Monday, May 12, 2008

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 05.12.08

A little late with the Monday morning picks. Had to get an early-morning assignment in. OK, I'm still scanning the headlines so you don't have to:

From Advertising Age:

—Magazine leads with Dove retouching story. Still think it's much ado about nothing, but what do I know? I'm a blogger.
—Fun! Look at how much holding company CEOs make. The winner is Omnicom's John Wren, who made more than $10 million last year.
—The dicey job of marketing the new Batman movie after Heath Ledger's death.
—Amid the doom and gloom, advertisers focus on a new product: hope.
—More thumbs down on the upfront. Here's a chart predicting how the broadcast nets will do.
Is sampling the new media buy?
—More on the executive shuffle at Aegis.
—Bob Garfield took a happy pill and gave 3.5 stars to this Nike apparel ad from 72andsunny and directed by Guy Ritchie.
Video interview with Lee Jeans CMO Liz Cahill on how the company has dipped its toes into social media.

From Adweek (a lot of good stuff in this issue):

—Cool story by Mark Dolliver about how consumers might not reward companies for their green efforts.
Branded entertainment around social responsibility is the next big thing.
—Hunter College not happy about Coach-sponsored college course.
—Another cool story, this one from Brian Morrissey, on brands that build themselves entirely through communities. Accompanying video interview with Rob Kalin of Etsy.
Moms skip commercials on DVRs. Didn't finish the story, but here's why we skip: we're too damn busy.
—Mark Wnek does a direct upload of his brain in this great, rambling post about the 4As conference.
Barbara Lippert isn't feeling that warm and cuddly about Carmichael Lynch's first Subaru effort, which focuses on love. Wish they'd link to the spot so we could all watch it.
Tony Granger! Unleashed!

From Brandweek:

—Consumer electronics ask you to recycle your old consumer electronics. Hope this circle is virtuous.
—Shocker! Social networkers don't like untargeted ads.
—Smaller candy makers not dancing in the aisles over the Wrigley/Mars merger.
Casual dining out, buying frozen dinners in.
Q&A with David Churbuck, vp/global Web marketing, Lenovo. Best quote: "'There is nothing to do in Second Life except, pardon my bluntness, try to get laid.'"
—Why do I find this story about "A-list" business execs being receptive to advertising funny? Doesn't it make them also sound gullible?

From Mediapost:

—Coke starts its Olympic push. You can get a fridge pack in Ethiopian, Thai and Mandarin. Collect 'em all!
Some "Sex and the City" Mercedes ad. Sounds cheesy.
—Hey everybody! Free iced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts on Thursday!
—Forgot to mention that Facebook is now offering data portability too.
Saturday is Pangea Day. Sorry, can't make it. I've got a kid's baseball game to go to that day.
—The Media Ratings Council withholds accreditation of C3.
—NBC Universal says it will make money on Internet!

From Mediaweek (a new member of the Monday morning picks club!):

Cablevision buys Newsday. Who the hell knows why.
Manhattan Media buys 02138—the magazine silly, not the zip code.
—The U.S. Open will be cablecast where it belongs.
—This week's Programming Insider.
—Video of Alan Frutkin on the upfront.

From The New York Post:

Cable wants to eat the broadcast networks' lunch.
—Who was supposed to be at the Time 100 party. And I don't mean any of us.
Dissident Yahoo shareholder has only 96 shares but knows how to rile things up.

From The New York Times:

Norman Pearlstine joins Bloomberg as chief content officer.
If you know what primetime is, let us know.
—Duh. Playboy faces competition from the Internets.
—Advertisers like a (TV) year with 52 weeks in it.

From The Wall Street Journal:

More downbeat predictions about the upfront. Free.
CW sells a block of primetime. Free.
"Speed Racer" business kinda slow. Subscription required.
Cool Buzzwatch post about the "When Obama wins" phenomenon, as in "
“When Obama wins…SkyNet will be destroyed at last.” Free.

Phew! That's it for today. Have a good one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You probably don't hear this enough, but thanks for doing this. It's become one of my required stops and much needed laughs on a Monday. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

100% agree Paul.
Cathy saves me a good hour or two a week by doing this, plus her choices of what to read are always spot on.
I've been trying to figure out a way for CPT to cashify this sort of service - sort of a Reader's Digest-meets-personal shopper kind of thing.