Advertising Age articles from May 2009

Advertising Age archives from May 2009

Gardening biz blooming after year in the ground; Scotts, others looking to recession-fueled DIY trend to keep sales up.(Smith and Hawken Inc.)(Scotts Miracle Gro Co.)
May 4, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF Jim hagedorn, chairman-CEO of leading lawn- and garden-products marketer Scotts, declared at the kickoff of his Feb. 3 annual analyst conference: "2008 had to be one of the shittiest years of my life.'' He wasn't...

Deceitful financial infomercial tars entire advertising industry.(Survey)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Rance Crain The good news is that cable TV shows like "Mad Men'' have raised the profile of ad agencies among the general public. The bad news is that such programs have made ad agencies easier to blame for some of the sins of the...

Newspapers build digital portfolios; Gannett, others look to "emerge from chaos' as hybrid print-web players.(Gannett newspapers)
May 4, 2009... Byline: MICHAEL LEARMONTH Myth: newspapers stuck their heads in the sand and just hoped the internet would go away. Reality: Newspapers took some of the biggest, earliest swings on the web, most turned out to be misses, and then got...

DR PEPPER UPS MARKETING SPEND, READIES FOR GROWTH.(Jim Trebilcock)(Interview)
May 4, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA In an environment where major marketers are slashing budgets, Dr Pepper Snapple is betting on the opposite approach. The beverage company plans to increase its $360 million marketing budget by a mid-single digit...

JAVA GIANTS BRACE FOR MCCAFE; How rivals are positioning themselves as McDonald's gears up.(McCafe)(McDonald's Corp.)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK Mcdonald's impending coffee launch is giving rivals the jitters. With the fast feeder ready to flood the airwaves with McCafe advertising, the competition is scurrying to get its messages heard. The key...

WHY CONDE'S COCKTAIL OF SEX APPEAL, BIZ NEWS FAILED; Insiders blame ill-timed focus on luxury, lack of editorial vision.(Conde Nast Publications Inc.)(Editorial)
May 4, 2009... Byline: NAT IVES Conde nast portfolio proved in the end, as some suspected from the beginning, to be an unfortunately timed overreach for the Conde Nast brand of high-polish, high-cost publishing. Portfolio promised business coverage...

Launching pad: Redbean Society.(Jackie Bird)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Laurel Wentz Jackie Bird, a high-profile U.S. Hispanic-ad-agency exec for the past 20 years, is returning to the industry with an agency called Redbean Society that will target Latinas. Ms. Bird, a native of Puerto Rico, was...

Looking to grow in China? Ad Age has 10 surefire tips; White paper explores tactics, busts myths for fifth-largest ad market.(Market overview)
May 4, 2009... Byline: NORMANDY MADDEN As the global recession continues, China remains one of the few bright spots for multinational marketers. With about 300 million urban, upwardly mobile consumers, China is home to the world's largest internet...

Take cover! Marketing blitz for McCafe is on the way; McDonald's massive $100M coffee launch impossible to escape.(McDonald's Corp.)
May 4, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK Whoever said mass marketing is dead never worked at McDonald's. The master of the McBlitz is about to outdo itself with its long-awaited national campaign for its new coffee line, touted as the biggest launch in...

Can book-sales clubs make it through 21st century? Progressive Book Club, Direct Brands aim for relevance in Kindle age.(Report)
May 4, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY Online booksellers may have forever altered how we browse for and purchase books, and Amazon's latest Kindle may yet do the same for how we read them. But at least two companies are certain that there's still a place...

Tecate stays true to its Mexican roots in U.S. marketing efforts; Brewer speaks `authentic' language of immigrants rather than targeting broader Hispanic market.
May 4, 2009... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ Unlike many marketers, Tecate's Carlos Boughton isn't a fan of targeting a broad Hispanic audience. Tecate, which focuses all its U.S. marketing efforts and ad dollars on Hispanics, is the beer for Mexican...

WSJ poised to take circ top spot from USA Today.(USA Today)(Asian Wall Street Journal)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Nat Ives Here's something to make Rupert Murdoch smile: His Wall Street Journal is threatening to reclaim its weekday-circulation crown from USA Today for the first time since September 1999. USA Today still has the country's...

Who's investing in what.
May 4, 2009... Gannett Careerbuilder (controlling interest) ShopLocal Pointroll Ripple6 Planet Discover Schedule Star Metromix MomslikeMe QuadrantOne (investment stake) Mogulus (investment stake) Hearst...

Alfonseca signs on to chair jury for Ad Age's awards; Top creatives, marketers will judge the entries; deadline is May 18.(Advertising Age's 11th annual Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: LAUREL WENTZ Mike Alfonseca, 38, founder and chief creative officer of Kraneo, an independent agency in the Dominican Republic and a veteran of JWT, Leo Burnett and Young & Rubicam, will chair the jury for Advertising Age's 11th...

The question: Do you think the economy has hit bottom?(Chrysler L.L.C.)(General Motors Corp.)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton It's been a steady drumbeat of economic bad news for so long, we wondered if perhaps maybe we'd hit bottom. The majority of you said, in essence, "hardly.'' Or, to quote one Martin Grudzinski: "Wishful thinking!''...

Striking fear into citizens while wasting their money: priceless.
May 4, 2009... By now we've all heard (and likely forgotten) about the great terror scare of April 27, 2009, when someone, somewhere in the Obama administrationapparently suffering from massive head woundsdecided it would be a grand idea to chase a Boeing 747...

As seen on AdAge.com.(Website overview)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... As seen on AdAge.com/bigtent Miller: Self-image still an issue for African-Americans Many blacks who have seen the doll testin which black children favor white dolls over black onesare quick to point the finger at mainstream media for...

Number crunching: Twitter's limited reach.(Report)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Abbey Klaassen Did you hear the one about how not everyone in the world is using Twitter? Yep, it's true. Despite the news broadcasts and talk-show segments devoted to the topic, Twitter reaches only about 10% of the U.S. online...

People on the Move.(DraftFCB appoints Michael Fassnacht)(Turner Sports Inc. appoints Lenny Daniels)(Intermedia Advertising Group appoints Leticia Lopez )
May 4, 2009... DraftFCB promoted Michael Fassnacht to worldwide chief strategy officer from chief customer intelligence officer. Mr. Fassnacht has more than 20 years of data experience and has provided DraftFCB with data-driven insights since 2006, when the...

Flu fever fuels sanitizer sales and lots of tweets; Meanwhile, Mexico and pig farmers try to save their beleaguered brands.
May 4, 2009... Byline: An Ad Age Roundup Chrysler went bankrupt, but you might not have noticed as the world fixated on swine flu. As news of the outbreak blanketed the globe, it spawned some instant marketing and media phenomena. Consumers stormed...

GM, Chrysler bankruptcies could leave shops holding $300 mil bag; BBDO owed $58 mil; more at stake for GM agencies IPG, Publicis.(General Motors Corp.)(Chrysler L.L.C.)(BBDO Detroit)(Case overview)
May 4, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY As chrysler and General Motors Corp. fight for their lives, the automakers' three major agency holding companies could be left in the lurch collectively for more than $300 million. In Chrysler's Chapter 11 filing...

Tweet meet: 4A's rebrands, dives into digital; Group's shorter name recognizes the biz isn't just about ads anymore.(Conference news)
May 4, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH And MATTHEW CREAMER Trading in golf bags for hashtags, the 4A's continued its march into the present with this year's leadership conferencea confab that, despite some shortcomings, showed ad agencies' main trade group...

Chrysler lives to fight another day.(Chrysler L.L.C.'s bankruptcy reorganization)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Peter Brown The horror of a Chapter 11 filing by a once-powerful member of the Big Three obscured some good news last week: Chrysler LLC has a future. It will live. Even as he announced that Chrysler was going into bankruptcy,...

New Huggies, Old Spice launches to go TV-free; Two brands normally reliant on medium opt instead for digital, print.
May 4, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF Despite years of mulling marketing life after TV, most big package-goods brands still make it the centerpiece of their plans. But Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Huggies and Procter & Gamble Co.'s Old Spice, brands that generally...

TV.(television advertisements are must watched)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Dynamic people don't watch TV. Neither do people who rank high in openness and leadership. Dynamic people, described as always on the go with a hectic lifestyle, are 50% more likely to watch less TV than the average person and are 59% more...

Newspapers.(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Finally, some good news for newspapers: Optimists are on your side. Optimists spend more time with newspapers than any other medium, and they probably recycle it, too. They're 51% more likely to go out of their way to purchase recycled goods,...

Internet.(internet is vastly used as compared to television)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... The interesting thing about the internet is it's starting to look more like TV. That is, the internet is almost more of a mass medium than TV. "What we're seeing is that almost everyone is using the web in some way. So in the aggregate,...

Magazines.(magazine readership ranked)(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Magazines do tend to follow a bit in the footsteps of newspapers, with dynamic people again ranking as the largest group of readers. However, the second-biggest group of magazine readers is people who are very open . Those open people,...

Radio.(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Here's where the dynamic people come home to roost. While they eschew TV, they devour radionot only in their cars when they're on the go with their busy schedules but also at home, where they can multitask while listening to the radio. ...

CMOs abandon long-term strategy, but still say they can grow post-recession; Spencer Stuart survey: Focus is on cost cutting rather than biz building.(marketing executives surveyed on their strategy of cost control)(Survey)
May 4, 2009... Byline: JENNIFER ROONEY In these tough economic times, chief marketing officers are keeping their heads down, focused on meeting the short-term demands of the job. But are they kidding themselves by thinking that when the recession...

HOW PERSONALITY CAN PREDICT MEDIA USAGE; Mindset study finds that certain characteristics may provide more info than standard demographics.
May 4, 2009... Byline: BETH SNYDER BULIK Forget using focus groups and demographic data to find out what media your target audience uses. Go with a personality test instead. According to data from psychographic-research company Mindset Media,...

Looking back on 83 years of Pontiac advertising.
May 4, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY It ran with Wyle E. Coyote, the Monkees, Donald Trump and Oprah. But next year, General Motors Corp.'s storied Pontiac brandand with it 83 years of classic advertisingwill reach the end of the road. The brand was...

The coming end of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook socialism; Thank God for tech moguls who redistribute VC wealth so we can cybersocialize freely. For now, that is.
May 4, 2009... Byline: Simon Dumenco Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone should thank God it was just a cardinal, and not the pope. Last week, according to the Times of London, Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland told the country's Catholics to...

Can the public forgive Vick? Athlete plots PR comeback; Redemption plan for dogfighting NFL star includes PSA's for animal rights.
May 4, 2009... Byline: RICH THOMASELLI Disgraced nfl superstar Michael Vick is working on a comprehensive public-relations scheme to rehabilitate his imagegoing as far as discussing an endorsement with animal-rights group PETA. The quarterback is...

NBC to give early taste of fall fare with "infront'; Will woo advertisers with more scripted programs, customized promotions.
May 4, 2009... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG Beset by lagging ratings and a spate of failed new shows, NBC intends to answer critics this week with a new commitment to scripted programsalbeit none at 10 p.m. By now, NBC's story is familiar. The General...

FLORISTS PUSH TO KEEP MOM SALES FROM WITHERING; 1-800-Flowers, ProFlowers fight recession with promotions for day that accounts for 25% of biz.
May 4, 2009... Byline: MARISSA MILEY While many families are saving pennies, they are not resorting to making painted-ziti necklaces for mom just yeta relief for the country's florists, for whom Mother's Day is one of the most important days of the year....

Out-of-work copywriter bares all on savvy self-marketing site.(Viewpoint essay)
May 4, 2009... Byline: Bob Garfield This is maybe not the best time ever to be a copywriter. If you have a job, you will probably lose it within the next couple of years, 10 years max but very possibly before Labor Day. If you do not at present have a...

Work of the Week.
May 4, 2009... CREATIVITY TOP FIVE In this week's episode of Creativity's Top Five, the Bronx Zoo and Deutsch, New York, commission artists to sculpt animals from recycled material for Earth Day; Humble's Hydra collective glues, pastes and rips its way...

Well, that's one way to defeat a Kingon: Go commando.
May 11, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton You never did trust Burger King's King, did you? Now you know why: He's actually a Klingon. Or part Klingon. Or a Kingon. Whatever the case, he's here to attack you with the "excruciating pain and public humiliation''...

What nyou say.(animal cruelty)(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton THE question: Can former NFL player Michael Vick be a credible spokesperson against animal cruelty? Perhaps if PETA would have polled our readers before floating its latest publicity stuntannouncing it had been in...

Marketing 101.(Survey)(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... In an effort to draw new followers, the United Methodist Church and agency Bohan are going by the book. Step 1. Do your homework UMC and Bohan commissioned a survey that found 62% of 18- to 34-year-olds consider themselves spiritual,...

Ponturo on why sports prices soared; Don't be "weak-kneed' in defending smart buys, former A-B exec urges.(Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.)(dialogue with Tony Ponturo)(Interview)
May 11, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN Five months after Tony Ponturo departed Anheuser-Busch, where he was VP-global media and sports marketing, the media maven is chairman and part owner of Leverage Agency, a sports-marketing firm that works with the...

Some payout: DeCerchio demands $55M from Doner; Former vice chair, soul of the agency, wants to cash out his 32% stake.
May 11, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN As if times weren't already tough enough for an indie ad shop, Doner finds itself in the unenviable position of having to pay $5.5 million every year for the next 10 years to a guy who no longer works for the agency....

Ad Age's Annals of Marketing Disasters.(briefs)(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... KFC's chicken run will probably end up one of the all-time blunders by advertisers, and this publication has been there to chronicle them all. Here are some of our top choices, listed in no particular order. New Coke: What was Big Red...

Alberto-Culver slashes spending but still grows, thanks to strong brands; Amid recession, stepped up trade promotion, price cuts.
May 11, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF Amid a u.s. economy that shrank 6.1% last quarter and a global personal-care business hit surprisingly hard by recession, Alberto-Culver Co. managed to post 6.3% organic sales growth, including 5.2% in the U.S. But...

How to get more out of the research you are doing.
May 11, 2009... 1. Stay focused Savvy marketers focus their research on the products, brands and markets that are key to their marketing strategy. In a recession, it's essential to get a clear read on existing core customers, including those who are most...

How e-mail became a direct-marketing rock star in recession; As search gets cut, retention-focused retailers find value in channel's cost-effectiveness and trackability.(Survey)
May 11, 2009... Byline: NATALIE ZMUDA It's likely the least sexy tool in your marketing arsenal, but it could be the one that delivers real results. E-mail has emerged as a recession darling, as retailers look to proven programs that are...

RESEARCH MAY BE COSTLY, BUT IT'S CRITICAL; Marketers are understandably cutting back to save money, but now's not the time to abandon it completely.(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Byline: JOHN A. QUELCH And KATHERINE JOCZ With recession-challenged consumers buying less, looking for deals or switching to different brands, product categories or storessome even changing long-held attitudes about consumptionthe degree...

WHY BURT'S BEES CMO WON'T CUT SPENDING IN RECESSION; Indursky: Aim is to emphasize brand's value, not "play price game'.(Interview)
May 11, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF Mike Indursky had marketed everything from detergents at Unilever to Maybelline makeup at L'Oreal before he became chief marketing and strategic officer of Burt's Bees in 2005. Two years later, an acquisition by Clorox...

Broadcast upfront could be down as much as 20%; First serious decline since 2001 will still lead to at least a $7B take.
May 11, 2009... Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG Early predictions for this year's TV-upfront market are grim. The betting on Wall Street is that the broadcast networks will see a 10% to 20% decline from the about $9.23 billion in the commitments from marketers...

Move to legislate ED ads is governmental overreaction.(erectile dysfunction)
May 11, 2009... For the second time in four years, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., has introduced legislation aiming to ban erectile-dysfunction and male-performance-enhancement brands from advertising on TV between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. His reasoning: The ads are...

With PR on the rise, here's a refresher course in the basics.(public relation)
May 11, 2009... Byline: Jonah Bloom Marketers are spending more on PR and getting excited about it, too. Talk of "earned media'' has gone from conference rooms at PR shops to center stage at the Ad Age Digital Conference, where it was given a big...

Sorry, senators: no newspaper is worth saving in its entirety; As pols (belatedly) contemplate nonprofit papers, let's be honest about the "news' we can afford to lose.
May 11, 2009... Byline: Simon Dumenco Hope bubbles inflated by irrational exuberance used to steadily grow for years, but now they last a couple of days at most. On Monday, May 4, when word spread across the land that Amazon was going to unveil a...

Dos and don'ts for pharma online.
May 11, 2009... DIGITAL DOS DO understand the patient is a real person, not a numberand that you're not just marketing to their disease; you're marketing to their lifestyle. DO use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to your advantage and build...

Obama halves Chrysler's planned marketing budget.(Barack Obama)
May 11, 2009... Byline: JEAN HALLIDAY Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it's expected to be in bankruptcythe U.S. Treasury's auto-industry task force gave it half that. So if GM, which is wrestling with the...

People on the move.(briefs)(Milk Processor Education Program appointed Vivien Godfrey)(Tumri appointed Michael Peralta)
May 11, 2009... The board of the Milk Processor Education Program appointed Vivien Godfrey CEO of the organization, which manages the iconic "Got Milk?'' campaign. Ms. Godfrey's experience includes an extensive period of strategic consulting with McKinsey &...

Questions for Apple, the mass marketer.(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Can it really hope to appeal to its original brand advocatestech-influencers, musicians and app developersif it censors app content? Can it really step aside and operate without a vetting process, as many others do, and risk seriously...

Grilled chicken a Kentucky Fried fiasco; Off-brand bet sunk by poor planning and Oprah-driven crowds.
May 11, 2009... Byline: EMILY BRYSON YORK KFC's grilled-chicken launch was to be the biggest in the chain's history. Now it might also go down as a marketing case study in what not to do. The story starts with a marketer testing the elasticity of its...

Fake-news outlet fights some (sorta) fake news about itself.(Onion Inc.)(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Last week The Onion, one of the country's finest purveyors of fake news, became the subject of fake news itself: Rumors flickered across blogs and Twitter that The Onion's weekly print edition was getting shut down. It wasn't true, as...

As seen on AdAge.com.
May 11, 2009... As seen on AdAge.com/goodworks King: Building a generous brand As the industry continues to plod away from messages, ads and interruptions, and move toward ideas, involvement and experiences, Fallon has committed to a modern branding...

SHOULD APPLE BE ARBITER OF TASTE FOR IPHONE APPS? As marketer goes mass, issues arise around third-party content.
May 11, 2009... Byline: RITA CHANG Yeah, they have an app for that. But should they? That's a question beginning to seriously plague iTunes, which offers more than 35,000 mobile games, utilities and entertainment applications from third-party...

REALITY KING MARK BURNETT TAKES ON HISTORY CHANNEL; TV producer talks about "Expedition' and the ad sales/production divide.(Interview)
May 11, 2009... Byline: ANDREW HAMPP Mark burnett has created some of the most enduring reality franchises on broadcast TV, from CBS's "Survivor'' to NBC's "The Apprentice,'' each with integrated ad models that established precedents for product placement...

FIVE REASONS TO START FEELING OPTIMISTIC (MAYBE); The recession isn't over yet, but from consumer confidence to the real-estate market, things aren't as glum as they once were.
May 11, 2009... Byline: Bradley Johnson The end is near. Economists bet GDP growth will turn positive in the third quarter, which begins in just seven weeks. Consensus is for tepid 0.4% annualized growth in the third quarter, followed by 1.5% growth...

Reckitt Benckiser ratchets up spending, posts 8% jump in organic sales growth; Wagers $20M in online video, making it biggest spender there.
May 11, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF The media spending that made Reckitt Benckiser perhaps the most consistently successful package-goods player in terms of sales growth in the good times of the past five years is working pretty well in bad times, too. Now,...

If you want to think outside the box, try to get out of the Ad Belt.(Column)
May 11, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton A few thursdays back, I found myself sitting in Michelin's North American headquarters, just outside of Greenville, S.C., listening to Dr. Benjamin B. Dunlap, president of Wofford College. He was talking about how the...

Upfront not working for you? try reversing it, Like unilever; By approaching networks with specific marketing goals, marketer gets media working for its brands.
May 11, 2009... Byline: JACK NEFF For years, the tv-upfront market hasn't entirely worked for Unilever. But rather than exit like some, the companywith the $499 million it spends on TVis looking to rewrite the rules and increasingly set the agenda with...

Churches get religion on marketing; Number of nonbelievers is rising, but is marketing the solution or problem?(Survey)
May 11, 2009... Byline: BETH SNYDER BULIK Marketing may or may not have played a role in American's increasingly fickle relationship with religion, but it's certainly playing one today as organized religions scramble to get consumers' attention. Call...

How to hold an orderly giveaway.(Denny's Corp.)(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Massive giveaways don't have to wreak havoc on a restaurant system. Denny's gave away 2 million of its legendary Grand Slam breakfasts during an eight-hour period in February. With a smaller restaurant base, the chain was able to seat and serve...

Budweiser gets emotional, tells DDB to study D'arcy; With sales still sliding, A-B drops spots touting product's attributes.(Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.)
May 11, 2009... Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN The budweiser team at DDB, Chicago, is studying 30-year-old commercials from an agency that no longer exists as it tries to stem a sales decline in Anheuser-Busch's flagship Bud brand, and return to the emotional...

Nokia asks advertisers to brand its phones; Cellphone maker aims to win over consumers with the logos they love.
May 11, 2009... Byline: RITA CHANG If you brand it, they will buy. That's the hope of Finnish handset maker Nokia, which is hoping mobile devices wrapped in a corporate logos will appeal to U.S. consumers. For an undisclosed fee, the world's biggest...

Media Morph: Kindle as newspaper savior-or foe.(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Byline: Abbey Klaassen and Nat Ives What it is: Known as the Kindle DX, this large-format e-reader introduced by Amazon last weekis two-and-a-half-times larger than the typical Kindle and better for reading newspapers, textbooks and...

Goodbye, destination web, hello, online enlightenment.
May 11, 2009... Byline: Steve Rubel For the past 15 years, marketers have lived like kings online. We built ornate palaces in homage to ourselves in the form of websites and microsites. Each acts as a destination that embodies our meticulous choice of...

What's wrong with how we buy national TV; Ad Age gathered TV execs from both sides of the table for a candid discussion on what national TV buying should be, and how to get there.(Discussion)
May 11, 2009... When the upfront finally moves this year, the seven executives who joined Ad Age for a roundtable discussion April 23 will each play a key role in the direction it takes. Linda Yaccarino, exec VP-chief operating officer for Turner Entertainment...

It's tired, it's been done before, and I couldn't stop watching it.
May 11, 2009... Byline: Bob Garfield A couple of weeks ago, here in this very space, we talked about an ad for Post Shredded Wheat that embodied a great idea, but nonetheless fell flat because the copywriting, direction, acting and editing all came up a...

CREATIVITY TOP FIVE.(Company rankings)
May 11, 2009... In this week's Creativity's Top Five, Ogilvy & Mather, Paris, animates the beauty of words for Scrabble; Apple drops a banner ad that lists all the ways PCs are easy to use; Acne and Swedish Airport Coaches build a bus out of cars to prove a...

People on the Move.(Publicis and Hal Riney Co. has appointed Kristi VandenBosch)(Kantar Group has appointed Kim Dedeker)(Vibrant has appointed Bob Hammond )
May 18, 2009... Kristi VandenBosch has been named CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. Ms. VandenBosch comes to the agency from Tequila, where she was president-North America and a founding member of the shop's Los Angeles office. She served on the...

What you say.(Chrysler L.L.C.)(Brief article)
May 18, 2009... Byline: Ken Wheaton THE question: Do you think the government should have put a limit on the amount of money Chrysler got? When the Drudge Report linked to our story about the government limiting Chrysler's ad budget, there was much...

Adages.(Procter and Gamble Co's lawsuit against Georgia-Pacific Corp.)
May 18, 2009... Brawny and Bounty in legal squabble over towel patterns Those little quilts on paper towels and toilet paper are turning out to be a very big deal in federal courts. Procter & Gamble Co. filed suit May 8 against Georgia-Pacific in U.S....

The twuth about Twitter twends revealed (by Brit living in Shanghai); Plus, why the microblogging service matters more in China, and what to do about twam.
May 18, 2009... Byline: Simon Dumenco Twitter prides itself on taking the true pulse of cyberspace. Trend-watch on Google, the thinking goes, and you're behind the curve. Trend-watch on Twitter, and you're jacked into right now! Only problem is, right...

9 History Channel Nancy Dubuc; Top producers and brands wake up to History.(A and E Television Networks)
May 18, 2009... Byline: Andrew Hampp Nancy Dubuc had one singular challenge when she was appointed exec VP-general manager of the History Channel at the beginning of 2007: How do you make history entertaining? The solution: Tell great stories that put...

8 "Burn Notice" Bonnie Hammer & Chris Mccumber; `Burn Notice' doesn't flicker out in sophomore year.
May 18, 2009... Byline: Andrew Hampp The highest-rated original cable program in 2009 thus far was not TNT's "The Closer,'' FX's "Damages'' or even Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants.'' USA's "Burn Notice'' was that rare TV seriescable or broadcastthat...

2 Lauren Zalaznick; NBCU's `brand queen' puts focus on women.(NBC Universal Inc.)
May 18, 2009... Lauren Zalaznick's branding brush has become nearly impossible to avoid. Whether it's the continued success of "Top Chef'' and the "Real Housewives'' franchise on Bravo, the growth of Oxygen, the youthful rebrand of iVillage or any of NBC...

Parade's Walter Anderson reveals the secret of his success.(Parade Publications Inc.)
May 18, 2009... Byline: Rance Crain Walter Anderson just retired as chairman-CEO of Parade Publications, and he's already accepted a new job. His employer is the Jonathan Daniel Anderson Imagination and Construction Co. and his title is grandpa. His...

Thinking of pulling a CareerBuilder? Pros and cons of bringing an account in-house; Recession makes option attractive for marketers looking for cost savings.
May 18, 2009... Byline: RUPAL PAREKH RECESSION MAKES OPTION ATTRACTIVE FOR MARKETERS LOOKING FOR COST SAVINGS rparekh@adage.com when careerbuilderthe nation's largest job site and a dedicated Super Bowl advertiserrecently announced it would bring...