Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – Virgin Media TV’s recently-launched channel Virgin 1 has received a boost after securing one of the most prominent slots on the Sky EPG.

This campaign baffles.

It’s a Super Bowl buzzkill, courtesy of Partnership for a Drug Free America. In this spot, a languishing drug dealer tells you he’s going broke because your kids are getting high out of the medicine cabinet.

Hi, I’m American Airlines. I’ve got some wad to blow on a :30 Super Bowl 2008 spot, but oh, I can’t be bothered to put together anything new.

In this day of quarterly numbers and short-term decisions, it’s refreshing to see a company move counter to this trend. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is such a company.

Messrs. Brin, Page and Schmidt made it starkly clear in Google’s so-called “Owner’s Manual,” filed as part of the company’s IPO prospectus in April 2004, that they would not shy away from making big long-term bets at the expense of short-term gains.

“If opportunities arise that might cause us to sacrifice short-term results but are in the best long-term interest of our shareholders, we will take those opportunities,” the document says. “We will have the fortitude to do this. We would request that our shareholders take the long-term view.”

Google shares have sunk 22% in the past month as the search and ad giant looks to move into the mobile business by purchasing at auction rights to the 700 MHz spectrum. The price of entry is expected to be in the billions.

LONDON – Global Radio must decide by 5 March whether to submit a fresh offer for GCap Media, after a City watchdog issued a “put up or shut up” deadline.

LONDON – EHS Brann Cirencester, part of the Euro RSCG 4D network, is launching two direct marketing campaigns for Volvo’s V70 and V50 R-Design models.

We’re not sure who in this British ad scuffle is more ridiculous: the people who made Ryanair’s “schoolgirl” ad, or the people who banned it. The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (which banned it) disapproved of the model’s plaid skirt/ white blouse combo and classroom backdrop, which “strongly suggested she was a schoolgirl.” Analysis like that is why they’re the experts. The airline, meanwhile, doesn’t come off much better. They counterargued that the model’s attire was “fashionable among young women,” not just students. Plus, they “disagreed that the ad had sexual connotations, stating that it was ‘obvious’ the image was of a woman.” Uh fellas, I think that’s what the ASA was objecting to.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

LONDON – COI has kicked off a search for an agency to handle a direct marketing brief to promote the Pensions Regulator.

LONDON – Ford is funding a music video featuring Alesha Dixon, the former Mis-Teeq singer and winner of Strictly Come Dancing, that promotes its new Ford Focus model and Dixon’s latest track.