Mars Snacking Chief Brand Officer Unpacks AI Risks and Creative Credibility at Brandweek
Rankin Carroll, the chief brand officer of Mars Snacking, recently detailed the company's approach to high-stakes creative experimentation during a session at Brandweek 2026. According to reporting from Adweek, Carroll emphasized that while bold ideas should cause a degree of nervous tension, they must remain anchored in a brand’s specific identity and long-term cultural credibility.
Context from Industry Pulse
The emphasis on centralized AI strategy at Mars coincides with a broader industry reflection on marketing efficiency following the 2026 election cycle. While Mars focuses on controlled experimentation to maintain brand equity, other sectors are grappling with high-expenditure waste. Adweek notes that political campaigns recently spent near-record amounts per voter, leading to calls for a rethink of traditional advertising outlays. Meanwhile, established brands like Lego are leaning into traditional storytelling, such as their Holiday Workshop campaign. These contrasting approaches highlight a tension between maintaining legacy brand stewardship and the rapid, often chaotic adoption of new technologies and platform-driven creator marketing.
"CMOs need to own the agenda alongside technology leadership, bringing top-down clarity to investment, priorities and what the company should build, buy, rent or borrow."
During a discussion at the Marketing Vanguard stage, Carroll highlighted the 2023 Snickers AI initiative as a pivotal moment for the organization. As Adweek reports, this project involved roughly ten technology partners and required extensive oversight from legal and security teams to manage the safety risks associated with agentic creative experiences. The experiment utilized a strict list of 8,000 blocked words to protect the brand's reputation at a time when AI safety protocols were less established than they are today.
Carroll argued that successful creative risks require a unified organizational commitment rather than isolated efforts. By bringing legal and security leadership into the process early, Mars was able to navigate the complexities of an ambitious technical experiment. Adweek notes that Carroll views this collaborative problem-solving as the essential foundation for any brand attempting to integrate emerging technologies into their marketing strategy without creating internal chaos.
A central component of the Mars strategy involves the Why test, which asks if a specific brand has earned the right to participate in a cultural moment. Carroll pointed to Skittles' long-standing relationship with the LGBTQ+ community as an example of building authentic credibility over several years. According to Adweek, Carroll believes that if a brand cannot provide a convincing strategic answer for why it is pursuing a specific bold swing, the idea likely qualifies as a stunt rather than a calculated risk.
Looking toward the future of the industry, Carroll expressed concerns regarding the training of junior marketers in an AI-driven landscape. He suggested that the profession will likely undergo a complete transformation within three years, yet a clear model for developing new talent has not yet emerged. Adweek reports that Carroll views talent development as a critical leadership responsibility. He also warned CMOs against allowing disconnected AI pilots to proliferate, advocating instead for top-down clarity on whether to build, buy, or rent new technological capabilities.
The Industry Pulse Bottom Line
For legacy brands, AI adoption succeeds only when it is treated as a unified leadership mandate rather than a series of disjointed experiments, ensuring that technical innovation never compromises long-term brand credibility.