‘The tragedy!’: Cookie Monster endorses ad tech, sort of

On a recent tour of the new “Sesame Street” set, Digiday ran into Cookie Monster, a central character of the show for its entire run. As the program prepares to enter its 46th season, the set has been upgraded, along with a few other updates that will be announced later in the year.

“Over the years, lots of changes,” said Cookie Monster, apparently pleased with the new look of his old home.

Not that the formula is broken: A recent study of the public television juggernaut has shown that “Sesame Street” leads to improved early educational outcomes for children across demographics.

But that’s not what’s on Cookie Monster’s mind at the moment. The social media phenomenon — upwards of 37,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 9.5 million Facebook fans — has a message for his fans: “Maybe they can each send me a cookie,” he suggested.

A brief interview threatened to turn contentious, however, when the topic of deleting cookies came up. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the furry blue monster came out strongly against the practice. “That tragic!” he said, in disbelief. “The tragedy! You no delete cookies! No, you send cookies to me.”

More in Media

Amazon bets creator video podcasts can be the next TV network – if it can fix measurement

Amazon’s Upfront presentation leaned into its podcast offerings, which the company believes are the next generation of TV networks.

Media Briefing: BuzzFeed’s $120M sale marks another step in the repricing of digital media scale

Byron Allen’s $120 million BuzzFeed deals marks another turning point in the collapse of the platform-era media business model.

Mail Metro Media shifts ad strategy toward PMPs and fewer ads as it unifies stack

Mail Metro Media wants to drive 300% PMP growth over the next three years as part of plans to turn a high-volume digital direct business into an outcomes shop.