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 …
Taking Size 14 and 36DD Risks
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. …
Atkins Goes From Low-Carb to Low Cash
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 …
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My Life. My Card. My Idea. My Lawsuit.
If you tell people you work in advertising, have you ever heard someone say, "I've got a great commercial idea for Coke. What do you do, just call them up or send in your idea?" And then they don't understand why you can't really do that. Here's why, courtesy of The New York Times: A California small businessman contends in a lawsuit that American Express stole his idea for the tagline of the company's "My life. My …
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Coq Bloqers
Regarding the removal of sexual innuendo from BK's new micro site, Ad Age provides the quote of the day: …
Britain Says Fat, Balding Guys Belong In Beer Ads, Not Good-Looking Dudes
I just have a hard time believing this article, but here 'tis, from the Times in Britain: Drinks companies have been ordered to hire paunchy, balding men for advertisements to meet new rules forbidding any link between women …
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Wireless Companies Use Too Much Fine Print. In Other News, Scientists Declare Earth Is “Round.”
Has Catherine Zeta-Jones been lying to me this whole time? From Ad Age: New York's Department of Consumer Affairs is suing three wireless phone marketers for violating the city's consumer protection law. Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz, in a suit filed in New York Supreme Court, charged Nextel Communications, Sprint Spectrum and T-Mobile USA, with deceptive advertising and is seeking maximum fines as well as …
Integration Disintegrates, At Least In One Account Pitch
From Ad Age: WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, has awarded its advertising account to Publicis Groupe's Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, two executives familiar with the review said. Hal Riney won the pitch against three WPP Group agencies, each of which fielded an integrated "best of class" team from across network offices. Y&R Cos. and Grey Worldwide, both San Francisco, and Ogilvy & Mather, …
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All Tiger, All The Time
So I'm watching the British Open, and right now Tiger Woods has a 4 shot lead with about 5 holes to play. Good thing, too--because Nike and American Express are blanketing the commercial breaks with Tiger ads. See the new Nike one here at Adcritic. It's unlike the Masters, when Tiger sank a sweet putt and Nike didn't capitalize on it with an ad for a month or two, letting Joseph Jaffe claim some credit for quickly …
The United States of Wal-Mart
"It's hard to know exactly when it happened, just as it's impossible to know if, or when, it will end. But for now, it's clear: We're all Wal-Mart's bitches." - John Dicker I have to admit, I'm fascinated by Wal-Mart. I've written about this phenomenon before, as well as noted how Wal-Mart's bumbling PR negates the effects of lead agency Bernstein-Rein's shiny happy image ads when it compares its opponents to Nazi …