Advertising Analysis

Is it just me, or are the ad campaigns for Ketel One, Crown Royal and Chivas Regal all essentially identical? They all feature men in their 30s who live by some sort of unstated guys’ code. Sure, the ads are all “different,” but they all seem to have been shot from the same brief: Give us something to appeal to aspirant investment-banker types who think they live by a...

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It’s not news that financial disclosure standards for European companies are lax compared to their U.S. counterparts, but the Q3 2009 “results” announcement just issued by British ad agency holding company Aegis (AEGS.L) illustrates just how lousy those low standards are. It doesn’t give the company’s revenue numbers. Nor its profits. Nor expenses. It only gives...

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Bayern Munich has landed the biggest lead sponsorship deal on the planet: £25.5 million (€25 million, $37.3 million)a year from Deutsche Telekom, whose T-Home brand adorns the Bundesliga team’s shirts. The deal — which runs through 2013 — puts Bayern atop BNET’s Global Football Sponsorship Deal League (see below), vaulting Liverpool F.C., Manchester United and Real...

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Goldman Sachs (GS) apologized for its role in the financial crisis this week and announced it would invest $500 million in small businesses as a mea culpa. But corporate reputation expert Eric Dezenhall believes the move may be an expensive and pointless kabuki show for the unwashed masses who don’t understand how the firm really works. Goldman’s move is widely seen as a PR gesture...

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UPDATE: The judge ruled against AT&T’s bid to get a temporary injuction stopping Verizon’s ads. AT&T will get another chance to stop the ads at a hearing in December. In a legal fight over the advertising for Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T)’s rival 3G cellphone networks, AT&T has admitted that its 3G network is smaller and that Verizon’s ads are...

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Medical marijuana may be legal in California but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you like about it on billboards near schools. That’s the takeaway from an incident in Anaheim which resulted in three outdoor ads parked within a block of a high school being removed. The OC Register reports: The billboards, located near the corner of Ball Road and Gilbert Street, originally...

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Did McCann Milan rip off New York artist Philip Toledano to create a creepy public service campaign against child abuse? That’s what AgencySpy thinks: Our spy tells us that this is another example of “how hacks routinely just rip off artists’ concepts.” The similarities are apparent … Check out the two images below. The top one is McCann’s effort for Casa de...

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Revenues at Valassis (VCI), the supermarket coupon giant, may have tumbled nearly 4 percent in the last quarter, but CEO Al Schultz is cashing in: He just exercized or sold about $7.4 million in stock and options. Some of those options were priced as low as $1.32. Schultz cashed out tens of thousands of equities at around $16 and $17 a share. Many of the sales were automatic, meaning that they...

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Saatchi & Saatchi is running British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s re-election campaign, according to Sky News. It’s a tough campaign to win, as the ruling Labour Party trails the opposition Conservatives 42 to 29 percent in the polls. If Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts‘ history in government and politics is any guide, there may be a debacle on the horizon. Roberts is no doubt...

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The news that online insurer Esurance is to hire a new ad agency had my heart racing: Would America finally be delivered from the company’s annoying animated ads, the ones with the pink-haired “secret agent” perpetually pursued by killer robots that can only be defeated by, er … auto-insurance? Alas, it is not to be. Esurance told Adweek its new agency, Duncan/Channon,...

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