Time Warner chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes has said he is open to a combination of AOL with another company, fuelling speculation that the firm is looking to sell the company or merge it with a rival.
DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Mark McNabb, the top American at Nissan North America, has resigned unexpectedly, an executive close to the matter confirmed.
Bad as the economy is now, it’d be worse if there were more Democrats and fewer Republicans. In a new Harris Poll that asked people how their household’s financial situation has changed compared to a year ago, Republicans were more likely to say that it has improved (49 percent) than worsened (29 percent), with the rest saying it has remained the same. Among Democrats—an improvident bunch, apparently—nearly twice as many said “worsened†(50 percent) as said “improved†(26 percent). There’s a similar skew in this week’s ABC News Consumer Comfort Index, with Republicans rating the economy at -3 on a scale of +100 to -100, while Democrats rate it at -47. One can surmise that the Democrats’ presidential primary campaigns, which depict the nation as one big Hooverville, have had a depressive effect on party members’ economic views, over and above the economy’s actual struggles. Listening to the candidates’ speeches and watching their commercials, Democrats must feel it’s an act of party disloyalty if they fail to feel impoverished by Republican rule.
—Posted by Mark Dolliver
This Top-Flite video, nearing a million views on YouTube, was reportedly the brainchild of Top-Flite’s national brand manager, Nate Randle. He apparently showed it to a Callaway Golf sales meeting in September and got a standing ovation from all the rap fans in attendance. After the jump, ESPN’s Kenny Mayne interviews the rapper.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
It all started when I decided I wanted to buy a small interactive shop and called a CFO friend for advice. He set up lunch with a private-equity buddy of his. I laid out my plan and asked what they thought. The private equity guy said before you spend a dime on lawyers, go talk to my friend Jeff.
(TrendHunter.com) Can’t afford a million-dollar premium domain name?
Why not own the next best thing, the reverse spelling of it. It’s called Backwording and it’s the newest domaining phenomenon that is changing the landscape of the Internet. The concept is simple: register the backward spelling of premium domain …
The new Abercrombie & Fitch children’s hospital they got name it in exchange for a $10 million donation.
“It is troubling that a children’s hospital would name its emergency room after a company that routinely relies on highly sexualized marketing to target teens and preteens,†the members of the coalition wrote in a letter that was sent on Tuesday to the hospital’s office in Columbus, Ohio.
“The Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center marries the Abercrombie brand to your reputation,†said the letter, addressed to five senior officers of the hospital. “A company with a long history of undermining children’s well-being is now linked with healing.â€
Hat tip Leslie at BAP
Werbeblogger notes that blackberry owns iphone.de. wtf?
Who needs a movie could quite possibly be the worst video ever produced, evah in the whole wide world. The irony is of course that they are selling their ability to produce videos. Hat tip metachat
LONDON – British Olympic double gold medal winner James Cracknell is to launch a new sports marketing agency, Threshold Sports, alongside industry specialists Julian Mack and Charlie Beauchamp.
LONDON – Search marketing firm Ambergreen has acquired digital agency Lightershade.
LONDON – Eighties pop icon Kim Wilde has been signed up as the new public face of kitchen retailer Magnet, which plans to introduce a focus on the environment into its ads.
LONDON – Iris has won the pan-European integrated advertising account for car rental firm Hertz.
LONDON – Sara Lee-owned skincare brand, Sanex, has launched an experiential campaign across UK gyms to promote its new Skin Energy Shower gel.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Watching "Family Guy" on online video site Hulu.com isn't like watching it on TV. You can pause the show, even take a break from it and come back to it later. As more consumers look to the web for entertainment they would normally watch on their flat screens, however, Hulu offers a map for how boob-tube advertising might develop.
GoDaddy supposedly wrestled with Fox for months to get a beaver joke into the Super Bowl. No dice. But Kotex has managed to get a whole beaver-themed spot on the air in Australia for its U brand of tampons. It shows a woman flitting around town and the beach with a beaver in tow. The voiceover says: “You’ve only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it U.†The ad has drawn “a large number of complaints,†but so far, it hasn’t been pulled.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
LONDON – Iris Worldwide has won the £20m advertising and direct communications account for vehicle hire company Hertz Europe.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Steak, a U.K.-based digital agency that recently opened an outpost in New York, wants to make search sexy. It could be tough in a discipline dominated by algorithms and bid management, but here's Steak's pitch: Search agencies need a seat at the brand-strategy table so that marketers can listen to what consumers are asking for and then use those insights to inform decisions across all online and offline marketing platforms.
LONDON – Mr Brain’s Pork Faggots is bravely wading into potentially dangerous territory with a new campaign using the strapline ‘real men prefer women with brains’.
(TrendHunter.com) Asking a shoe designer to come up with a car, is like asking a sex toy designer to come up with a shoe. Oh wait, I forgot about the Dildo Shoe. So why shouldn’t Nike ONE design team have a go at a concept car. This design may be the answer. It’s just so out-there it looks more like it belongs in Spe…
LONDON – DraftFCB is to send USB data sticks to 10,000 drivers as part of a targeted mail campaign to promote the new limited-edition Saab 93 Turbo X.
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