Advertising Age articles from July 2008

Advertising Age archives from July 2008

THE AGENCY-SELECTION PROCESS NEEDS FIXING NOW; It must become more than a transaction if marketers are to reap better results.(CMO Strategy)
July 7, 2008... Byline: AVI DAN Two things are for sure: Marketers are facing an increasing headwind as the economic downturn poses daily challenges. And the consumer is surprisingly resilient and holding-but for how long, with food prices rising and...

How to attract big-city talent to small towns.(TalentWorks)(Column)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JOE ERWIN i can't complain... at least I shouldn't, anyway. Erwin-Penland, the little ad shop my wife and I started 22 years ago in Greenville, S.C., of all places, today boasts more than 200 employees doing incredible work for...

WE'RE BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED, RIGHT? WRONG; Most creative/media integration is just adding to an `inefficiency of layers'.(CMO Strategy)(Column)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Linda Sawyer About a decade or two ago, the industry, more or less as a whole, decided it made a lot of sense to begin separating media from creative. Clients and agencies alike saw a huge cost savings in lumping together and...

THE AGENCY MODEL IS BENT BUT NOT BROKEN; For agencies to thrive in this new environment, they simply must change the way they do business and get paid.(CMO Strategy)(Column)
July 7, 2008... Byline: STEPHEN FAJEN It seems that everyone has declared the agency model broken. I disagree. It is just bent out of shape by at least three seismic marketplace fractures, which it is trying to accommodate. Fracture One: Short-term...

Conversations need to yield actions measured in dollars.(CMO Strategy)(management of chief marketing officer)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Jonathan Salem Baskin Any CMOs worth their salt can tweet, Flickr, lens, blog, micro-podcast, locate on an online map, IM, mash, compare MP3s, Wiki, Yelp, FriendFeed, Digg, video and otherwise communicate 24/7 with folks who buy...

Canceled show's sponsor scrambles to save promo; How marketer's $100K cash drawing survived death of tie-in program.(Hispanic)(Royal Prestige)
July 7, 2008... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ Miguel angel Gonzales was on his way home on a Friday when he got a call from his Hispanic ad agency. The TV show his company's yearlong sweepstakes was built around was being canceled as of Monday, due to low ratings....

Snacking delusions destroyed by NYC calorie-posting law.(Columns)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Lenore Skenazy i was at Coney Island and I almost died!'' my friend Ari was saying. No, he didn't almost drown. He almost ordered the chili cheese fries at Nathan's. Then he saw on the menu board that this beachside treat was...

Out of Site at Adage.com.(Columns)
July 7, 2008... As seen on AdAge.com/bigtent Diversity not top of mind at agencies Arthur Leggett writes: "A few years ago, the New York City Commission on Human Rights subpoenaed senior advertising executives. Since then, we've all heard the Madison...

China thwarts all efforts to ambush games; Government tears down 30,000 outdoor ads to protect sponsors.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: NORMANDY MADDEN [beijing] This is one Olympics that won't be easily ambushed. The way China's economy has roared along, it's been easy for multinational marketers to forget that the country is run by a Communist Party with a...

Media Morph: Summize.(Digital)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Byline: abbey klaassen What it is: Summize tracks and aggregates conversations flowing through Twitter and its competitors, such as FriendFeed and Plurk, letting you search to see who's talking about what and to whom. And because it's...

Cannes Lions: Big wins for Conill and La Comunidad.(Hispanic)(Conill Advertising Inc. and La Comunidad wins awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Byline: laurel wentz U.S. Hispanic agencies picked up two prizes at last month's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, including the first Lion for Saatchi & Saatchi's Latino shop Conill. Conill, Los Angeles, was awarded a...

Big Pharma's change of heart on ad ban is too little, too late.(Column)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Rance Crain As the skirmish between prescription-drug companies and the government over Big Pharma's ad practices continues, marketing directors are taking the rap for dragging their heels. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., in a...

Fledgling brands may take the fall with Steve & Barry's.(News)(Steve & Barry's University Sportswear)
July 7, 2008... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA Steve & barry's fall from grace could take several boldface names along for the ride. The retailer, which has built its reputation on offering $15 Stephon Marbury sneakers and $9 dresses from Sarah Jessica Parker,...

BRINGING BRAND EMERIL BEYOND THE FOOD NETWORK; Celebrity chef mixes it up with Martha, Discovery.(News)(contracts of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. with Emeril Lagasse )(Interview)
July 7, 2008... Byline: ANDREW HAMPP After more than a decade as perhaps the Food Network's most ubiquitous TV chef, Emeril Lagasse is kicking his media empire up a notch. For starters, there's his relationship with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia,...

WGA comes up short with proposed integration crawl.(Viewpoint)(Writers Guild of America)
July 7, 2008... The Writers Guild of America's proposal to run a crawl across the bottom of program that contains product placement is one of the most boneheaded things we've heard in a long time. Writers Guild of America West President Patric M. Verrone...

Madison meets vine meets The Valley.(News)(Eric Schmidt speaks at Madison & Vine conference)(Conference news)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, heads the list of heavy hitters speaking at this year's Madison & Vine conference. Ad Age and the William Morris Agency, which co-programmed the event, have done away with slick Svengalis muttering about...

Telemundo teams with GMC for made-for-web soccer reality series; Multiplatform effort integrates Sierra truck brand with stories of players getting second chances.(Hispanic)
July 7, 2008... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ It's a long shot. That's a loose translation of the title for a Spanish-language reality series Telemundo Communications Group is creating for broadband-and General Motors' GMC Sierra truck. The series features...

The end of the line for line extensions? Personal-care brands with broad portfolios finally see sales slow.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JACK NEFF Al ries and Jack Trout first railed against the dangers of line extensions in their tome "Positioning'' 15 years ago. For just about as long, executives at Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever and many of their peers have been...

General Motors can't kick incentives-but they work.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY As june wound down, it looked as if Detroit's worst nightmare might come true: Toyota Motor Corp. would pass General Motors Corp. in U.S. market share for the month. But then GM showed that marketing really does work....

TV writers decamp to the web; Ad-supported Strike.TV looks for integrations, partners with Mother.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: CLAUDE BRODESSER-AKNER As hollywood braces for an actors strike, an entrepreneurial band of screenwriters idled by last year's writers strike is launching Strike.TV-an ad-supported web-video venture that allows creators to retain...

THE question: Who do you think is the most genuine: Johnson & Johnson, UPS or Google? 43% of readers picked J&J as the most genuine of the three.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Byline: ken wheaton Well, Google can't win them all. Following up on a Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient survey, we asked Ad Age readers which they thought was the most genuine brand. And old-school Johnson & Johnson took the...

Murdoch lifer mans Main Street Journal.(News)(Rupert Murdoch)
July 7, 2008... Byline: NAT IVES It's already been eight months since Rupert Murdoch plucked Les Hinton from London to run Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, and Mr. Hinton does not like to dawdle. "In media and media-executive jobs, the ponderous do...

Les Hinton speaks.(News)(Interview)
July 7, 2008... Les Hinton sat down with Ad Age for his first on-the-record profile since arriving at The Wall Street Journal from London. He doesn't often speak with the press at all, in fact, but is worth hearing when he does. ON NEWSPAPERS'...

People & Players.
July 7, 2008... milan, italy: details celebrates fashion week The magazine hosts a party to welcome the fashion world to Milan. (From l.) Designer Tom Ford; Details Editor Dan Peres; Steve Sadove, CEO, Saks Fifth Avenue; and Steve DeLuca, VP-publisher,...

THE CHANGING FACE OF THE U.S. CONSUMER; What we can learn from Census data, and why it matters for brands.(American Demographics)(Survey)
July 7, 2008... Byline: PETER FRANCESE The marketing community, already dealing with a slumping economy and an increasingly consumer-controlled media marketplace, must confront another new reality: The face of the American consumer is changing...

Allow your employees to be Digital Nomads.(Digital)(Column)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Steve Rubel As I write this column, all the talk is about the recession. There were 40,000 stories in Google News last week mentioning the R-word. In addition, a gallon of gas, now at $4, may hit $7 by 2010, according to CIBC World...

Has Microsoft found a way to get at Yahoo? Latest tack: Targeting just search as media cos. all clamor for a piece.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN Are yahoo's parts greater than its sum? That's the question at the heart of the company's future. And shareholders and advertisers appear at odds over the answer. The latest in the Microhoogle saga is that every...

A-B losing the PR war to InBev; Potential buyer comes off better than brewer in public-relations battle.(News)(InBev S.A. and Anheuser-Busch Inc.)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN And MICHAEL BUSH The king of beers is getting royally routed in the spin war surrounding its bid to remain independent. Belgium-based, Brazilian-run InBev not only has largely succeeded in controlling the media's...

Unilever's CMO finally gets down to business; Corporate restructuring frees Clift to focus on new-media challenge.(News)(chief marketing officer)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JACK NEFF Simon clift has been Unilever's chief marketing officer for more than two years, but he freely admits he only really began doing the job a couple of months ago, thanks to a corporate restructuring that's had him drop his...

Advertisers don't party with CBS's swingers.(News)(customer complaints against product of Philips North America)
July 7, 2008... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG You wouldn't think Philips North America, the company whose Bodygroom razor offers American males an "extra optical inch,'' would be easily fazed. But it was rather taken aback by consumer reaction to its...

Will the Netflix model work for mag subscriptions?(MediaWorks)(Maghound)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Brian Steinberg and Nat Ives The internet has changed everything from watching TV to ordering groceries. So it's not surprising that the folks at Time Inc. are trying to reshuffle the way we get magazines. The Time Warner...

Torturing Hitchens just doesn't work! (He'll never shut up!); As painful as it may be, it's time for the summer edition of Media Guy's Media Studies Quiz.(MediaWorks)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Dumenco It's time once again for the quarterly-ish Media Guy Media Studies Pop Quiz. All books and papers off your desk now! "We're not immune to what is going on in the economy,'' Glamour Publisher Bill Wackerman told...

Change agent; What Peter Francese says you need to know - and do - to reach the changing consumer.(American Demographics)
July 7, 2008... 1. Generation AARP the trend: The average age for a U.S. head of household is 49.5-just six months shy of getting a sign-up pitch from AARP. The first boomers will turn 65 in less than three years. Marketing challenge: Older consumers...

PINK LABEL: VICTORIA'S sales secret; Lingerie retailer's sub-brand hits campus to launch Collegiate Collection.(News)(Limited Brands Inc. Victoria's Secret Stores Div.)
July 7, 2008... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA Sexy lingerie might seem recession-proof, but same-store sales at Victoria's Secret have been languishing, down 7% in the last quarter. So it's only natural for the chain to go to school on its thriving sub-brand,...

How Portfolio will get paid when users visit other websites; Publisher partners with ad exchange Adsdaq to solve an enviable problem: too much advertiser demand.(Digital)
July 7, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN Ari brandt had a problem. As general manager of Portfolio.com, he's seen the site's traffic grow to 3 million unique visitors a month, by its own count, since its launch in April 2007. But like many other individual...

Video games rock the music industry; Bands fight for slots on 'Guitar Hero,' 'Rock Band,' even offer original songs.(News)
July 7, 2008... Byline: BETH SNYDER BULIK [york, pa.] Meet the new gatekeepers of the music industry. Following the runaway success of Activision's "Guitar Hero'' franchise and MTV's newer "Rock Band,'' bands, music labels and publishers are all...

Survey: More buyers expect to spend less in most media.(News)(Survey)
July 7, 2008... Byline: MEGAN MCILROY Advertiser optimism is waning across all major media categories, with fewer buyers expecting to increase budgets in TV, newspapers, radio and outdoor than they were a year ago. While that conclusion, drawn from a...

Help wanted: self-loathing ad employees to spill the beans.(Adages)
July 7, 2008... Byline: Ken Wheaton Last week, Gawker posted a Craigslist ad from an author who'd titled his classified: "You hate the Ad business and can write a scathing essay why.'' The mystery author was asking potential contributors "to testify as to...

P&G uses Cannes Lions as launching pad for Super Bowl ads; Crest 'Smile' campaign follows in footsteps of Tide's 'talking stain'.(News)(Procter & Gamble Co.)
July 7, 2008... Byline: JACK NEFF If you're looking for a Super Bowl winner, check out Buffalo. Not the Bills-the TV market. Procter & Gamble Co. appears to have found a way to prequalify Super Bowl ads creatively on a road that runs from Buffalo to...

McD's warms up for Olympics performance; Global chief marketer Mary Dillon promises 'best activation ever'.(News)(McDonald's)(facetheglory.com)
July 7, 2008... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK With just about a month to go, McDonald's is getting ready for the Olympics. In a webcast with reporters last week, global chief marketer Mary Dillon laid out the marketer's Olympic plans, including the...

HP would've been better off using its corporate video demo.(Garfield's AdReview)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
July 7, 2008... Let's talk for a moment about why the best TV spot ever created, "1984,'' was insane: It introduced a revolutionary product, the Macintosh, destined to revolutionize personal computing. But there was no product shot. It introduced the...

CMO Nicholson exits Pepsi as share declines; Some say ads have lost spark, company is mired in 'marketing malaise'.(News)(Cie Nicholson is the chief marketing officer at Pepsi-Cola UK)
July 7, 2008... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA Amid sliding market shares for several of its brands, softening spending and lackluster marketing, Pepsi-Cola's senior VP-chief marketing officer, Cie Nicholson, is leaving the beverage giant. "Certainly the ball...

THE HEAT INDEX; Weekly rating (0-10) of sizzle and fizzle.(MediaWorks)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... 9 'Camp Rock' Disney Channel scored a huge ratings hit with the original movie and is already talking about a sequel for the Jonas Brothers vehicle. 7 'Fringe' Fox is building buzz for the drama through mysterious marketing. Among the...

Work of the Week.(Work)
July 7, 2008... Creativity Top five: June 30 In this week's episode of the Creativity Top 5, Heinz gives a British mum a New York makeover (sort of) and gets banned for it; Pittsburgh-based Smith Brothers gets some canines to recount their troubles for...

Captain Morgan spot gets 'responsibility' message just right.(Garfield's AdReview)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Bob Garfield Not saying we miss the old days, when Billy Dee Williams sold Colt 45 Malt Liquor as a proto-roofie, guaranteeing Colt "works every time'' you're in the mood for date rape. It was repugnant and immoral, but at least...

We get it: The iPhone's big. App Store will make it bigger.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN Ok, so the iphone's getting all the consumer and consumer-media hype. But for the tech in-crowd and savvy marketers, it's Apple's new App Store that's capturing the imagination. The store, part of the latest...

Coke unleashes Olympic blitz; Global effort proudly features host country as some sponsors shy away.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA Coca-cola this week takes the wraps off the final phase of a 60-country global marketing blitz surrounding the Olympics, its largest ever around the games. The cola giant's TV campaign, themed "Live Olympic on the...

Sorrell digs deep to snag TNS; The question for analysts is whether he's paying too much to be the biggest.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: MICHAEL BUSH Martin sorrell wants WPP to become the biggest marketing-services conglomerate in the world-but at what price? He spent big to buy Madison Avenue giant Young & Rubicam and digital outfit 24/7, only to see his...

What's Michael Bay doing in my Michel Gondry spot?(Adages)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Ken Wheaton It's no secret that stodgy old Microsoft, perhaps a little tired of being played by a business-class dork in those "Mac vs. PC'' ads, hired Crispin Porter & Bogusky to spruce up its image. And while both marketer and...

Randy, Paula, Simon crash Peacock party.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG Fox just barged in on NBC's party. The annual upfront week, when the networks unveil their fall schedules while wining, dining and dazzling prospective buyers with star-studded parties, is normally a contest...

THE question: Are marketers being too cautious by keeping their ads away from "Swingtown"? 59% of you said marketers were overreacting to series' plotline.(News)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: sherry mazzocchi "Swingtown," CBS's series about sexy, adventurous couples in a '70s suburb, may be too suggestive for some advertisers, but a majority of those replying to our poll said the show didn't cross any lines. Fans...

The good, the bad and ugly answers to recent questions.(Columns)(Column)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Jonah Bloom I revisited a handful of questions that have popped up in my e-mail, on my Facebook page or even in good-old booze-based human conversation, in case any of them inspired a column. They did. Sort of. Should Big...

THE HEAT INDEX; Weekly rating (0-10) of sizzle and fizzle.(MediaWorks)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... 10 Sun Valley The place to be last week if you were interested in helping Yahoo or NBC Universal figure out its future. 8 OK Gets an exclusive of Jamie Lynn Spears and her baby, Maddie. Reports say the mag gave Matthew McConaughey $3M for...

People & Players.(Vibe magazine)(McCann-Erickson Inc. to recieve award)(South Florida Interactive Marketing Association holds a meeting)(Conference notes)
July 14, 2008... New york: ADCOLOR Awards PSA Premiere party McCann Erickson and the AdColor Industry Coalition kick off the "Call for Nomination" PSAs for the AdColor Awards, which will be hosted by model Veronica Webb. (From l.) Chike Ozah, PSA...

LETTERS: Ad industry obviously run by children.(Viewpoint)
July 14, 2008... I read with great interest your "Changing Face of the U.S. Consumer,'' and was reminded that as long as 35 years ago, it was known far and wide that by the turn of the century the median age of consumers would be quite higher, which would, of...

More agency execs need to get involved with diversity.(Viewpoint)
July 14, 2008... If advertising agencies get hauled in front of Congress because the lack of the diversity in the industry, they'll have only themselves to blame. And ironically enough, part of that blame will lay at the feet of those who proclaim to be...

BabyCenter grows into Web 2.0 player; Morphs from Gen X community site into Gen Y social network.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN Babycenter is trying to close the generation gap-that social-media gulf between a Generation X mom and one who falls in Generation Y. Today the site attempts to move from a 1.0 community site to a Web 2.0 one,...

Hard-core Apple fans queue up for iPhone 3G.(News)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: max lakin The line outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store on July 11 was an event unto itself. The crowd was of a size usually reserved for papal visits and Michael Jackson court appearances. Hundreds of would-be customers...

Work.(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Ad Age/Creativity Top five: July 7 In this week's episode of Creativity's Top Five, 72andSunny gives action-sports giant Quiksilver an online makeover; director Nagi Noda conjures a whimsical world of steam for BBH and LG; Australian...

P&G relies on power of Mommy bloggers; Giant calls them the 'new influencers'; will recruit up to 15 to headquarters.(News)(Procter & Gamble Co.)
July 14, 2008... Byline: JACK NEFF Procter & gamble co.'s Pampers is bringing as many as 15 top "mommy bloggers'' to the company's Cincinnati headquarters later this month in what appears to be the company's biggest effort yet to reach online influencers....

Media Morph: Web-wide virtual rooms.(Digital)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: abbey klaassen What it is: First came destination-site virtual worlds, la Second Life. The next phase of this virtualization appears to be turning existing places people gather online into 3-D community experiences. And a few...

Why some get shafted by Google pricing; First-timers pay more, making search costly for movie marketers.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN How much does Angelina Jolie cost? It depends on your history with her. And that's why for some movie marketers, who traditionally have promoted film releases by sending out the lead actors and actresses to...

Airlines mount PR push to win public support against Big Oil.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: MICHAEL BUSH Help out the poor airlines: Pitch in to curb oil speculation. That's what the CEOs of 12 major airlines, including Southwest, American and Delta, are asking. In an unusual move for normally cutthroat competitors, a...

Better ROI or your money back, says buzz agency.(News)(Industry overview)
July 14, 2008... Byline: MICHAEL BUSH Bzzagent, a network of regular-Joe brand advocates, is making a big bet that word-of-mouth marketing will outperform any other discipline when it comes to ringing registers and driving advocacy for brands. With its...

Sears tries to alter image, co-opt cool in web push.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA The coolest digital destination for kids this fall: Sears, Roebuck & Co. The traditional retailer known for its print catalog is taking a decidedly untraditional approach to back-to-school marketing, blanketing...

Drink fresh? Subway tests out coffee concept; Plans to introduce cafes in D.C.; execs say it could fare well in the java wars.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK The coffee wars have a new combatant: Subway. As Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's go after Starbucks, a Washington-area franchisee is testing a Subway cafe concept. While it's a relatively small step for the...

From adage.com.(News)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Ad Age's July 7 cover story, "The Changing Face of the U.S. Consumer," by Peter Francese, analyzed Census data in terms of what it means for marketers and advertising. The story touched a nerve with one group of readers. "While I...

Fledgling ad servers start to take on the three major players; Gannett partners with lesser-known AdTech after watching leaders get snapped up by new owners.(Digital)(AdTek Information Systems Inc.)(America Online Inc.)(Google Inc.)
July 14, 2008... Byline: ABBEY KLAASSEN If ad serving is becoming commoditized, then why is the space suddenly filled with new players? First there were the three acquisitions: Google buys DoubleClick; Microsoft buys aQuantive and WPP buys 24/7 Real...

African-American media waiting on Barack's big bucks; Think he doesn't need to court them? Think again, say the experts.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: IRA TEINOWITZ In 2004, the John Kerry campaign made a July announcement that it would make a $2 million buy in African-American media. The buy, said African-American media experts, was never completed. BET got some money, but not...

Defining model innovators.(CMO Strategy)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Model innovators are three times as likely to view innovation as the most strategic driver of growth 64% of model innovators have proactive and continuing approaches to innovation strategy 80% of model innovators tend to encourage...

Will Microsoft prevail with its Pepe le Pew approach to Yahoo? As tech giant's mad pursuit devolves into Looney Tunes territory, what does it mean for the brand?(MediaWorks)
July 14, 2008... The on-again, off-again, full-frontal, roundabout, all-or-nothing, piecemeal Microsoft run on Yahoo has, of course, become one of the great ongoing media dramadies of the year. My sincere hope is that no deal-whether Microsoft's bid to snag...

Media Guy's Pop Pick; `Mad Men' media.(MediaWorks)(Brief article)(Column)
July 14, 2008... Byline: s.d. Our columnist's current media obsession I'm pleased to note that we here at Ad Age totally saw "Mad Men'' Mania coming. My colleague Andrew Hampp wrote an early set-visit piece, and in this column, a month before the...

From gathering around TV to gathering around Wii.(Digital)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Mike Vorhaus The dinner table, radio and TV have all at one time or another been considered family "togetherness'' experiences ingrained in American culture. Today there's a new family together experience: the Wii. More than...

Tall task for new top man at UM; Interpublic media agency has struggled to stand apart from McCann.(News)(Nick Brien appointed as chief executive officer)(Company overview)
July 14, 2008... Byline: MEGAN MCILROY In the past few years, Interpublic, with a lot of loud talk and routine facelifts, has been the Joan Rivers of agency-media operations. With its most recent nip and tuck, it seems like it finally has the face it needs...

BBDO buys Cincinnati-based shop on P&G roster; Acquisition comes as it attempts to broaden business with marketer.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH In an attempt to broaden its relationship with Procter & Gamble, BBDO has made its first acquisition in decades with the purchase of 15-year-old Barefoot Advertising, a Cincinnati-based shop that handles P&G brands...

What you can learn from one of the ad greats.(Talentworks)
July 14, 2008... Byline: MILT WEINSTOCK in today's high-tech world, it's not particularly fashionable to refer to lessons learned from yesteryear's ad leaders. "Times are different,'' people say. "It's a new world out there.'' I beg to differ. We...

U.S. CONSUMERS CUT DOWN ON RAZOR USE; Economy, aging population, better products to blame for slowing shaving business.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: JACK NEFF Shaving has been perhaps the most gold-plated category in package goods, prompting massively hyped launches, endorsements by superstar athletes, generous margins and price hikes-and, of course, it was the impetus for the...

WHAT'S THE CMO'S ROLE IN INNOVATION? The marketing chief must not be distracted from the primary innovation tasks related to marketing ongoing businesses.(CMO Strategy)
July 14, 2008... Byline: LAURENCE KNIGHT It's well-accepted today that innovation is important throughout an entire enterprise. Even in the marketing arena, this has prompted an opening of floodgates to let in a slew of innovative ideas that go far beyond...

WHERE DO THE BEST IDEAS COME FROM? THE UNLIKELIEST SOURCES; Peers, suppliers can spark some great innovations for marketers.(CMO Strategy)
July 14, 2008... Byline: KEVIN O'DONNELL There's a "secret sauce,'' as a friend would put it, to creating a recipe that works for serving up innovation success. But if businesses have trouble getting it quite right, it's because they're short on a critical...

Coen: It's going to be bad, after all.(News)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: megan mcilroy "Seriously weakened" economic expectations and the continued drop-off in consumers' disposable incomes have prompted Magna Global's Robert Coen, senior VP-director of forecasting, to scale back his 2008 ad-spending...

Brauchli brings outsider's viewpoint to post at WaPo.(MediaWorks)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Nat Ives Newspapers are gradually filling their teams with new faces just as eager to compete with each other as with the new media making all their lives hell. The latest face in a new place came last week when Katharine Weymouth,...

WHICH ONES SHOULD GO? GM ought to be considering selling brands-if it isn't already.(News)(General Motors Corp.)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY Pssst, want to buy Buick? How about Pontiac? General Motors Corp. spent a lot of time last week batting down a Wall Street Journal report that it is considering killing off or peddling some of its eight North...

The sky is not falling: An open letter to the ad and marketing community.(News)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Jerry Shereshewsky Magna global last week announced that the age of the average network-TV viewer has reached the 50-year mark. This has caused no small amount of consternation in the media business and the trade press. Suzanne...

Agencies have funny way of showing their 'commitment' to diversity.(The Big Tent)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Ken Wheaton The new york agency world should be ashamed of itself. The New York City Commission on Human Rights held a public meeting July 7 regarding the issue of diversity in the advertising industry. A quick count of those...