The Mini Countryman is a bizarre attempt by BMW to install an estate car cum crossover vehicle in a small town car. As such it’s probably a clever idea to remind customers of the brand’s roots. Minis are synonomous with ...
Read More »Who has the best agency brands, Omnicom or WPP? Or might it be Publicis?
Advertising is bouncing back with a vengeance from the depths of the recession as big corporates (clients) realise that there’s market share out there to be grabbed and they’d better do it before some young upstart (like Reckitt-Benckiser) takes their ...
Read More »Can Easyjet's Stelios match Richard Branson's Virgin Active with easyGym?
Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is making another attempt to build a worthwhile brand extension to his Easy brand with the launch of easyGym, a cut-price chain of gyms in the UK. With everyone predicting real pain for the economy ...
Read More »Problems mount for Tories’ Andy Coulson as former NoW staffers finger him for phone tapping
Andy Coulson, the UK coalition government’s official spin doctor in number 10 Downing Street, resigned as editor of The News of the World in 2007 when his royal correspondent Clive Goodman was convicted of illegal phone tapping. At the time ...
Read More »Apple launches Ping, cuts price of TV content – but how long before Google trumps the lot?
Apple boss Steve Jobs says his new user network Ping isn’t a challenger to Facebook because Facebook is about life, Ping is about (sharing) music. But why just music? He’s also introducing 99 cent film rentals to Apple TV, the ...
Read More »Autoglass threatens to unload more terrible advertising on the UK
Worrying news out today that Autoglass, the company with those intensely irritating radio ads, is to double its marketing budget to £30 million with the aim of, in the words of its marketing director, “reaching superbrand status”. Anyone who listens ...
Read More »Havas boosted by strong North America performance
Havas, fifth in the marcoms holding company stakes, produced a strong profit surge in the first half of 2010 on the back of a rebound in North America where it has been been engaged in some heavy restructuring. The French-owned ...
Read More »Sony ups challenge to Apple with new music and video service
Sony is to announce a new internet-based music and video subscription service to run across all its devices including Playstations, Vaio computers, Blu-ray video players, Walkmans, Bravia TVs and Sony Ericsson mobiles. Millions of Sony consumers already access the internet ...
Read More »This Nike effort was one of Jeff Kling’s finest – but why was it banned?
This is a Nike ad for Euro 2000, featuring lots of blasts from the past like Edgar Davids, Dwight Yorke (not eligible for a European competition, why don’t agencies check these things out) and Andy Cole (not chosen). Anyway it ...
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