Swiss Beer Uses Marijuana Imagery in Ads

Swiss beer maker Anfblute has been found guilty of promoting drugs because ads displayed marijuana leaves. Although no traces of actual marijuana were found in the beer by a team of experts, the beer, which carries the tag, "Beer with hemp leaves and hemp flowers," reportedly carries a strong aroma of marijuana.

Thanks to Adrants reader Charley Brough for the tip.

Network Advertising and Promotional Clutter Hit News Highs

The annual MindShare Clutter Watch study measures how much non-programming activity occurs during an hour on television. It's now routinely over 15 minutes except for CBS has 14:18 per hour. That's up 58 percent from the good old days of the early 80's when per-hour clutter stood at a brief 9.5 minutes.

It's well known that increased clutter reduces ad recall and decreased clutter increases it but networks can't themselves from sniffing the line of ever diminishing ad dollars to keep themselves high on revenue. Networks are now in a pre-orgasmic state of urgency, fully aware the ride is almost over but equally unable to stop the incessant pummeling of viewers until their clutter violently explodes in the face of viewers leading to the inevitable post-coital recovery period where networks will have to re-tool and limp back to a workable business model.

Burping, Farting, Puking Squirrel and Hot Chic Sell Video Game

As a hot chic writhes in bed while talking on the phone about the night before, some poor dude with a serious case of morning after disease is wretching his brains out in the background. Turns out the dude is a squirrel and the whole thing is an ad for a video game called "Bad Fur Day."

Absolut Commercial Levels With Circ du Soleil

Absolut's new commercial for its new Level vodka executes a great concept for the premium product. Also in this week collection of AD Age's TV Spots of the Week are an "oozing cigarette" anti-smoking campaign running in England that has achieved a 94 percent awareness level, an SBC Yellow Pages ad that truly defines where a man and a woman's mind are at, Revlon's mini-movie with Halle Berry, Eva Mendes, Julianne Moore and Jaime King, a sushi-loving dolphin for the Baltimore Aquarium, an intriguing approach to illustrating the affects of dislexia from the International Dislexia Association and finally, another boring car ad from BMW.

Click here to view spots.

Magazine Product Placement Next Inevitable Marketing Channel

Frustrated with difficulties in reaching their target audiences, some marketers are leaning hard on that wall between church and state. While commonplace on television magazines are beginning to wrestle with the issues of editorial product placement and the affect it will have on editorial integrity. Ad Age takes and in-depth look at the issue.

Meskauskas: Rich Media and Standardization Biggest Industry Issues

Underscore Marketing Chief Strategic Officer Jim Meskauskas says his biggest frustration is the lack of standardization among publishers when it comes to creative units. That said, he's a fan of the various forms of rich media and uses it for almost every one of his clients. Meskauskas also chimes in on the difficulties of Terms and Conditions, AOL's dramatic and positive shift in sales service and yet the surprisingly bad form displayed by many other publishers. Looking to the immediate future, Meskauskas, when asked to reveal some upcoming industry developments, hints of some insider information saying, "A publisher, or publishers, will successfully monetize audience-based media currency, finally connecting advertising with people instead of just impressions."

Business 2.0 Magazine a Survivor Among the Big Business Boys

Unlike its brethren of a few years ago, Time Inc.'s Business 2.0 has managed to survive and grow into a successful and profitable business magazine. An upstart a few years ago during the dot com boom, the magazine is now holding its own with a circulation of about 550,000. PIB states ad pages are up 16 percent and revenue is up 2 percent for Q1 2004.