Advertising Industry Archive

In the movie Casablanca, the French police chief shuts down Rick’s Cafe for illegal wagering, announcing that he is “shocked — shocked! — to find that gambling is going on in here!” A croupier then hands the chief a pile of money and says, “Your winnings, sir.” (Video below.) That, pretty much, is the scenario Publicis boss Maurice Levy – also...

More...

A Michigan state jury has awarded newspaper coupon agency Valassis a $300 million verdict in its anti-competition case against News America Marketing, the Rupert Murdoch-owned agency that dominates in store-supermarket advertsing. The jury reached its decision in less than a day. The swift decision came after a trial that took all of June and parts of May and July, suggesting that the jurors...

More...

Chelsea F.C. has renewed its sponsorship deal with Samsung. The value of the deal is not known. The old deal was worth £11 million a year, and Reuters reports the new pact is an improvement on the old one. It had better be. If there’s a football club on the planet that undervalues its sponsorship deals, it’s Chelsea. Chelsea is one of fewer than 10 global soccer brands, and yet...

More...

America’s burger chains are locked in a fight to see who can create the most sexually explicit, annoying ads possible. Hardee’s new campaign is titled “Name Our Holes,” and it asks people on the street to suggest names for the chain’s biscuit holes. Responses included in one commercial include “goody balls,” “creamy sweet holes,”...

More...

Julie Lynn York, a promotions executive at Jack Daniels marketer Brown-Forman and dairy group Land O’ Lakes, testified that News America Marketing never coerced her into making newspaper coupon buys, but she did admit over-paying for the agency’s services. The testimony came as News America launched its defense in a Michigan state court case in which rival coupon agency Valassis has...

More...

A close examination of a recent legal filing by Spot Runner in its battle with WPP reveals that Spot Runner hoodwinked WPP into thinking that the founders were not selling their stock while WPP was buying it. Or, depending on whom you sympathize with, WPP isn’t very good at reading the fine print. Either way, the lesson for Spot Runner investors is: be very, very careful when dealing with...

More...

Valassis has offered plenty of evidence that News America Marketing has an illegal monopoly in supermarket advertising but it still may lose the case — delivering NAM a second monopoly in the promo business. Valassis and News America Marketing started their closing arguments today in a Michigan state court trial over whether the latter illegally took business from the former by forcing...

More...

Lamar Advertising has gone to court seeking a $1 million taxpayer bailout for a single billboard in Pittsburgh that was only erected because Lamar gave a “gift” to the official who approved it. The company argues that because the city changed its mind halfway through construction of a unique electronic billboard downtown, it should pick up the expenses Lamar will lose in the deal....

More...

Suzanne Brown, the chief marketing officer at newspaper coupon agency Valassis, told a Michigan state court that the agency’s corporate strategy was to increase market share using the same tactics as its rival, News America Marketing. The admission was potentially important because Valassis is alleging in the case that News America was restricting its market share illegally by bundling or...

More...

WPP chief Martin Sorrell and Publicis boss Maurice Levy took their famous rivalry to the BBC World Service where they faced off in a “debate” about advertising. For the plebs, the show was a news-free discussion about whether advertising was good for democracy, or really, really good for democracy. But for industry folk, the real issue was, Will Sorrell and Levy spend any of their...

More...