NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — "DEA" on Spike tails a crew of feds around Detroit as they attempt to bust drug traffickers. There's a cool show in here somewhere, but the show's producers — including Al Roker, trading in his happysmile floppypants for urban grit — don't trust their footage.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Element 79 is on the ropes after seeing its biggest accounts–PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Tropicana–walk out the door.
PepsiCo has been dissatisfied with Element 79’s recent creative work, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company is shifting its Gatorade business to a sister Omnicom agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, and ad responsibilities for Tropicana also are being moved within the ad-holding company, to Arnell Group.
But creative is not the sole problem foe these brands. Despite being the market leader in the sports-drink category, with a roughly 80% share, Gatorade’s growth has slowed, thanks in part to the growing popularity of water and fortified waters. Meanwhile, sales of Tropicana juices and juice drinks have sagged as PepsiCo raised prices to offset rising costs.
LONDON – Digital agency Delete London has developed a promotional website for the Ministry of Sound to support the launch of its own-brand premium vodka.
(TrendHunter.com) The cheeky campaign for Stars in Their Eyes, a TV show where “ordinary Kiwis” are transformed into superstars for a night, illustrates how ordinary people can have their dream celebrity makeover then “return to normal” while still in character the next day.
The print ads show funny transformations…
We all know that one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch and never is this more true than at a small agency. At big agencies in big cities, the two-year revolving door is more manageable. But small agencies are often not in the ad meccas. For us, it's less a revolving door than a mini floodgate that opens. So I wanted to share a quick list of a few things we've learned along the way about hiring.
LONDON – Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam has appointed Lee Newman, previously senior vice-president and group account director at Austin-based GSD&M, as managing director.
LONDON – Thomson Reuters has unveiled a major advertising campaign to coincide with the birth of the newly merged global news agency.
Avis has a humorous new commercial airing in New York promoting its support of the Yankees (replacing another one that ran for a decade, or so it seemed). This time, the plot involves a new Avis employee who gets a chilly reception from his colleagues due to his non-rhotic accent.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
LONDON – John Watson, founder of brand response agency Watson Phillips Norman, will give one of the ‘guru’ sessions at the International Direct Marketing Fair as part of the Institute of Direct Marketing’s academy programme.
SHANGHAI – Nike has begun a £600,000 legal battle against rival sportswear company Adidas, accusing the firm of signing an endorsement deal with a footballer while he was still under contract.
See how you do. Feel free to let us know your score. Best score here so far is 30…
Ah yes, those who have been paying attention know that I’m a tad preoccupied with phallic looking logos. Or things that sound dirty in another language in advertising. yes yes, I know, I’m such a child, and I won’t grow up.
So Caff decided in her infinite wisdom when she saw this logo to snap it and send the shot to me. I’m sorry, but I can’t stop laughing, is that a phallus symbol firmly planeted with balls or a nicely streamlined design of a hand flipping the bird? I wonder if the receptionist ever answers the phone with “Good morning, The Fucker company Ltd”.
LONDON – Richard Broadbent, Vodafone’s head of direct marketing, has become the third key executive to leave the mobile phone firm’s marketing department as part of a widespread redundancy programme.
New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continues its gruesome efforts to fight smoking with a new set of ads featuring “Marie†from the Bronx, who has lost various fingers and possibly bits of feet (only her fingers are shown in the ads) due to poor circulation caused by smoking. Here’s one of the TV spots; the department’s Web site has a few more. The attention to detail is impressive—the ads show the actual bone saw used in Marie’s operations. “Twelve years and 20 amputations later, I ask myself, ‘Was it worth it?’ †Marie says—a rhetorical question she doesn’t even bother to answer. (It’s unclear whether Marie, like Skip Legault from the New York state campaign, still smokes. Probably not.) The Marie ads will likely get some people to quit smoking, and other people to quit watching TV.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
(TrendHunter.com) The blogosphere is buzzing about a new service called RovAir. Rather than paying high hotel fees or subscribing to long term (and pricey) broadband aircard services, travelers can spend as little as $5.95 per day for internet servcie. RovAir ships one of their cards to you overnight, or sends it by …
Golf is kind of boring to watch. Go ahead, disagree with me in the comments section if you like, but everything about watching the sport on TV is sedated: the players, the crowds and even the announcers.
LONDON – Kia Motors has appointed Occam to provide it with access to data to improve its interaction with current and prospective customers.
Is I Want to Believe a marketable title? Fox apparently thinks so, because the upcoming X-Files movie will be called The X-Files: I Want to Believe, using a line which, as fans well know, was emblazoned on a UFO poster in Fox Mulder’s office during the run of the TV series. This is the teaser poster shown here. Promotional efforts will borrow a concept from the 7-Eleven/Kwik-E-Mart Simpsons tie-in. On the day I Want to Believe premieres, all male agents at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., will wear alien masks and go shirtless (David Duchovny loved baring his abs and pecs back in the day), and all female operatives will don red wigs, à la Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully. Am I making this up? The truth is out there, people!
—Posted by David Gianatasio
LONDON – Gyro International in Manchester is working with former England football captain Bryan Robson on a pro bono campaign for community sports organisation Robson Lloyd to attract sponsorship and improve brand awareness.
LONDON – Visa has put an end to its global sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) to concentrate its efforts on the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games.
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