I was amused to read that the incoming head of comms at Ryanair (forgive the oxymoron) has “deliberately” ruled out a social media strategy. New boy Robin Kiely (left) tells us – apparently without irony – that such an initiative ...
Read More »Publicis Groupe/BBH deal starts to unravel as key agency Neogama loses two biggest accounts
Not all fairy tales have a happy ending. One such is the marriage of convenience between Brazilian hotshop Neogama, its micro-network affiliate BBH and Publicis Groupe. Readers will recall that, a little over six months ago, Publicis chief Maurice Lévy ...
Read More »VW’s Super bowl ad will be the world’s most expensive at $10m – but will it do the business?
Roll up, roll up, for the most expensive ad in the world. Volkswagen is about to spend $10m on a single, minute-long airtime execution. Why so pricey? Well, it’s not production values that make it so – however meticulous the ...
Read More »UK PM David Cameron goes in for some Borg-style brand-bashing at Davos
If it weren’t for the fact David Cameron (left) watches so little television, I would be forced to conclude he has been modelling his recent behaviour on Borg, the Viking Himbo now fronting Tesco’s advertising. How else to explain his ...
Read More »Why the rush to ‘value’ products led to the great Tesco horse meat scandal
Until a couple of days ago, few outside the food retail and logistics business would ever have heard of Silvercrest. Now it has achieved household notoriety as the weak-link in the food chain that has served illegal horse meat up ...
Read More »ITV’s new identity marks Crozier’s financial turnaround – but ITV is still an analogue business
It has been compared to bottoms – and also the most fiendishly complicated sex toy yet devised by Ann Summers. Yes, the new ITV logo, spearheading the TV station’s most ambitious rebrand in 11 years, has turned us into a ...
Read More »My pick of 2012: Follow the Frog, Wieden+Kennedy and Jerry Buhlmann
All right, league tables of achievement are as commonplace as turkeys right now. Why burden you with another one? Well, I’ve been asked to – by the good folk at More About Advertising. So: Ad of the Year. Yes, I ...
Read More »Do the Epica award-winning epic commercials signal the death of the 30-second spot?
You don’t have to look far for this year’s Big Theme in the Epica creative advertising awards. After 25 years as a Eurocentric awards scheme, with a nod now and then to the wider EMEA hinterland, Epica finally went global, ...
Read More »Tesco’s US marketing scapegoat Tim Mason was actually needed to solve problems at home
Chief executive Philip Clarke’s ruthless dispatch of his number two, Tim Mason (left), is a final reminder – if any were needed – that the past is another country, so far as Tesco is concerned. They did things differently there; ...
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