What you need to know in advertising today

A week after Travis Kalanick announced that he would take a leave of absence, the Uber CEO has gone one step further and stepped down as the ride-hailing company's top executive.

Uber has been swept up in a swirl of societal discontent recently - and it's hurt the brand. It's something that branding experts say could've been avoided.

To read more about the lessons that other companies can learn from Uber- and Travis Kalanick's - spectacular rise and fall, click here.

In other news:

The rise and fall of Travis Kalanick, Uber's embattled billionaire founder who just resigned as CEO. Here's the whole story.

Snapchat reportedly paid over $250 million for an app that lets you track your friends. It recently snapped up mapping app maker Zenly in what was likely one of its largest acquisitions ever.

A leaked guestlist shows Snapchat sent 48 employees to court advertisers at Cannes. Snapchat has normally kept a pretty subtle presence at Cannes Lions compared to Google and Facebook, but now that it's a public company, it's a lot more visible this year.

Kayak is letting travelers search for travel deals using emojis. The travel search engine has rolled out an emoji-search functionality today, in which users can use emojis to look up flight or hotel deals for their destinations.

Amazon just hammered another "nail in the coffin" for Macy's, Sears, and JCPenney. With Amazon announcing its Prime Wardrobe program, retail industry stalwarts like Macy's, Sears, and JCPenney have even more to worry about.

Reddit is in Cannes this week to convince marketers they should be sending more of their money there, reports the Wall Street Journal. The site is launching video ads, has overhauled its self-serve ad platform and will redesign its desktop.