BusinessWeek reports on Nike's new Tailwind brand, an attempt to go "downmarket" (read: cheap shoes for cheap people.) Produced by the wholly owned Nike subsidiary, Exeter Brand Group, Tailwind, as the new brand is called, is a fashion-conscious line of footwear, officially launching in three Payless stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn on Tuesday. Initially, the line will be available in 400 stores in select markets, …
Hyundai Down Under–Loved, Hated, And Banned
My post the other day about The Richards Group losing the Hyundai account and their mediocre work made me wonder if other agencies around the world are doing anything cool for Hyundai. Well, I uncovered this New Zealand ad for my Santa Fe: Apparently, it won a Fair Go ad award--sort of a People's Choice kinda thing. (Actually, it won as a "Best" winner and a "Worst" finalist.) And it's now been banned in Australia. …
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The Apple iPhone Oscars Ad
In case you missed it: …
Then We Came To The End: An All-Too-Real Novel
I have a backlog of books I've been wanting to read, so I'll add this one to the list: Then We Came To The End: A Novel by Joshua Ferris, a former Chicago copywriter, is described as this: In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom. Indignation rises over the rightful owner of a particularly coveted chair …
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Did The USA Today Ad Meter Cause CareerBuilder’s Review?
Here's an interesting bit from Ad Age about Cramer-Krasselt's loss of the CareerBuilder account: In an internal memo issued today, the agency's president, Peter Krivkovich, said CareerBuilder put its account up for review after the agency's Super Bowl ads failed to rank in the top 10 in USA Today's viewer poll. "To our amazement, to our total astonishment, all that astounding business success was less important than …
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Hyundai Leaves Skidmarks in Richards’ Driveway
Although I bought a new Hyundai Santa Fe a few months ago, advertising had nothing to do with my purchase. And when I finally saw a Richards Group TV spot for it, I wasn't impressed--and definitely didn't feel like it was connecting with me as a Hyundai owner. Seems I wasn't alone in that assessment: Hyundai Motor America confirmed today it has split with independent The Richards Group and placed its ad account in …
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JetBlue CEO Apologizes On YouTube
If you've been following JetBlue's problems this past week, you know they have some work to do from a logistics and organization standpoint. But from what I can see, they have handled PR crisis management perfectly. Here's the CEO, David Neeleman (who's already been on the Today show, among others): If they follow through, they'll be an even more admired brand than they already were. …
Disabled Veterans Are Also Overlooked In The Ad Biz
Normally, I wouldn't have had my radar too high on this issue, but as I read about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this weekend, it reminded me that all too often, we simply don't, as a society, offer as much support to our veterans as they deserve. Neither does the ad industry, apparently, as I learned flipping through Ad Age this morning. In a letter to the editor, (I can't find the …
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