Hasta La Creative!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Marketers still worried about the course of the economy held their U.S. ad spending nearly flat in the first quarter, nudging the total up 0.6% from the period a year earlier, and probably didn't pick up the pace in the second quarter, according to a new report from TNS Media Intelligence. The top 10 advertisers spent $4.4 billion from January through March, the report said, for a slight gain of 1.6%. Spending on the top 10 ad categories fell 1.8% to $17.4 billion.

If you want your seafood fresh, John West is the seafood company for you.

LONDON – Independent News & Media has warned of a volatile press ad market as it announced revenues marginally ahead of expectations in a trading statement to the City.

In trying times, brands often turn to nostalgia, hence Rolling Stone's new partnership with Macy's for a series of "limited edition" t-shirts.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Susan Lyne has stepped down as president-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia after nearly four years in the post, the company said this morning.

Creative Director Rich Russo of ad agency Euro RSCG Worldwide called on the talents of award-winning editor Jeff Ferruzzo of Outside Editorial for a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) for the Coalition for the Homeless. The nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping the homeless, the organization’s new PSA entitled “When All Else Fails” features :90, :60, :30 and :15 versions; and is currently airing on the E-Health Network throughout New York.

Concepted by Euro’s Rich Russo and directed by Gary Lankford, with cinematography by Kevin McKnight, “When All Else Fails” informs New Yorkers about the growing epidemic of homelessness in their city. A diverse group of homeless (men, women, and even children) depicted in a montage sequence are empowered, given a voice, as each reads excerpts from a “New York Magazine” article addressing the issue. As an image of a man’s face fades into that of a child, the narrator delivers an alarming statistic: the average age of a homeless person in New York City today is nine years old.

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LONDON – Britvic is moving its Tango and J2O accounts out of CHI & Partners and into Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

MySpace is collaborating with best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho to make a user-generated movie of his book The Witch of Portobello.

Users can submit videos focusing on one of the book’s characters to MySpaceTV or Coelho’s MySpace page, and up to 15 winning submissions will be molded into a video “mash-up” called “The Experimental Witch.” Users can also submit songs for a soundtrack to the film, with up to 16 selected for the project.

Submissions for the project, which will be promoted in 20 countries, will begin on June 16 and close on July 25, with winners to be announced on August 24. Coelho said that winning filmmakers would receive a reward of 3,000 euros ($4,638).

Coelho communicates with his readers via his MySpace page and he said he finds the service “addicting.”

HP is also a sponsor.

[via Adweek]

LONDON – Trinity Mirror regional sales company Amra is joining ad marketplace AdJug, adding the 274 newspapers it represents to AdJug’s existing network of 1,200 publisher sites.

Peter Seligmann, CEO-chairman of Conservation International, delivered a keynote address at Advertising Age’s Green Conference in New York yesterday, telling brand managers it’s okay to be not perfect.

In the current environment, accusations of “greenwashing” have become the norm, but that’s no excuse to sit on the sidelines.

None of us are pure. None of your brands are pure,” he said. “We need an aspiration to be pure. We’re not going to achieve that if we wait until we’re pure to say something. We’re going to be silent. And we can’t afford to be silent.”

I agree that we all need to move in a better direction, but I also believe striving is not enough. We actually need to reach our environmental goals.

Later in the piece, there’s a mention of a program at Fairmont Hotels where guests go shopping for organic produce with chefs from the hotel restaurants. I like that.