For the world's largest burger chain, upgrading its image requires more than advertising--a whole new look is in store at McDonald's. BusinessWeek has the inside scoop. "McDonald's promises to be a 'forever young' brand," says John Miologos, vice-president of worldwide architecture, design, and construction at McDonald's Corp. "We have to deliver on that promise." The last major change at McDonald's restaurants was …
Wal-Mart Goes Shopping For A New Ad Agency
That's the big news from the ad world today. Ad Age and Adweek have respective articles. Currently, the bulk of the account is split between Austin's GSD&M and Kansas City's Bernstein-Rein. And for a long time, too, as Adweek mentions: GSD&M has worked for the retailer for the past 19 years. Bernstein-Rein has been on the roster for more than 30 years. And Bernstein's about to build a new big swanky headquarters, aka …
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Will The Cingular Guy Get To Live?
Kids, back in the old days, there was one phone company: AT&T, also known as Ma Bell. And you rented phones from them. Then, the government decided to breakup Ma Bell into little Baby Bells. Now, Ma's back and she's eating her young. As Ad Age reports: Not only is AT&T -- in the throes of acquiring Cingular owner BellSouth --planning to ditch the Cingular name and ubiquitous, sprightly orange jack, but it will …
Safe Happens. And Apparently, Safe Works
USA Today reports that the new VW Jetta ads depicting car crashes are generating interest at the dealers: Volkswagen says that since the ads touting Jetta's crash safety began on April 10, requests for brochures are up 37% at call centers and 56% on the Web compared with the first 15 days of March, and Internet requests for dealer price quotes are up 58%. Here's a couple of questions for all you ROI gurus: Was VW …
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Is P&G Getting Emotional With Its Ads?
From BusinessWeek: To find a new message for Tide, P&G tried a twist on the traditional focus group. Instead of gathering women in a room, Tide managers and strategists from Saatchi & Saatchi spent two weeks in the field talking to women in Kansas City, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C. They followed women as they shopped and ran errands and sat in on bull sessions "to hear them dish about their lives," says Wanda Pogue, a …
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Can Unions Make A Comeback With The Help Of Advertising?
From the AP: The campaign set to begin Sunday is the first major initiative of the Change to Win labor federation. The 30-second ad, called "Make Work Pay," shows shrinking images of workers as a narrator talks about the gulf between the rich and poor. "They don't have golden parachutes or stock options," the narrator says. "They are tens of millions of hardworking Americans. But while their companies' profits get …
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You WILL Watch The Ads
From the AP: In this era of easy ad skipping with TiVo-like video recorders, could television viewers one day be forced to watch commercials with a system that prevents channel switching? Yes, according to Royal Philips Electronics. A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company have created a technology that could let broadcasters …
Smirnoff Tries To Become Hip By Teaching Stuff
I kinda like this idea. The Smirnoff Studio is presenting free classes in music, art and dance at the Paul Robeson Theater in Brooklyn. You can learn hip-hop dancing or graffiti art or how to make music videos or things like that. I wish they'd take this idea on the road instead of confining it to New York City, which really doesn't need more cultural venues. And hey, after a few vodkas, I like to get my groove on, …
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