Advertising Industry Archive

It’s time to ask whether Havas boss Vincent Bollore may have waited too long in his bid to acquire Aegis. If he wanted to snap up the shares cheap, he should have done so back in November when Aegis was trading at around 47.25. That was also the time when CEO Robert Lerwill left the company. Since then, Aegis stock has only risen. It’s now trading at around 85, no doubt on the...

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BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson’s video interview with DMNews contains an interesting piece of product placement for new-ish client Starbucks (see video below). As the interview starts, there’s a barely noticeable paper cup on his desk at screen left. But halfway through, the video cuts abruptly, and the cup is front and center, prominently displaying a green Starbucks logo. Subtle! Other...

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MDC Partners, the corporate owner of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, scheduled its Q1 2009 earnings call for April 28. It also restated some of its earnings to “reflect discontinued operations during the fourth quarter of 2008.” If you’re thinking that restatement accounts for MDC’s uncoupling from Cliff Freeman & Partners, which took place...

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Grey Group is begging bloggers to stop posting an ad it created for Doc Morris Pharmacies condoms that shows an image of Mao Zedong in the form of a sperm. The ad suggests that using the condom will prevent you from creating a new diabolical world leader. But the ad has apparently offended the Chinese government, so Grey has rushed out an apology and a statement disowning the ad (click to...

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GlobalHue, the agency at the center of allegations that its billings on the Bermuda Tourism account were excessive, has spoken out to defend itself — and to criticize BNET for suggesting that spending more ad money on minority interest channel TV One that it did in The New York Times was “weird.” The agency also hinted, as it has in the past, that criticism of its billing and...

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WPP has accused Spot Runner – the turnkey online TV commercial buyer that in theory gave even the lowliest of advertisers cheap access to national TV advertising — of operating an investment scam that diverted $54 million to the founders’ pockets (see document below). UPDATE: Spot Runner brass have responded to the allegations in a message to their staff. See full text...

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A recent ad for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the side of the Hotel Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles illustrates that it’s not just newspapers and broadcast TV that are being killed off by technological changes in the ad business. The venerable art of hand-painting an ad on the side of a building is going the way of the dodo also. Handpainted murals were once one the few forms of...

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ZenithOptimedia has reduced its ad spend forecast for 2009. In December it said the year would see a 0.2 percent decline, per Adweek, but now it’s calling for a 7 percent decline. Only the internet will get extra ad dollars, Reuters points out, with spending rising 8.6 percent. ClickZ notes that estimate has come down from an in-hindsight-delusional forecast of a 20.9 percent increase....

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A new study concludes, unsurprisingly, that illuminated digital billboards do not distract drivers any more than regular paper ones. “Unsurprising” because the billboard industry — in the form of the Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research and Education — paid for the study to be done. Critics claim that brightly lit LED-based outdoor ads are dangerous because...

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Steak n Shake has sued its agency, The Varnson Group, for allegedly kidnapping its web site and holding hostage its promo images, photos, and coupon templates in a $449,000 billing dispute. The rift represents one of the fastest meet-and-break-ups between an ad agency and a client in recent years. Steak n Shake wants its advertising material returned — including control of its web site,...

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