By George Parker on May 13, 2013
My first real agency job in the US after escaping England for the second time was with Benton & Bowles, which after many dumb fuck mergers became DMB&B, which was acquired by Publicis and closed down by le frogs in 2002 after it turned to merde. When I joined what was then a great US [...]
Posted in Agencies, Analysis, Clients, Creative | Tagged benton & bowles, charmin toilet tissue, Dick Wilson, dmb&b, George Parker, Hollywood, Joe Arleo, mr whipple, publicis
By Stephen Foster on November 5, 2012
I know I’m getting old (older) but it’s a bit depressing when every bloody ad in Channel 4′s showcase Homeland is for mobile or games or both. Actually the show’s quite depressing too – are they stretching a one-trick plot way beyond its potential? Now we’ve got a sub-drama with Brody’s much put-upon daughter running [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative | Tagged 4g broadband, a-list, celebrity, ee, Hollywood, homeland, Kevin Bacon, saatchi & saatchi
By Stephen Foster on May 3, 2012
In a further worrying sign that Pepsico has lost its remaining marbles, the company is about to roll out a super-promotion which includes about a billion cans of Pepsi plastered with images of (now deceased) pop uberstar Michael Jackson. This is apparently to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Jacko’s famous album Bad. And obviously keys [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged bad, bbdo, billion cans, chiat day, coca-cola, global campaign, Hollywood, live for now campaign, Michael Jackson, music platform, off the wall, omnicom, Pepsi, PepsiCo, Quincy Jones
By Staff on April 18, 2012
WPP’s Penn Schoen Berland has bought film research firm First Movies for an undisclosed sum. First Movies carries out test screenings for major film studios including Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox. These sometimes lead to changes in the entire film including forlorn ‘stars’ being dumped on the cutting room floor. Penn Schoen [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, News, Politics, Research | Tagged cutting room floor, Disney, film, first movies, Hollywood, paramount, penn schoen berland, research, sony pictures, test screenings, us politics, WPP
By Stuart Smith on March 4, 2012
Can bad guys play a redemptive, positive role-model in advertising? I touched on this in my (seemingly popular) post on SS colonel Otto Skorzeny, who has been hailed by British adman Dave Trott as a creative thinker. Now, bizarrely, the two anti-heroes of 1987 film Wall Street have, quite separately, been recruited into public service [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged celebrities, Charlie Sheen, chrysler/fiat, Dave Trott, fbi, fiat abarth, gordon gecko, greed is good, Hollywood, junk bonds, Michael Douglas, Otto Skorzeny, ponzi schemes, role models, Stuart Smith, wall street
By Angie Dean on February 27, 2012
There’s star quality and real star quality: The Artist has it (and a gaggle of well-deserved Oscars) and so does Actress Salma Hayek. And who better than the well-endowed Hollywood actress to front a new campaign from US milk producers MilkPEP for ‘The Breakfast Project.?’ The trick with celebrities is to let them be (or [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged deutsch, Hollywood, milk campaign, oscars, Salma Hayek, the artist, the breakfast project, us milk producers
By David O'Reilly on June 30, 2010
Further to Angie Dean’s story on branded entertainment, we should for a moment consider Ofcom’s ludicrous suggestion that TV programmes containing product placement should have warning signs on them. Ofcom wants an on-air symbol at the beginning and end of transmissions to warn viewers that, gosh!, the car tearing round the corner or the box [...]
Posted in Clients, Creative, Media | Tagged Hollywood, ofcom, Pepsi, tv
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