Advertising Industry Archive

Dell laid off Mark Jarvis, the company’s chief marketing officer, raising questions about Enfatico’s relationship with the client. Jarvis was a supporter of the agency, and the second client-exec-supporter of Enfatico’s to go. Back in November, vp marketing Casey Jones lost his job. He was the “creator” of Enfatico, the Dell-only agency that WPP agreed to make from...

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Valassis Communications, the direct mail giant, has stopped paying its bills and its stock is worth precisely zero dollars, according to separate reports. Fraser Papers recently sued Valassis for nearly $1 million, an unpaid bill for shipping paper to the company between May and June, according to the Bangor Daily News: The Madawaska firm [Fraser] alleges that Valassis ignored its demands for...

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TBWA creates “Obama stomache ache ad” in Philippines – Domperodone Motilium spot by TBWA SMP uses a lookalike to protray the president getting indigestion while visiting the premier of the Philippines for lunch. [Source: Ad Age] Levy voted more likable than Roth, Sorrell or Wren — O’Dwyer’s poll asked readers who they’d like to share a cup of tea with....

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Movie studios routinely advertise DVDs for violent, scary and suggestive movies on children’s TV, according to recent statements by the ad industry’s own kids’ TV watchdog. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit has cited at least seven movies rated PG-13 whose DVDs were advertised this year on TV shows targeted at viewers 12 and under. Of those movies, three were...

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Advertisers gain upper hand in web formats – As growth in online advertising slows, some Internet companies are easing the restrictions they impose on the categories and formats of advertising they will accept. Web sites have started letting marketers create bigger, more intrusive ads that take up more space on the page. Video sites are accepting more “pre-roll ads,” or commercial...

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NBC nixed an idea to have a single Super Bowl spot shared by multiple advertisers. The idea, floated by agency Cesario Migliozzi, was to buy a single spot in the big game and then divide it into eight mini-spots of a few seconds each. Each slot would be bought by a different advertiser, and the whole would form 30 seconds of extremely fast messaging. But according to Adweek and AgencySpy, NBC...

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BBDO has taken more than its fair share of recession headlines recently as it announced layoffs of 189 staffers and the loss of its flagship Pepsi account. Salt is poured on the wound with this Ad Age report noting that BBDO will create “only” three Super Bowl spots this year. Folks who remain at the agency could be forgiven for asking themselves, what went wrong? After all, this...

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These were the stories that didn’t make BNET’s headlines in December 2008, but were nonetheless too odd to be ignored. Brits invent “eyelid advertising” Decals and messages are written onto participants’ eyelids, who then go around winking at potential customers. Billed on a pay-per-wink basis. Saatchi restaurant gets clean bill of health NYC health inspectors...

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The New York Times’ revenues sank 13.9 percent last month. Ad revenue fell 20.9 percent. Despite a traffic increase to its web sites, ad revenue from the web declined 3.8 percent. At sister company New England Media Group (which houses the Boston Globe et al), ad revenue tumbled 23.3 percent. The sobering news that even the best news brand on the planet cannot yet make a decent business...

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JWT’s director of trendspotting Ann Mack has spent much of December giving interviews to the media. Trendspotting is one of those dubious add-on services that agencies like to sell to clients because it’s cheap to produce and non-measurable. But the real problem with trendspotting is that it’s a bit like being a TV psychic: merely asking the right questions and stating the...

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