From Bloomberg:

Atkins Nutritionals Inc., founded by the late diet guru Dr. Robert Atkins, filed for bankruptcy protection in New York as consumer interest in low-carbohydrate foods faded.

What's interesting here is that the Atkins Diet has been around since the 1970's. But the company got huge amounts of press a couple of years ago, and rode a fad. Meanwhile, dieters looking for the latest thing got on board. They weren't really believers in the science behind the brand, so the brand got diluted and suffered.

The more publicity Atkins got, the more it ultimately hurt them.

Is it better to remain a cult brand with loyal followers, or is it better to build a brand big and fast when the opportunity presents itself?

From Ad Age:

Mired in a stagnant $17 billion athletic-footwear market, Nike is trying to juice up its business by launching an upscale urban fashion line. Blue Ribbon Sports, which was the original name of the company that later became Nike, has been resurrected as an urbran fashion wear line.

The company has quietly introduced Blue Ribbon Sports -- the company's original name as coined by founder Phil Knight -- an exclusive brand of urban-themed clothing available only at such high-end retailers as Barney's and Fred Segal.

Full Story

It is interesting to see Nike playing catch-up for once, with Adidas already going upscale. How will the company that Michael Jordan built do with Blue Ribbon Sports?

You asked and we answered.

Introducing the Forums at AdPulp.com.

Lewis Lazare: Nobody loves a publicity stunt like Bernie DiMeo of DiMeo & Co./Chicago. Still, we'll take DiMeo at his word when he informs us he has named former Northwestern University star running back Darnell Autry as director of marketing for his boutique ad agency. Football fans may recall Autry was the offensive player of the year and a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1995, when he led the Northwestern Wildcats to their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1948.

Subsequently Autry played briefly with the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles after leaving Northwestern. He also pursued his passion for acting -- appearing in several episodes of "What I Like About You" and "The District." Now, it appears Autry is looking to add some advertising expertise to his resume.

Always on the prowl for new accounts, DiMeo believes Autry will be of help on the new business front, thanks to his various sports and Northwestern contacts. Autry also is expected to do some work with DiMeo's account team for current clients, which include the Chicago Bulls and Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits local co-op.

Adweek: Jeff Goodby offered the following explanation when asked why his agency wanted Subway, despite indications that the client would likely resist the type of brand-image work Goodby is typically known for in favor of retail-focused, more tactical spots.

"Because I'm a stupid optimist," Goodby joked. "It's either optimism or masochism. You always think you'll get a hold of a client and figure out a way to find an ingenious place to go."

"Advertising people tend to believe that, given the right circumstances, everybody will like them," he explained. "It may be delusional and arrogant, but it's true."

The Telegraph: The president of one of the world's biggest advertising agency holding companies has issued a damning state-of-the-nation assessment that describes France as being in steep decline and his countrymen as "narrowed and stunted".

Maurice Levy, the head of the media giant Publicis, whose company owns Saatchi and Saatchi and has offices in 100 countries across six continents, said France had failed to get the 2012 Olympics because the world now saw it as a nation of perdants and "losers". For good measure, he described the 35-hour week as "absurd" and the wails of complaint that followed Paris's loss of the Games to London as "pathetic".

His forthright critique was published in the opinion section on the front page of the Le Monde.

Nothing like a little compare-and-contrast-T&A ads:

My new column on TalentZoo.com takes a look at both of these ads, and which ad campaign was, in my humble opinion, a riskier move.

According to USA Today, Bimba Rao and Abhijit Kakhandiki paid $880,000 3 months ago for a 1,150 square foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on a shaded corner in Friendly Woods, a block over the Cupertino border.

The house was old and small and needed work. But they liked the neighborhood and the home's potential. The listed price was $750,000, so they offered $880,000 and wrote a personal letter to the owners explaining why they liked tthe house. Their efforts bested 25 other offers.

Brandweek: French sportswear brand Lacoste this week will launch a global campaign via French agency BETC, Paris, that embraces the brand's connection to 1930's French tennis champion Rene Lacoste in an energetic, modern way.

"This is a big campaign for us and we wanted to launch it in a really big way," said Sarah Penchansky, pr manager.

Creative consists of two-page spreads with an image of a racquet-wielding Rene Lacoste on one side and a current image, such as a young woman leaping through the air wearing a white skirt and vest on the other. The photos incorporate licensed product such as hats, bags and shoes for a unified look.

"All of these images are inspired by him playing on the court, which is the spirit of the crocodile," Penchansky said. "This is the first time we have used these images of him."

A French tagline, "un peu d'air sur terre," which roughly translated means, "a little air on earth," drives home the theme of air, energy and movement. "It's really different from our previous campaign, which was much more generic and not a lot of motion," Penchansky said. "This definitely embraces the feeling of Lacoste a lot more. It's levity, it's light, air and movement, and you can see that in all the images. Lacoste is movement. Our roots are in tennis. This definitely hits a nerve."

Room 116 points to Flickr user, Sem's image capture. Apparently, the super balls were released during the making of a new Sony commercial.

Washington Post: Advertising.com Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, agreed to settle federal charges that the company offered free security software without adequately disclosing that it also came with adware.

Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Advertising.com will be required to "clearly and prominently" disclose that consumers who install the program, SpyBlast, will receive pop-up ads based on their Internet browsing habits.

The FTC complaint charged that when consumers install SpyBlast—a software intended to protect against hackers—they are not required to read the agreement alerting users about receiving potential marketing messages.

Adware and spyware have become major nuisances for consumers. Both types of programs typically are installed with little or no disclosure. While adware is less dangerous than spyware, consumers complain adware programs bombard them with pop-up ads, slow their computers and are hard to remove.

W+K London has a padded concepting room.

"Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms." --The Hatch Brothers

Adfreak reports on the new KC Masterpeice print campaign from DDB San Francisco, made in conjunction with Hatch Showprint of Nashville.

Hatch Showprint, the oldest print shop in America opened in 1879. For decades it was the leading poster printer for circuses, vaudeville shows and sporting events. Today, it is best know for creating images of Grand Ole Opry stars, thousands of which line the shop's walls. Modern-day artists employ the same techniques that have been used since the 15th century.

Lewis Lazare: On Wednesday, the man responsible for orchestrating what may be the most embarrassing parade of ads ever to appear in the annual Super Bowl of Advertising finally took the fall for that debacle at brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.

Bob Lachky is leaving his longtime post as vice president of brand management to take on the newly created post of executive vice president, global industry development, in which he will represent A-B with alcohol industry groups nationally and abroad. A-B described Lachky's new job as a "promotion," but it clearly leaves him in a much less powerful position than he had overseeing advertising for all A-B beer brands.

A-B tapped an insider, Marlene V. Coulis, to replace Lachky. Coulis, a 13-year veteran of the brewery, becomes the first woman and the first Hispanic to head up A-B's marketing efforts. She had been vice president of marketing planning and research and customer satisfaction. But sources were perplexed by her selection. "She was a woman in man's club at the brewery and never had any real clout," said one Chicago ad executive who knew Coulis.

According to the New York Times, Martha Stewart will spend three extra weeks under house arrest after reports that she violated terms of her home confinement by going to a yoga class and motoring around her estate in an off-road vehicle.

Jennifer Whetzel of Sullivan Higdon Sink attended the 4As Planning Conference in Chicago and had this to say:

So the conference kicked off yesterday with a great incitation by John Hunt, the Worldwide Creative Director of TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris. He defined Account Planners as the intelligentsia of the advertising industry. He charged us with the task of being catalysts to fresh new thinking and the goal to set creatives free from the code of sameness.

He said the definition of a great campaign is one where the idea comes from a different place - it's not just a great idea or a great execution of an idea. He described planners as the one who helps creatives find that new place. Any thoughts from creatives out there?

Everyone's favorite blogging brand planner, Russell Davies, formerly of Wieden + Kennedy and currenly with Nike, saw things a bit differently.

John Hunt is talking now. Seems like a nice guy. Did quite a nice mock sermon thing, but entirely based in a very old world view of advertising - the creatives have big ideas, the account guys make them small because the client is unimaginative and the planners do lots of research.

Is it not possible that some clients are imaginative, some creatives are unoriginal and some planners don't want to do research?

Is it really true that creatives just need to be set free from the tyranny of dull clients?

Maybe once, but not anymore. Maybe a bunch of demanding clients are trying to get exciting work out of dull creatives.

That doesn't seem to be conventional wisdom among creatives but maybe they should concede it's possible and that would make them stretch themselves a bit.

Weblogs, Inc.'s Design Blog brings us this board from New Zealand’s Clemenger BBDO.

The billboard utilizes 12,148 aluminum pegs of various heights to cast shadows forming the grayscale image when the sun is out.

Brand Noise: Internet users from the ages of 12 to 17 say e-mail is best for talking to parents or institutions, but they are more likely to fire up IM when talking to each other, the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Email is still used by 90 percent of online teens but the survey found greater enthusiasm for instant messaging.

Three-quarters of teen Internet users use instant messaging, compared with 42 percent of adults, Pew said. Nearly half of teens said they exchanged IMs daily, and some said they spent more than two hours each day using instant-messenger programs.

Half or nearly half of the 1,100 teenagers surveyed said they used IM to send web links or photos to each other, while nearly one-third said they had sent music or video clips over IM.

I like it when brands with heritage offer it up on their site. Here's a 1946 ad from Vespa, the Italian scooter company.

Robert Novak walked off the set during a live segment on CNN yesterday. He also cursed his nemesis on the left, James Carville.

According to the New York Times:

About two hours later, a spokeswoman for CNN, Laurie Goldberg, released a statement saying that the network had "asked Mr. Novak to take some time off." Asked later in a telephone interview whether Mr. Novak was being suspended from his work at the Cable News Network, Ms. Goldberg said, "We're characterizing it as a mutual decision."

I noticed in Adweek that Creative Director, Dave Damman, left Fallon for West Wayne in Atlanta.

The move reunites Damman with Bobby Pearce, WestWayne's executive creative director, who left Fallon in June to join WestWayne. The two have known each other for a decade, beginning as an art director-copywriter team at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis and spending the past two years as creative directors at Fallon. "We finish each other's sentences," Damman said of the relationship.

While that revelation is probably more than we need to know, what I find interesting is the idea that West Wayne is dedicated to making Atlanta a creative mecca. I got a press release on this from West Wayne and that's their word. Mecca.

I used to hear similar sentiments from colleagues of mine in Denver. And I think now what I thought then. Why is this a concern? Who cares what Denver or Atlanta are doing? I know it's terribly old-fashioned, but what matters most is the quality of work you're providing for your clients. One's market has little bearing on that.

I was invited to the Hadrian's Wall summer party. And I'll bet you money, Lewis Lazare was not. Nah nah na nah nah.

Okay, enough of that.

You've got to see how Chicago's most creative agency prepares a party invite. Go now. You'll be better for it upon your return.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Just as commuters are catching up to the idea of satellite radio for their cars, former graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a next-generation radio concept that allows users to tune into music from iPods and other digital music players in nearby cars.

The idea, which the students developed for an unidentified "major automaker" last year, is called Roadcasting. Using it, you could tune your radio to music playlists coming from other cars within a 30-mile radius. Or you could transmit your own list of songs for people in other nearby cars to listen to.

Perhaps best of all, the Roadcasting software would learn what songs or musical genres you like. Using those preferences, it would sift through all the broadcasts available at any one time and choose the ones you should like best. Every time you turned on the Roadcasting apparatus, it would find an ad hoc radio station -- or create a mix of songs -- with your tastes in mind.

That kind of matching -- called "filtering" -- is what makes the idea special, and ties it to an important trend in how people are experiencing technology and culture.

The technology is largely theoretical but would probably work like this: Besides having traditional radios or CD players, cars would also have a Roadcasting feature. When it is turned on, it would search for all the digital playlists being played nearby, probably over some kind of mobile Wi-Fi network, the same kind of technology that allows you to flip open your laptop and check e-mail at a coffee shop or airline terminal.

USA Today: A podcast is a digital recording of a radio-style audio program that can be downloaded from the Internet and played on a digital music player. Many podcasters think the technology could revolutionize radio as TiVo did television.

Nic Harcourt of Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW

Record labels worry that listeners will pirate the songs contained in the downloaded radio shows. The result: yet another Napster-like standoff over piracy and music rights.

Streaming media is different from podcasting because it's not a recording, which makes it harder to pirate. A stream is essentially a broadcast that travels over the Internet instead of the airwaves.

Record and radio companies have struck a blanket licensing agreement for streaming based on traditional radio licenses. No such agreement exists for podcasting, which is why most podcasts are currently "talk radio" or feature bands on indie labels that want all the exposure they can get.

Boston Globe: When parents and baseball fans arrived at the state's Little League championship in Beverly on Sunday, they were met at the gate with a friendly welcome: Members of two Beverly baseball teams, ages 10 to 12, handed out baseballs imprinted with the Bank of America logo, packaged with peanuts and Cracker Jacks.

''Switch to Bank of America," one of the boys yelled.

''It's a better bank for better people," another chimed in.

Bank of America Corp., which last year signed a deal with Little League Baseball, Inc., to become its official bank, one of a growing number of large national companies that see a big payoff from marketing to children's sports teams. After years of haphazard and disjointed efforts, mostly by tiny local businesses, to penetrate youth sports, big national corporations, with their multimillion-dollar marketing budgets, increasingly are horning in on the action. Little League Baseball now has 15 national sponsors, up from about eight a decade ago.

''People care very deeply about the Red Sox and the Patriots, but the deepest affinity in existence is for their kids' games," said Bryant McBride, group vice president of team and youth sports at Active Marketing Group, which is implementing many of the national companies' youth sports marketing programs.

As we examine Hugh's latest creation, do we find truths neatly revealed? Or clever obfuscation?

First, terms need to be defined. "Madison Avenue" is an actual place, but it's also a blanket statement for any big, powerful ad agency. There are maybe 100 to 200 such shops in the U.S., of the 10,000 agencies in business.

"Real blog" is problematic, becasue what's real to one is fantasy or spoof to another. I can see where someone who deploys Moveable Type, Word Press or any other blogware on their site could argue that they have a real blog, whatever it's style or contents. For our purposes here, real means a blog with an authentic voice, or voices, where there's a genuine back-and-forth between users and those generating the content.

Here's a real situation. Marketing people on the client side have to get copy approved by their lawyers. In a regulated industry like beer or spirits, all copy goes through legal, everytime. Period. So, to relax that rule for the blog's sake is actually asking a lot. It's asking the client to rethink their approval process.

It is a maverick move to have a real blog. And that fact favors organizations with few layers, who can think on their feet and act fast. To do a customer-facing blog right, the brand team needs to empower an individual or a group of writers to act in real time on behalf of the company.

Those of us who bring marketing blogs into being do not ask much. Just that our clients rethink everything and learn to trust.

Two new books tackle the delicate art of getting and keeping a career in the advertising industry. I haven't gotten a copy of either of these (according to Amazon, they'll be available soon) but I plan to.

From the available-on-August 12 "Pick Me: Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There" by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin:

Making it in advertising is tough. Even with a degree and a terrific portfolio, it's hard to get a job. In Pick Me!, Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin offer a primer for students and junior ad professionals who want to make their mark in advertising. The creators of "Ask Jancy," a popular online forum on one of the world's leading advertising Web sites, answer questions asked by up-and-comers in their trademark straight-talking style. Pick Me! covers everything from choosing the right school to creating a winning portfolio to getting the interview, landing the job, weathering office politics, and starting a successful career. The book also includes career advice from 14 ad industry superstars, including how they got their first jobs, what they look for in a junior ad exec, and what they know now that they wish they'd known then.

From the available-on-September 8 Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life by Sally Hogshead:

Do you want to become the most powerful, valuable, fulfilled version of yourself? If so, you're a careerist. Advertising and entrepreneurial rockstar Sally Hogshead reveals 100 Radical Truths for closing the gap between your current reality and your utmost potential, including: # 15: Aspire to be the dumbest person in the room # 31: You can be comfortable, or outstanding, but not both # 67: Mistakes are tuition # 96: Expressing your truest self is the ultimate competitive advantage # 100: Make your memoirs worth reading

With groundbreaking research and startling new ideas for success, Radical Careering will become the indispensable owner's manual to your future. Get ready to turbocharge your career with smarter goals, higher market value, and killer results.

2 incidental notes here: As a University of Georgia graduate, I do applaud the prodigious use of red and black on the covers of both books, but they're curiously similar. And Sally Hogshead is also one of the "14 ad industry superstars" featured in the 'Pick Me' book as well as being the author of "Radical Careering."

Our friends at Reginald Pike pointed us to their breaking creative for Old Navy's Back-To-School. Click the image to view the two spots.

Some of the shrieks emanating from multiplexes across America this summer won't be the result of blockbuster thrillers. Rather they will be caused by something a lot closer to home: the abject horror at realizing that back to school time is closer than you think.

A couple of spine-chilling spots from Old Navy put old horror film tropes to good use as less than gentle reminders. Directed by the Perlorian Brothers
and conceived by Deutsch, Los Angeles, the spots are a faithful homage
to the classic campfire-in-the-woods slasher film and the cold-blooded-killer-from-the- deep movies and promise to have teens running straight from campgrounds and beaches everywhere directly to their nearest Old Navy.

USA Today: A giant in the produce industry has planted the seeds for a ground-breaking California spa complex.

Dole Food of pineapple and packaged-salad fame is building a wellness center, spa and 270-room luxury hotel on 20 acres next to its headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif. The complex, about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is due to open next summer.

The spa and medical facilities — a pioneering venture by a food company — will offer everything from massages to plastic-surgery recovery to a longevity test that measures a person's rate of DNA degradation. It is the brainchild of Dole Foods chairman David Murdock, a self-made billionaire in his early 80s who is passionate about health and anti-aging treatments.

"He wants to bring together the best nutritionists and health experts to be on the scientific cutting edge but also provide luxury and pampering," says Jennifer Grossman, director of the Dole Nutrition Institute, which will be involved with spa and hotel-restaurant offerings and send guests home with dietary prescriptions.

The complex was not dreamed up to extend the Dole brand, Grossman says. "For Mr. Murdock, it's a mission kind of thing. The branding is incidental. He is completely passionate about nutrition and how to promote longevity."

Promo Magazine: Crown Royal is partnering with NASCAR driver Kurt Busch this month to remind young people of drinking age that getting home safely should be a top priority.

A fleet of purple and gold Crown Royal No. 97 Ford Taurus' (replicas of the official race car) will offer bar patrons around downtown Indianapolis rides home. Some will be surprised to find the NASCAR champion Kurt Busch himself behind the wheel.

Crown Royal-branded taxi stands will be placed outside participating bars on Meridian Street today from 9 pm to 1 am with 10 cars rotating to drive patrons home (within a 20-mile radius of Indianapolis). Riders must be 21 or older.

Slate: There is a great Simpsons episode in which Homer, overcome by carbon-monoxide fumes, hallucinates that he is an Ottoman sultan. Though he is surrounded by gyrating concubines, the Simpson family patriarch is not satisfied. "I grow weary of your sexually suggestive dancing," he says. "Bring me my ranch-dressing hose!" Within seconds, the women are blasting him with a geyser of gooey ranch.

Homer's tastes are meant to reflect those of the American everyman, and in this case the Simpsons writers nailed it: Ranch dressing has been the nation's best-selling salad topper since 1992, when it overtook Italian. How did this simple mixture of mayonnaise, buttermilk, and herbs become America's favorite way to liven up lettuce?

In the early days, ranch dressing didn't seem likely to take Italian's crown. It was a strictly local delicacy—the pride of Steve and Gayle Henson, a couple who'd opened a dude ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1954. Visitors to the Henson spread, known as Hidden Valley Ranch, came for the horseback riding, but they frequently left with fonder memories of Steve's special dressing. The Hensons began to give their guests to-go bottles, and eventually they started a small plant where they manufactured packets of ranch seasoning for the retail market.

In 1972, the Clorox Company bought the Hidden Valley Ranch brand for $8 million.

New York Times: Google says its mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." But it does not appear to take kindly to those who use its search engine to organize and publish information about its own executives.

CNETNews.com, a technology news Web site, said last week that Google had told it that the company would not answer any questions from CNET's reporters until July 2006. The move came after CNET published an article last month that discussed how the Google search engine can uncover personal information and that raised questions about what information Google collects about its users.

The article, by Elinor Mills, a CNET staff writer, gave several examples of information about Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, that could be gleaned from the search engine. These included that his shares in the company were worth $1.5 billion, that he lived in Atherton, Calif., that he was the host of a $10,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Al Gore's presidential campaign and that he was a pilot.

Net Imperative: Virgin has unveiled plans for its own digital music service to take on the likes of iTunes and Napster, set to go live in the UK on 2 September.

Powered by technology from MusicNet, Virgin Digital will be promoted via a multi-million pound investment campaign covering advertising, in-store marketing and online spend.

Working with the firm's entertainment retail business Virgin Megastores, the service offers a "pay as you go" service or monthly subscription, which allows unlimited downloads and access to a catalogue of more than one million tracks covering 19 different genres.

Features include internet radio, rip and burn software, music manager software and track sampling, along with an "ask the expert" service.

The service will be compatible with Windows Media Audio, and a range of portable music devises by Samsung, Sony, Creative and iRiver.

On the heels of this morning's pointing to Old Navy's new creative, AdPulp.com reader Stephen T. dropped us line for Carlton Draught's Big Ad.

Carlton's attempt at creating viral buzz is interesting to say the least, but we find their effort over-shadowed by the use of a Java applet requiring approval to run. In today's security conscious internet environment, someone should have thought through that part of the campaign.

A definite buzz-kill.

A few months ago I heard that Steffan Postaer's book was being shopped around for a possible film deal. Today Lewis Lazare reports the story may be made-for-TV:

Euro RSCG/Chicago Chief Creative Officer Steffan Postaer's first published novel, The Last Generation, has reportedly been optioned by the Touchstone & Medavoy producing team as a possible project for NBC. Postaer said NBC execs envision it as a series that could appeal to the same audience as the current hit show "Lost." A decision could come before Thanksgiving.

Back in the 70's, Al Ries and Jack Trout collaborated on a book called Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, which has been widely praised for its innovative thinking.

These days, they've gone their separate ways, and each has a column out this week, where you can see their divergent points of view.

Al Ries contributes to Ad Age regularly, and invariably the point of every column is "I told you so" and "If only Client X and Client Y had listened to me they wouldn't be up shit's creek." His column this week is about why advertising agencies don't advertise. He's a little late to the party on that one: I wrote about the same thing 3 years ago.

Jack Trout, writing on Forbes.com, suggests that all is not lost in the ad industry, like Ries usually does, but suggests instead that agencies get back to strategic thinking--and do away with awards shows. It's a very interesting perspective.

Earlier this summer, Hardee's/Carls Jr. made headlines for their Carwash TV spot with Paris Hilton. But unless you are in the Midwest (for Hardee's) or the Western US (Carl's Jr.), you are missing some excellent creative being put out by both brands. The kind of executions that make art directors working as order-takers drool.

My favorite of the moment is Cow Shake (click the graphic), but the rest of their spots are live on the web:

-> Hardee's on TV
-> Carl Jr. on TV

New York Times: Think only politics makes strange bedfellows? Look what Procter & Gamble has wrought.

The company long ago split up its advertising, with Tide laundry detergent now handled by Saatchi & Saatchi, Bounce antistatic dryer sheets by Leo Burnett Toronto and Downy fabric softener by Grey Worldwide. But now the company has put the scent of Febreze, its household odor freshener for fabrics, into all three products. So which agency gets to trumpet that fact?

Procter's answer: All of them.

Adweek: The University of Florida has selected Fletcher Martin to provide the school's advertising following a review, the shop said.

The university selected the MDC Partners shop in Atlanta from 17 agencies that competed for the account, all but two of them in Florida. There was no incumbent. This is the first time the university has hired an outside agency to provide general branding for the school.

FM will create and produce broadcast and print ads for the Gainesville, Fla., school, in addition to helping the institution develop its public relations, market research, media planning, Internet and other communications programs.

The first work will launch next month when the university's football team, the Gators, begins playing its games. Television ads will air during the school's games, and print ads will be placed in the programs at the games.

FM CEO Andy Fletcher is a 1979 graduate of the University of Florida and has been on the school's Department of Advertising Advisory Council for the past year. The shop has hired students in the past as interns and employees.

"Everyone in the agency business has a dream client and the University of Florida has been mine," Fletcher said.

Ford Motor Company is offering four audio streams from their Mercury Radio page.

VW was first-to-market with this technology a few years ago, but the German automaker discontinued its internet radio station last year.

Female First: Busty beauty Pamela Anderson has ditched a personal appearance at US pet store Petco's 40th anniversary convention this week, because she learned the chain sells live birds.

Staff at the legendary pet store were thrilled at the prospect of bringing the former Baywatch babe on board for their celebrations, but they refused to bow to her bird-loving demands, reports PageSix.com.

The actress-turned-animal rights activist wrote to Petco boss Kevin Whalen, "I would gladly do the appearance if Petco pledges to end the sale of all birds, big and small, by January 2006."

Greg Storey of Airbag Industries wrote recently about how blogs are now being used to sell computers.

Last night I came across a back-to-college commercial for Gateway computer. Nothing any of us haven't already seen already: ultra low cost computer systems complete with a free printer, after a fifty dollar rebate. Except this time I caught a slight difference in the advertising message:

"...perfect for blogging or sending email..."

I can't be sure because I rarely read Adweek anymore, much to the disappointment to my college mentor I'm sure, but I'm almost positive that's the first time a computer company has used blogging as an activity that their products are perfect for. Amazing how in less than five years blogging has replaced gaming, video editing, and homework as the criteria of choice for purchasing a computer. Interesting.

Perhaps Six Apart should get in there and co-brand a Typepad/Gateway laptop, complete with a Lance Armstrong knock-off rubber wristband, baby-blue and stamped: TYPESTRONG.

One of the comments to Storey's post says:

Not saying they're going away, but the burning up part is the migration of the cool factor to greener pastures. Blogs were cool. Blogs were punk. Blogs were anti-establishment. Blogs will soon be completely mainstreamed, commercialized, co-opted, de-fanged. Something more interesting will come along. Once something has been featured in a Gateway ad it's no longer cool to those who care about cool, from the geek universe to the high schooler. It will take a while, but inch by inch more and more of those 14.1 million who thought they were doing something besides wasting their time will start to give up faced with the effort that creating a good blog requires. They'll be gradually replaced by corporate blogs and blogs from local news stations all sanctioned by the PR department and the marketing agency. The vibrant independent blogger will grow older and tired, and move on to other things, more rewarding financially and personally. I say bring it on, I'm ready for the next. This medium needs a kick in the pants.

So I'm sitting here watching "The Today Show" when a commercial for Purell Hand Soap comes on, with MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" in the background.

Then it occurred to me that I just saw him a month ago dancing in a Nationwide Insurance commercial to "U Can't Touch This" implying "Hey, you too can go broke if you spend all your record royalties on parachute pants. So get Nationwide."

Clearly, using famous songs in commercials is pervasive, but many songs are being reused quickly for different brands. I'm wondering if the agencies involved care about that--and do the brands care? Does it dilute the message of the commercial or does it help to make a popular song the focal point of the spot?

eBay entered China through a $180 million purchase of Shanghai-based EachNet. Expedia owner InterActiveCorp paid $168 million for 52 percent of Chinese online travel agent eLong. Online retailer Amazon.com purchased Joyo.com for $75 million, and online job search leader Monster.com bought a 40 percent stake in ChinaHR.com for $50 million.

Now, according to CNET, Yahoo is prepared to pay 1 billion dollars for a 35 percent stake in Alibaba.com.

Based in the eastern China city of Hangzhou--about two hours from Shanghai--Alibaba's main China operations include a business-to-business e-commerce site; an online auction site called Taobao that competes with eBay in China; and a recently launched online payment system called Alipay.

Thanks to a pointer from Meta Cool, I now know to go to COSTCO for my next purchase of an original Miro, Picassso, Chagall, Toulouse-Lautrec or Leroy Neiman.

This limited edition lithograph, signed and numbered by the artist is fetching a cool $3999.99

People are increasingly using their cell phones--or handheld media centers, as the case may be--to create their blogs. The practice is known as Mobloging, or mobile blogging.

Nokia wants to make the process easier and more widespread. They've coined the term Lifeblog (a proprietary version of Moblog) and teamed with Six Apart, who have made their Typepad product Lifeblog-compatible.

Here are three Lifeblog examples, one from a supermodel:
Anina
Fishblog
Loic Le Meur's Moblog

Want to be CBS's first podcaster? The network is searching for an amateur DJ to interview CBS stars and create a podcast about the new fall season. The podcaster will join the nation's top DJs at the CBS Radio Junket on September 10 in Hollywood to interview CBS talent for the podcast, which will be made available to millions via CBS.com and Infinity Broadcasting's San Francisco-based KYOURADIO, the world's first-ever podcasting radio station. For consideration, you'll need to upload a mock three-minute interview.

Thanks to Random Culture for the pointer.

Bumper sticker courtesy of Idea Mill

Yesterday, on the 10th anniversary of Garcia's passing, Seth asked, "What Would Jerry Do?"

More than Campbell's Soup or American Airlines or CAA or Cisco or McKinsey, the Grateful Dead is the template for how organizations are going to grow and succeed moving forward.

No, not every element of who they were and what they did, but the idea of conversations and open source, the idea of souvenirs and emotion and live events and of remarkability. The Dead sells through permission marketing, spread their music through an ideavirus and yes, as long as we're slinging buzzwords, profits from the long tail.

The most important takeaway is this: They repeatedly did things that felt like huge risks, that challenged the status quo and that seemed, on their face, to give too much power to their audience. And in those moments, the Grateful Dead were at their most successful.

Seth also points to a New York Times article about how the JG and GD brands continue to earn millions of dollars each year from merchandise sales.

On Sunday, the city unveiled the newly renamed Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in John McLaren Park, near the blue-collar Excelsior District where Mr. Garcia grew up before moving to the better-known Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

Backstage at the event, Mr. Garcia's older brother, Tiff, seemed to share his sibling's somewhat ambivalent attitude toward the marketing of celebrity.

"They're trying to do an Elvis on him, with all of the garments and merchandise and different items," he said. "But I'm not surprised."

Let's also consider what Hugh calls the best thing A VC has ever written. It's on the value of free.

Stewart Brand's famous qoute "Information wants to be free" has been the rallying cry of the open source software movement for years.

And I basically think Stewart was right.

Free is a great way to make money. You just have to know how you are going to get paid for being free.

Today, with digital distribution being something of a Wild West show, artists, writers, photographers, musicians, film makers and others are concerned about "giving it all away" on the internet. Yet, there's nothing to be concerned about (other than privacy rights). The idea is to build a fan base. Without that fan base you don't have Jack. So, do whatever you have to do to be totally solid with that the people who most vigorously support what you're doing. It's the old "give it away and see what comes back to you" trick. Bloggers and Deadheads know it well. Deadheads who blog know it even better.

Ad Age ponders the wisdom of advertising on consumer-controlled spaces.

Blogs require caution, but are much more predictable than chat rooms. "The blogs we would encourage people to advertise on have a small number of authors, one, two or three tops. In chat rooms, anyone can post," said Scott Rafer, CEO of Feedster, a blog and RSS search engine and ad network, who is building technology to monitor and filter blogs. The other major difference is that because the postings are predictable, the content can be monitored and controlled by automation or by human beings. If something objectionable is posted, an ad can be pulled within minutes, he added.

Market Watch: A pair of top venture-capital firms are putting their money where Adam Curry's mouth is. The former MTV VJ has secured $8.85 million in backing for his venture, PodShow Inc.

"There is little that gets Valley girls and boys as hot and bothered as when an Internet company gets funded by both Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers," Private Equity Week reported Thursday. Previous investments by the VCs have included Amazon.com, Netscape and Google.

Curry and his partner, Ron Bloom, are creating a network of radio-like programs which can be downloaded to PCs and mobile players. They plan to market to their network of podcasts to advertisers, figuring that aggregating programs the result will be a large audience.

Matt Kaye, a writer for Corante Web logs, said the investments are a sure sign Podshow wants to go public. "That's what KPCB does," he said.

Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc. is admiring of Podshow's new backing, but wonders about a payoff.

"How you could even spend $8M to make podcasting a real business is beyond me," he wrote on his blog. While advertising on Web pages is simple to do, he said, "Creating audio advertisements ... takes time, talent, cost, and you can forget about tracking it. Making podcasts is easy, he adds, making money from them is hard."

USA Today claims "Oil has yet to hit problematic height" in a headline today.

"At some point, high oil prices have to matter," says David Briggs, head of global equity trading at Federated Investors. "When Joe Six Pack has to start paying $50 to fill up his tank, you have to think they will stop buying Frappuccinos and bottled water."

It cost me $44 to fill my tank before work this morning. It would have been $48 if my tank was completely tapped. I think I'll stick with the bottled water and espresso drinks and look to drive less.

Derek Powazek is stoked about Flickr's new printed photo books, a product still in incubatory stages.

My first thought was, "Man, everyone's gonna want one of these." (Of their photos, I mean. Not mine. Besides you, mom. You might want one of mine.)

Forbes Magazine and its competitors can't simply sell to old white men in suits. Not if they want to grow revenue, that is. Yet, I question whether an ad that would be at home in Skateboarding is the way to go.

The ad from Merkley and Partners reads: No salary earning, old underpants wearing, billionaire on paper CEO. It's a new game. Forbes.com

ClickZ: Hostilities flared this week between the two best-known blog networks after comScore released a blog readership study that was co-sponsored by Six Apart and blog network Gawker Media.

Media buyers have been clambering for just the sort of demographic profiling it offers, and blog publishers should benefit overall from its discovery that the blog audience is both richer and younger than the overall Internet audience.

Yet the research has been challenged by several prominent bloggers, including -- most loudly -- Jason Calacanis, publisher of Gawker rival Weblogs Inc. Network (WIN).

Calacanis accused comScore of bias and inconsistency, pointing specifically to discrepancies between blog traffic rankings offered by the report versus those sites' own stats packages. He calls into question the number of sites published by report sponsor Gawker Media that fall in the top 20 sites ranked by unique visitors and visits. And he's particularly appalled at the report's rating of Gawker.com over WIN's Engadget.com.

On his blog, Calacanis has accused comScore of bias based on the personal relationship between Denton and the report's author, Rick Bruner.

Denton dismissed Calacanis' objections.

"I know it galls Jason Calacanis that his sites are about as memorable as Burger King franchises, and that none register among the top blogs, except Pete Rojas's Engadget," he said.

Denton added, "But Jason Calacanis misses the big picture. The study finally provides evidence for what we've all hoped for: that blog readers are younger and richer than average, and, one hopes, thinner."

New York Times: For the first time in the 80-year history of The New Yorker magazine, a single advertiser will sponsor an entire issue.

The Aug. 22 issue of The New Yorker, due out Monday, will carry 17 or 18 advertising pages, all brought to you by the Target discount store chain owned by the Target Corporation. The Target ads will even supplant the mini-ads from mail-order marketers that typically fill small spaces in the back of the magazine.

The Target ads, in the form of illustrations by more than two dozen artists like Milton Glaser, Robert Risko and Ruben Toledo, are to run only the one time in the issue. They are intended to salute New York City and the people who live - and shop - there.

"We try to do breakthrough things in many different places," Minda Gralnek, vice president and creative director at Target in Minneapolis, said in a telephone interview.

" 'Expect more. Pay less' is our mantra," Ms. Gralnek said, quoting the Target slogan, "and this is part of 'Expect more.' It's not ordinary."

TEQUILA\ was launched in Paris in 1986 by Jean-Marie Dru, President & CEO, TBWA\ Worldwide, and has since become one of the world's fastest growing marketing networks with 48 agencies in 34 countries. An Omnicom Group company and partnered with TBWA\ Worldwide, today TEQUILA\'s major clients include adidas, HP, Nissan, and Sony PlayStation.

According to Adweek, Jeremy Pagden is Tequila's new President and CEO. Pagden, 46, is currently CEO of Omnicom's The Integer Group in Golden, Colo., a post he will retain. No explanation was given as to how one man will lead two agency networks--Integer owns full service agencies in Dallas, Denver, Des Moines and Cleveland.

Perhaps this deal makes Integer part of the Tequila network? Jay?