Adverganza's Thursday morning picks, 10.30.08

Wherein I scan the Thursday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Ad Age wants to know what you thought of the Obama infomercial.
--Procter & Gamble cut its ad budget by $67 million in the first two months of the quarter, with TV taking the biggest hit.
--And you thought what Pepsi was doing on the packaging front was dramatic. McDonald's CMO Mary Dillon is calling Mickey D's repackaging initiative its "biggest packaging initiative in the history of the brand." Kind of reminds me of what Burger King does.
--Ken Wheaton says that a certain Subway ad was " ... stupid, lazy, completely lacking in creativity and -- possibly -- disrespectful to the long-dead Abraham Lincoln. But racist it was not." If you want to know how he really feels, click here.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Finally getting under the hood of Honda's musical road.

From Adweek:

--Sir Martin Sorrell thinks next year's gonna suck too.
--So major media agency honchos think this recessionary media climate could last for a couple of years. Time to take that sabbatical.
--What's red and green and good all over? Starbucks' new partnership with (Red).
--Adidas launches global campaign from 180/LA featuring NBA stars who adopt young players. I've posted a 4-minute vid from the campaign below. There's also footage available at adidasbasketball.com.

--Is it just me, or does this revamp of Sony's Crackle sound a lot like Hulu?
--Ad of the Day: A Travelers Insurance commercial from Fallon. Since it's not posted at the Adweek site, I've done so below.


From Brandweek:

--Hey! Good news! Earnings are up at Kellogg's, Kraft and Procter & Gamble! And it's partly due to advertising!
--Embarq, a phone company I've never heard of, willing to give consumers 48 seconds of fame on YouTube. I think the company could use it.
--More on McDonald's: it's corporately responsible.

From Mediapost:

--The new Nissan "Z" to launch first in the game "The Need for Speed: Undercover" from Electronic Arts.
--The book "The Age of Conversation" featuring contributions from 237 marketing bloggers, is out. No one asked me, so I'd suggest you not buy it.
--Well, there's some good news at General Motors. It set sales records in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America last quarter.
--The future of online video from the OMMA Video conference.
--In case there was any doubt, Nielsen says MySpace is the no. 1 online destination for 15-to-24 year olds looking for info on new movies.
--AOL discovers social networking.
--Another layoff roundup. Read it if you dare.
--Meredith's revenue declines in its fiscal Q1 2009, down 6.7 percent in broadcast and 9 percent in publishing.
--Guess I missed that there's now an Oprah Winfrey Network. Anyway, former Lifetime exec Maria Grasso is now svp/programming.


From Mediaweek:

--Ready for the Out-of-Home Advertising Bureau?
--Comcast posts strong earnings; CEO Brian Roberts attributes to his father having lived through the Depression.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: CBS won Tuesday, au revoir Cloris.

From The New York Post:

--Everyone must be cutting back if Google has closed down its afternoon tea on Tuesdays.
--Had to run the picture at right of the Post's take on the Obama informercial.

From The New York Times:

--TiVo and Netflix together at last.
--Teen Vogue creates a hangout at the Mall at Short Hills.
--This group called The Beatles in a deal with MTV's Rock Band.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Gee. They're having trouble marketing the movie "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." Free.
--Online video getting easier to search. Free.

That's it for today. Bye all.

Adverganza's Thursday morning picks, 10.23.08

Wherein I scan the Thursday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--I'll just quote the headline on this one: "Cockroaches and New Balance in Rotterdam."
--Oh, God, no! Another review in which a client (in this case Hewlett-Packard's Technology Solutions Group), tries to pick the fairest holding company of them all.
--Recession blues? Go eat a Big Mac. Everybody else is.
--3 Minute Ad Age: More on that Ivanka Trump/Healthy Choice weirdness.
--Guns 'n' Roses ready to release its album. Dr Pepper all around!
--George Lois rants about Esquire, The New Yorker and Ad Age.

From Adweek:

--Bartle Bogle Hegarty won't unzip its jeans to defend the U.S. Levi's account.
--Some folks get hired by Amalgamated.
--What the hell is Reverse Radical Strategy? And what does it have to do with advertising? Maybe you should read this.
--Ad of the day: the U.S. Dept. of Treasury and the Ad Council tells teens to stay out of debt. So. where's the campaign targeted toward Wall Street execs?

From Brandweek:

--Grey gets the Green Earth Technologies CPG account. Wonder what Procter & Gamble thinks about this, or maybe those old-school conflict issues are, well, too old-school.
--Kimberly-Clark sees earnings dip but still wants to spend money on marketing.

From Mediapost:

--Five percent decline in holiday spending predicted. At what point does all of this become self-fulfulling?
--Wii Music goes on sale this week!
--Isn't it comforting to know that Chevrolet can still manage to advertise on the World Series? This time, it's to promote the Traverse.
--LinkedIn launches a B2B market research network.
--Who knew? 18-to-34-year-olds allegedly pay attention to marketing messages in emails. Sounds fishy to me. Sorry.
--Whole buncha companies, including Facebook, join the Advertising Research Foundation.
--Second year of C3 ratings shows cable up 10 percent.


From Mediaweek:

--Telemundo does a product placement deal for the Chevy Malibu.
--The Webisode lives: CBS and Saturn partner on a Web series called "Novel Adventures." It's about women in a book club, who, presumably, drive. Get it?
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: on Tuesdays, it's between Fox and CBS.
--Yet more scanning of the brain, this time sponsored by Google and MediaVest.

From The New York Post:

--AIG hires Burson-Marsteller. What? Does it have an image problem?
--Are Wenda and Martha having trouble getting along?

From The New York Times:

--The New York Times Co. third quarter numbers are in, and they ain't pretty: print advertising revenue down 18.5 percent; 51.4 percent decline in profit; online ad revenue up only 2.5 percent.

Looks like that's it for the picks today. See ya.