse, the shady ambience of pawn shops. Seeking to scale a more polished approach, Stephen Preuss and Erik Helgesen focused on buying and reselling used tech. They leveraged their first successful PayMore outlet in 2011 in Massapequa Park to a franchise boasting 40 stores and more than 90 more set to open by the end of the year. The market hungers for a clean, well-lit second-hand experience, they tell us. At the heart of that experience, and even the digital marketing, is …

Do younger drinkers still know what gin is? Even in my antediluvian college days of the 70s, we ordered “G&Ts” more as a goof, a kind of cosplaying WASP Brahmin. Would the generation sipping “spicey” bourbons know what to do with such a tart spirit as gin? Bombay Sapphire takes aim at these old tropes with a new “Sparkling Lemon” cocktail and “Tastes Like Friday” campaign that aims for youthful tastebuds and sociability. But how (where and when) do you sell am updated, drink concept from a brand that still carries an etching of Queen Victoria on the bottle? On …

New customers at the health and wellness store brand Good Feet start their conversation about arch supports and foot health by getting their foot print taken. According to CMO Doug Zarkin, this is one of those small moments in the retail experience that build relationships, not just transactions.

Stan Mack has been chronicling real people and their real voices in the New York streets and the offices of media for decades. A veteran cartoonist of both AdWeek and our own MediaPost, Stan is best known for his pioneering project in observational cartooning - "Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies". But in interviewing Stan for my own site, we covered so much history about the New York Times, New York Magazine and the Village Voice I thought our conversation would be a great Summer respite for Brand Insider listeners.