Advertising Industry Archive

The decline in Q1 adspend reported this week may put pressure on clients to demand more invasions of consumer privacy with online behavioural targeting. This could be the big break the notorious Phorm has been looking for. Thus far, companies have shied away from behavioural targeting, in which tracking cookies left on consumers’ computers tell advertisers what topics the consumers are...

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Grey Group has won a court ruling to keep secret a set of internal documents in a lawsuit that alleged client over-billing at its London office in the 1990s. The ruling also dismisses the case. Grey has always maintained that the documents don’t describe over-billing, and that the lawsuit was a frivolous attempt at revenge by an embittered employee who was fired by the agency. New York...

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Kia will abandon its giant hamsters in new ads for the Kia Forte sedan. The hamsters — bobbing their heads to their iPod driven sound-system — were introduced in February to promote the Kia Soul, and were arguably the first ads for the car company that really got people’s attention. The news was broken by BNET Auto. Michael Sprague, Kia’s marketing vp, said: We didn’t...

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Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts used his New Zealand Herald column to imagine a bold new world of talent recruitment in the face of recession: The days of fat and surplus will disappear. Entitlement will disappear … working together will be what makes the difference, not personal gain. Stirring stuff — especially this part: My oldest son Ben is the Talent Director for...

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The Varnson Group’s web site no longer functions and agency staff are not answering three of its listed phone numbers. Two phone lines are no longer connected and the third just rings and rings. The development comes after Varnson was sued by former client Steak n Shake, which alleged that the shop had kidnapped its web site and image library and was holding them for a ransom of $449,000...

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We’re about 10 days in to the Valassis v. News America trial and BNET hears that evidence from at least three of News America’s clients has been heard in court, along with testimony from Paul “I will destroy you!” Carlucci, the News America CEO who doubles as publisher of the New York Post. Also testifying was Tom Leprine, a News America exec responsible for pricing...

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A cellphone video that ended up on the internet last November featuring a couple having sex in a cubicle at Atmosphere BBDO has resurfaced to haunt the agency in the form of a Netflix competition (see video below). The events are a reminder to companies that even the most trivial of office scandals can go viral within minutes and live forever on the internet, in increasingly weird ways. The...

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Muscle Milk, the favored drink of frat-tastic gym rats everywhere, isn’t milk, according to Nestle. As CytoSport, which markets Muscle Milk, declined to refute Nestle’s claim, the company and its ads have been referred to the FTC for review. The National Advertising Division, which polices the ad business, said this: The challenger [Nestle] maintained that the claim “Muscle...

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Liverpool F.C. “might be considering new sponsors” to replace Carlsberg, according to Ian Ayre, commercial director at the club. The news came at a meeting between Ayre, a candidate to become CEO of the club, and a supporters’ group. Carlsberg’s £7 million shirt sponsorship of Liverpool is in its last 12 months, Ayre said, and the club and the brewer are currently in a...

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Unilever wants to cut the “upfront profit margin” it pays to agencies to 5 percent from 10 percent. It is also negotiating to extend payment terms from 30 days to 60 or 90, according to Adweek. The moves fulfills a prediction made here at BNET last month that clients will laugh at agencies who think that the recession means they ought to get paid more quickly. (See “Why...

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