Advertising Industry Archive

PepsiCo has apologized via a Twitter message for an ad for Pepsi Max which features a “calorie” creature attempting to commit suicide. The ad, from BBDO Dusseldorf, features a blue, bean-shaped character simultaneously shooting himself in the head, with a noose round his neck, and poison in his other hand. The bean is supposed to be “one very very very lonely calorie.” BNET...

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BMB Cheil deal makes agency owned by its own client, Samsung. JWT London has been appointed to handle the £13 million advertising account for Mazda Motors UK. Publicis and ZenithOptimedia launch new Montreal offices: The agency moved from the World Trade Centre in Old Montreal to hip, bright offices in the Ex Centris building on Blvd. St-Laurent. Ogilvy Advertising has designed a...

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WPP chief Martin Sorrell and Publicis boss Maurice Levy are the subject of a recently published “analysis” by Bloomberg’s Kristen Schweizer, but reading between the lines it seems like the story is really an excuse to dish — or manufacture — a catfight between the two ad agency network honchos. Sure, the story contains some business-ey info about how “the...

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Twitter has revealed more about its plans to generate revenue based on advertising. An ad plan for Twitter has been revealed, but it apparently generates no revenue for Twitter itself. Client Sayso Mobile purchased a bunch of Twitter user profile homepages and sent an automated message to users following those people. But the company placing the buy — and thus taking the fee —...

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Decline of Western Civilization: Teacher whose photocopying budget was cut couldn’t print his students’ test papers. So he sold advertising on them. 75 clients interested. Lowe, Aegis, BBDO in India gear up anti-terror security measures in India following Mumbai attacks. Fitch Ratings warned Wednesday that a potential global recession spanning into 2010 could lead to a media...

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Every campaign needs a coupon — that’s the takeaway from the current holiday season’s marketing blitz. Even upscale brands like Lucky Brands and Saks Fifth Avenue are joining Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart with coupon discount schemes. Procter & Gamble seems to have come up with the most original angle on the phenom: It opened a pop-up store in Midtown New York where...

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When the going gets tough, WPP gets going — to Ireland. With the British economy in tatters and the government desperate to shore up its tax revenues, Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group has fled the country to set up its legal headquarters in the tax haven of Ireland. The company issued new shares and will now hold its shareholder meetings in Dublin. WPP’s real headquarters...

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Ogilvy Advertising has created what sounds like an unbelievably annoying Fanta campaign for teens. It consists of a mobile app that uses high-pitched frequencies that those over 20 generally can’t hear. (Your hearing declines with age.) The sounds include wolf whistles, “pssts,” and warnings tagged to words or phrases such as “cool,” “uncool” and “let’s get out of here.”...

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Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts has launched a diatribe against investment bankers: “Watching this latest meltdown from neighbouring TriBeCa has been horrendous. I don’t really care what happens to the bankers. In fact, I’m more than a little pissed that so many of them have walked away with fat cat bonuses over the last three years and we found no way to get that...

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PepsiCo announced a new global CMO, Jill Beraud, formerly the CMO at Victoria’s Secret. Her first job will be to decide whether BBDO Dusseldorf’s new suicide-themed Pepsi Max ads should be pulled. The ads show a blue, bean-shaped character simultaneously shooting himself in the head, with a noose round his neck, and poison in his other hand. The bean is supposed to be “one...

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