WPP Wins Bidding For Grey

Reducing the number of mega-agencies by one, it looks as if Grey Global will be sucked up by the world's second biggest agency, WPP Group Inc., following its winning bid completed Saturday night. "WPP can confirm that negotiations were completed last night and an announcement will be made tomorrow," said Richard Oldworth, a spokesman for London-based WPP. The agency beat out two other bidders, Havas and Hellman & Friedman LLC.

BMW Mini Robot Hoax Comes Clean

Our favorite ad agency has taken its BMW Mini Robot hoax campaign launched in Spring of this year and gone "honest" with the launch of a new, robot-related site promoting the new Mini Convertible. The site let's you play a "jump" game, check out press buzz on the cars and design your own Mini. We admit it, we love Crispin's work and this acknowledgement of the former "hoax" campaign and integration of it into the new "honest" campaign in nicely done.

Woman Places Craig's List Ad Looking For Makers of Hood Imagery

A woman has placed an ad on Craig's List looking for the couple who left evidence of a certain activity performed on the hood of her car. Acknowledging that her car does, indeed, need a wash and that people tease her about it all the time, she questions the motives used to persuade her writing, "This is my car, not your bed!"

Adrants Billboards: Blog Morphs Into Magazine

• We've seen it before but car advertising is becoming more prevelant spreading by word on mouth and getting the attention of agencies.
• Former Red Herring Publisher and current AlwaysOn Publisher has announced the launch of a magazine based on the AlwaysOn blog network.
• ER's Noah Wyle is likely checking out of the long running series when his contract expires at the end of this season.
• Queer Eye For A Straight Guy has lost its appeal and has dropped 40 percent in the ratings. Men can now return to looking like men.
• The American Museum of the Moving Image has an online exhibit of the past 14 presidential election ad campaigns from 1954- 2000. Check out how campaigns have changed over the years.
• Gruner + Jahr begins restructure and cuts 60 jobs. Fast Company and YM continue to sag. Are job cuts enough or should G + J go on the block?

Aguilera Will Apply Her Name to 450 New Brands

If you think Christina Aguilera's been laying low lately, that will soon change following reports she has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to have her name attached to 450 yet to be introduced products from crayons to deodorant to badminton. She's planning for the day when she's not "Dirrty" anymore.

American Airlines Renews Image With New Ad Campaign

Returning to profitability and assuming the position as the only major airline still fiscally healthy, American Airlines is set to launch a new ad campaign the airline hopes will cast a renewed positive brand identification among consumers. It will leave behind the somber, subdued, price-focused advertising it has of late and go for a more emotional, contemporary sell. One of the ads closes with "It's not just a seat on a flight to a place - it's a seat on a flight to your life."

Also changing is the airlines tagline. "Something special in the air" will be dropped for "We know why you fly." But do they? Why are consumer rushing to Jet Blue and Song?

'The Apprentice' Product Placement Bonanza

Now that The Apprentice was a ratings winner last year, this year it's predictably packed with product placements right down to Trump's silly, "Cancel that meeting, I have to go to Mattel" statement as he rides in his limo. No doubt, the show will be a ratings winner again but like all successful shows, marketers have discovered it and are all over it. It's not a bad thing.

It's just something to get used to. Oh, and Rob was the first to be fired.

Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen Appear In New 'Naked Truth' Ad Campaign

Anastasia Goodstein of YPulse points to a new "Naked Truth" ad campaign launched this week for an upcoming A&E Biography on October 1 featuring the now legal wet dream team, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The "provocative" campaign, shot by Annie Leibovitz, will feature other upcoming featured celebrities on the series such as Brooke Shields, Pamela Anderson, Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Fallon and The Rock.

Juicy Brand Too Juicy For School Officials

Apparently, school officials don't know their fashion brands and sent a 10th grader to the principal's office for the day for wearing a skirt with the butt slogan, "It's all about Juicy." School officials felt the skirt and its slogan could lead to sexually harassing comments. While true and inevitable, it was the girl's mom who gave the ultimate flip off comment to the school informing them they have no juice and are fashion clueless.

MSN Launches MSN Cards to Promote Messenger

Following its successful launch of I Love Messenger, French agency Heaven is launching MSN Cards in France. Targeting teens, the cards are similar to business cards and, like adding someone to your buddy list, the cards hope to be a physical representation of importance of sharing your screen name. The agency has created the MSN Cards site where kids can go sign up for the cards. An initial launch of 800 decks "sold out" in under two hours.

Ultimately, 40,000 decks of 800,000 cards will be offered as a means of spreading the benefits of MSN Messenger in a viral manner.

Just as I Love Messenger began in France and spread to 23 countries, MSN hopes MSN Cards will see the same spread.