Advertising Industry Archive

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has staged a competition to design a new logo for motorcycle company Brammo. The prize: $1,000. The winner of the contest is due to be announced any day now. But some creatives are furious. Hundreds of designers have joined the “#nospec” campaign on Twitter. The Designis blog said this: Seriously, CP+B? I think not. You’ve entered the world of spec work...

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Predictable but telling: WPP chief Martin Sorrell does not want to answer questions in an Australian court in a case where he claims he was lied to by the owners of an agency he acquired in 2005. The back story: WPP bought The Communications Group for $80 million from Pacific Equity Partners. It sued PEP when two key executives left Patterson and the shop lost clients such as Foster’s,...

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The news that Chrysler is looking at creative from agencies other than BBDO for Q4 seems to have triggered some sort of anti-BBDO pile-on. Ad Age wrote: Chrysler’s decision to ask outside agencies for creative ideas is a slap in the face for BBDO, which has stuck by Chrysler amid its bankruptcy and dwindling agency fees. BBDO’s contract with Chrysler is up in January. AgencySpy: ...

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A new TV ad for Procter & Gamble’s Bounty Extra Soft paper towel brand contains an inadvertent shout-out to the Crips, the deadly street gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1970s and which continues to ruin urban neighborhoods across the U.S (see video below). The commercial, from Publicis, shows a family with two young children getting ready to watch a big game on the TV. The...

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About 900 people left Aegis in its recent round of cost-cutting — far more than the 780 reported earlier — the agency holding company said today, and it still isn’t enough, according to the Guardian. This chart tells you what’s going on at Aegis. Despite the loss of 900 jobs, Aegis is still only getting €1.21 for every €1 invested in its operating expenses, down...

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Glenn Beck’s audience reached nearly 3 million this week, even as the number of sponsors who have axed their ads in his breaks reached 46. And Beck dug himself in deeper yesterday by comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler (video below). It seemed for one brief moment on Wednesday that Beck might apologise for calling President Obama a “racist” with a “hatred of white...

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Horrible gay real estate advertising! Brazilians urinating in the shower! The longest running ad in history! It all happened in August 2009 (much of it at JWT, for some reason). Need a gallery of vintage sexist ads from Australia? Here’s one! Nobody does stupid and unsubtle the way the Aussies do. (Click image to enlarge.) Brazilians urged to urinate in the shower It’s F/Nazca...

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Want to know which superstar product-endorser foreign ad agencies love the most? It’s Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Hitler. The one who started the Holocaust. In foreign countries, the fuhrer can be found in posters promoting everything from Hewlett-Packard’s thumb drives to Hut Weber hats. (See gallery of Hitler ads below.) That Hitler smelling a rose at right? He’s advertising...

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An op-ed piece by Matt Miller, CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, in Adweek shows that two trends in the business seem to be converging: The push by client procurement execs for closer scutiny of ad budgets; and the fact that once-expensive creativity is becoming a cheap or free commodity. Miller’s piece crystallizes these two dynamics, but not, perhaps, in the...

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Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck staged a semi-religious rant Wednesday in which he appeared to address the boycott that has cost him dozens of advertisers, claiming that even if his enemies win, “I will only be stronger for it.” The style of the speech was reminiscent of Howard Beale’s “I’m as mad as hell!” scene from the movie Network, including the...

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