Advertising Industry Archive

Vatican Radio is to “experiment” with commercials in order to defray its operating costs, according to the Catholic News Agency. The first advertiser will be Italian electricity utility ENEL. The radio service has never carried ads in its 80-year history. Radio Pope broadcasts in 47 languages and costs $29.8 million a year to run, CNA reported. It generates zero revenues. Potential...

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The Michigan state judge presiding in the trial between Valassis and News America Marketing will allow testimony from Robert Emmel, a whistleblower formerly employed by News America. Although Emmel himself has been banned from the stand by order of a federal judge in Atlanta, his pre-existing deposition testimony from a separate case* will be allowed in Michigan. An attorney for Valassis...

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Naked admen! Rude clients! Woody Allen and Vince Shlomi! Here’s BNET’s weirdest advertising stories of May. Unemployed copywriter poses naked for work Lawson Clarke’s MaleCopywriter.com is a hilarious parody of 70’s porn (and Bob Garfield phones in another column …) “It’s like a fireman came in your mouth” Copywriter for whom English is a second...

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BBDO is backing off a plan to impose “sequential liability” on media outlets, according to Joe Mandese at MediaPost. BNET first noted that agencies of BBDO-parent Omnicom were attempting to delay payments to vendors until clients had paid its agencies back in March. Omnicom is scrambling to manage its cash as clients delay payments but vendors seek them upfront, scared they will be...

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India’s Sahara Group is in “advanced talks” to replace AIG as sponsors of Manchester United, Reuters reports. BNET previously noted that Man Utd probably need at least $100 million from a new sponsor in order to stave off their debt payments and retain the pricey talent that adorns the field at Old Trafford. Players are about to enter the notorious summer “transfer...

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Nike wants to employ a “reporter” to interview sports stars and is offering to pay their expenses for travel and “gear.” The stories found by the reporter will appear on NikeWomen.com. The “Nike Field Reporter” must be female and aged 18-24.  She must also be “sassy, smart and sports savvy.”* The job ad Nike posted on MediaBistro.com (click image...

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Normally, when a woman gets married she must endure the brief embarrasment of a wedding speech by her father, who will trot out some cringe-inducing memory before concluding that she will always be his little girl. Everyone dabs at their eyes. End of story. But not if you’re the daughter of Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts. When that happens, your dad uses his column in the New...

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Sydney marketing agency Mentally Friendly spent “months” posing as the official Twitter voice of the New South Wales police force before being discovered. The shop has now stopped impersonating the police and handed over the tweet stream to the real police, who are continuing to use it as if nothing had happened. The shop gained 600 followers before the fake was discovered. A sample...

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KegWorks, a blog about beer, resurrected a gallery of hilariously bad beer ads from what looks like the 1950s and 1960s. Almost all of them feature women cooking or being housewives, while men pour beer and wear suits. We’re supposed to laugh at their chauvinism. But compared to some of today’s advertising, it’s tame. Quiznos “2 Girls 1 Sub” ad, which features two...

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The Valassis v. News America Marketing trial, set to open Wednesday in Michigan, will receive almost no coverage in the media thanks to a decision by Wayne County circuit court judge Michael Sapala. A request by the Courtroom View Network to have cameras stream live testimony on the web was denied by the judge. The ruling means that it is almost certain no reporters will be at the trial. (Ad...

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