May 2010
You are browsing the archive for May 2010.
By Stephen Foster on May 31, 2010
Once upon a time British newspapers had style, or tried to, and Peter O’Donnell’s cartoon Modesty Blaise in the London Evening Standard, which ran for over 40 years, certainly did. O’Donnell died recently, as did another legendary Fleet Street stylist who made his name in the 1960s, political columnist Alan Watkins. Both rose to fame [...]
Posted in Media, News | Tagged Alan Watkins, evening standard, Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell
By Stephen Foster on May 31, 2010
Not that Regev was involved personally in the raid by Israeli commandos on the Gaza flotilla relief mission but it’s shoved him back in the spotlight again as Israel’s official spokesman. And the Financial Times, of all papers, finds itself occupying an unwelcome position too as its report by one Tobias Buck last Monday, to [...]
Posted in News, Politics | Tagged financial times, gaza flotilla deaths, israel, Mark Regev, Tobias Ruck
By Stephen Foster on May 30, 2010
Here’s an interesting article in Adweek that describes the way big companies are turning away from individual (or agency-produced) insights in favour of finding out what ‘crowds’ of consumers think. And, surprise, surprise, these exercises in democracy cost them rather less, with the winning submission sometimes costing as little as $1000 with the rest, which [...]
Posted in Clients, News, Research | Tagged adweek, crowd insights, flashmob
By Staff on May 30, 2010
The UK Advertising Standards Authority was introduced 40-odd years ago as a system of self-regulation paid for by a small tax on media spend. At the time it was regarded by advertising’s opponents (and they had a case) as just a way of kicking a problem into the long grass. But in the intervening years [...]
Posted in Media, News | Tagged 2009 complaints, advertising standards authority, christian ads, Michael O'Leary, ryanair
By Stephen Foster on May 30, 2010
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd wants to bring in a 40 per cent surtax on the mining giants who are digging up huge chunks of the country to supply the ever-growing needs of Chinese industry. He’s been criticised already for launching a $38m ad campaign putting the government’s case. Some say that he’s ignoring the [...]
Posted in Media, News, Politics | Tagged ad war, australian government, Kevin Rudd, mining surtax, rio tinto, xstrata
By Staff on May 28, 2010
Is the world about to suffer meerkat fatigue? It wouldn’t be the advertising industry if it didn’t take someone else’s idea and work it to the point of extinction and now the critters, who feature in the phenomenal success of the comparethemarket ads in the UK, are starring alongside Lionel Messi in the World Cup [...]
Posted in Clients, Creative, News | Tagged Lionel Messi, meerkats, pepsi world cup campaign
By Staff on May 28, 2010
Vodafone has emerged as the most noticed sponsor in the Indian Premier League cricket competition ahead of title sponsor DLF real estate, according to an Asia Pacific region survey by media agency MEC. Even though the FIFA World Cup hasn’t actually started yet its sponsors have and long-time supporters Adidas and Coca-Cola have created the [...]
Posted in News | Tagged adidas, coca-cola, dlf, ipl, Vodafone, world cup
By Stephen Foster on May 28, 2010
There’s influence and influence and the Financial Times seems to have it in spades if the reaction to a story in last Wednesday’s pink ‘un is any guide. The FT wrote that China, the world’s biggest buyer of government bonds (it has buckets of surplus cash from its cheaply-priced exports) had decided to stop buying [...]
Posted in Media, News | Tagged China, european bonds, financial times, Wall Street Journal
By Stephen Foster on May 27, 2010
And it’s not half bad really. It still seems tough on Fallon to lose Sony after a few bravura commercials and when it went to Anomaly, an ‘integrated agency’ for want of a better word (if these new ideas companies are so clever why can’t they think of something to call themselves? Ideas company wouldn’t [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients | Tagged 3dtv, anomaly, Carl Johnson, fallon, simons palmer, Sony, tbwa
By Stephen Foster on May 27, 2010
At which point you presumably aren’t bringing in too much new business. But Omnicom shareholders today supported a proposal that will give outgoing CEO John Wren (his dependents presumably) up to $41m when he dies. He’s already due to collect $2.5m a year in his retirement. Even youthful BBDO boss Andrew Robertson is due to [...]
Posted in Agencies, News | Tagged Andrew Robertsonn, death, Joh Wren, omnicom
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