Unlike the UK, which has pretty strict guidelines on advertising junk food to kids, If you ever wondered why so many young Americans are spotty, overweight, and just generally a pain in the arse... Listen up... We are to blame. And no, I'm not talking about us as parents (well, maybe to a certain...
My last couple of posts have been about US health care and drug advertising, a huge cash cow for American agencies, and one that seems to be completely out of control as far as any kind of meaningful regulatory action is concerned. The other sector of the American economy that has obviously been taking...
For many years Madison Avenue pigged out at the trough of tobacco advertising. Back in the Mad Men days, cigarettes, booze and car accounts paid for many a Westchester mansion, country club fees and the odd boat or two. But with the ever tightening restrictions on tobacco and booze advertising things...
Wasn't sure about Aviva's ad series with Paul Whitehouse as a goth and the one as a silver surfer. But loving the new one as a hairdresser. What do others think?
When I first worked on the Dell account, back in San Francisco, in the early eighties, they were severely kicking everyone else's arse. Not only did they offer a superior product for a superior price… They overlaid this great sales model with the kind of service which guaranteed, not just that the...
With the news today in the US that the latest Burger King gross out campaign from the frat boys in Boulder is once again relying on the use of celebrities to push stuff that will probably kill you, only serves to make me once again wonder if this stuff really works. The new Burger King effort has has...
I know the job scene in the ad biz is pretty bad over there, over here it’s desperate. And with the news out of the holding companies of their continuing drastic losses of income and declining profits, you know it’s only going to get worse. Particularly when the magic answer to all their problems is...
In case you hadn’t realized it, I am a multi-tasking, uber-achieving prince of the blogosphere… Meaning that apart from writing this occasional blog for BrandRepublic, I also write a US blog, and manage to bore the *** out of people with various articles and books. The rest of the time I drink, smoke...
Because America has this strange thing called Chapter Eleven, which is a form of bankruptcy that allows companies to stay in business, even after they have reached a stage were they can no longer pay their creditors, there are quite a few agencies over here looking at a dire situation involving many...
With the terrible financial situation and impending bankruptcy of both Chrysler and General Motors, all the talk in the Ad and Media trades is about how this is going to affect the agencies currently working for both these brands. What has been virtually ignored is that between them, GM and Chrysler...