USA Today: America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider, will pay $1.25 million in penalties and change some customer-service practices to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. About 300 consumers had filed complaints with Spitzer's office accusing AOL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner (TWX), of ignoring their requests to cancel service and stop billing. The …
It’s A Put On
According to Adweek, a new print ad by independent McClain Finlon depicts Breckenridge Ski Resort snowboarders as members of an exclusive gentlemen's society. Breaking in the October Snowboarder and Transworld Snowboarding magazines--as well as 20 x 24-inch posters--the full-page ad stars the Colorado resort's sponsored snowboarders, all of whom live and snowboard in the Breckenridge area. Instead of their usual …
White Flight
Washington Post: When designing the new look for US Airways, America West executives turned their back on high-salaried Madison Avenue image consultants. Instead, they interviewed employees from both of the merged airlines: flight attendants, pilots, mechanics and executives. The newly redesigned planes, which make their debut today, aspire to a brighter appearance than US Airways' current fleet. The new look is …
Values Are Great But Money’s Money
The Wall Street Journal is running an article on Wal-Mart's effort to sell more spirits. It's pretty comical. Selling more alcohol raises complicated issues for a company that presents itself as a folksy all-American enterprise and an arbiter of social mores. In addition to banning risque magazines from its stores and selling sanitized versions of CDs with controversial song lyrics, Wal-Mart forbids alcohol …
Wheaties: Breakfast Of Champions, Vitamin Of Breakfast-Skippers
Well, this article in USA Today is a few months old, but strolling through CVS this weekend, I saw Wheaties multivitamins for the first time. Next to the "Total" multivitamins. I had no idea such products existed. It is a very interesting brand extension, especially for breakfast skippers like me. Mostly, it's the packaging that stands out in a sea of multivitamin sameness. Essentially, General Mills, maker of the …
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The New Yorker Hits Target, Or Vice Versa
If you haven't seen this week's issue of The New Yorker, go to the newsstand and check it out. The entire issue features no other advertiser than Target, who commissioned a number of illustrators to incorporate its brand look and feel into ads without copy. The result feels seamless: you're not really getting sold anything, and the bullseye becomes quite iconic in the hands of talented folks. Of course, it helps …
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Media On The Menu
Ad Age: The Kroger Co. has signed a deal with In-Store Broadcasting Network (IBN) to launch a TV network in 2,500 Kroger stores, according to the company. Kroger, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the nation's No. 2 grocery chain behind Wal-Mart; IBN, of Salt Lake City, Utah, provides in-store music and TV advertising services to supermarket and drug store chains. Kroger says the new in-store TV messaging system …
Kodak’s Paperless Reinvention
USA Today: It won't be a snap to sharpen its image, but tonight Kodak begins a blitz of new ads and products designed to make consumers see it as a world-class digital-imaging company. The opening shot will be hard to miss: Ads will air simultaneously at 9 p.m. ET on the major broadcast networks and selected cable channels and Internet sites. The effort comes at a critical time. Kodak has been restructuring for a …
