Recently, Pfizer has been running a campaign touting a study claiming use of Listerine is as effective as flossing teeth. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin says Pfizer is engaging in false advertising and posing a treat to the public.
"Dentists and hygienists have been telling their patients for decades to floss daily," Chin wrote. "They have been doing so for good reason.
The benefits of flossing are real -- they are not a 'myth.' Pfizer's implicit message that Listerine can replace floss is false and misleading."
The ruling followed a suit filed by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil-PPC Inc. Chin says Pfizer twisted the results of the study whose writers urged dental professionals to continue to recommend daily flossing and not to replace flossing with mouthwash.
A recent billboard campaign placed by Champaign, Illinois hip hop record label Up A Notch Records apparently encouraged local student organization UC Hip Hop to "vandalize" this billboards to achieve more publicity. The boards, with the headline, "Hip Hop Rots Your Brain," were accompanied by a logo for the fictitious Coalition of Responsible and Attentive Parents whose acronym, not surprisingly is CRAP.
One of the boards was vandalized to read, "Stereotypes, Racism, Ignorance Rots Your Brain." The campaign and the vandalizing are hot topics of discussion on a UC Hip Hop and LiveJournal forum. The cynic in us, along with the all too convenient images and forum commentary, makes us think the whole thing is manufactured but, then again, we are very cynical.
There's always a premium on well placed, well viewed media and, today, Anna Kournikova's bikini is no exception. Trouble is, planning a media buy to coincide with these well viewed bikini appearances would not be an easy task. Though, with paparazzi recording her every move, an enterprising media planner could cut a deal with Kournikova's handlers or, better yet, directly with the photographer who could, with the help of a graphic designer, easily photoshop a brand's logo onto her swimwear. Then when Kournikova's images race around the Internet faster than a teenage boy's first time with a....oops, yes, we know that one is so over...the brand would reap more exposure than all the Super Bowls combined. And talk about time spent viewing.
Today, though, might not be a good day for an advertiser to avail themselves of Kournikova's worldwide reach as it seems she's either suffering some sort of bikini bottom malfunction or has acquired a sudden fascination with her most private of parts. It might be best to view these images when your boss isn't looking.
 New Mitsubishi Eclipse With its U.S. corporate management in turmoil, sales sagging, and an ad agency review tainted by dealer complaints, Mitsubishi is in need of all the help it can get. It may soon have some from a less than traditional source. Reported earlier, the DoubleThink Ad Hoc Creative Team are preparing a presentation for Mitsubishi and newly named CEO Rich Gilligan. Commenting on the approach the group is taking, DoubleThink's Harry Webber, today, said, "This is a brand immersion campaign that utilizes technology and branded entertainment as well as advertising to fully envelop the lifestyle of their (Mitsubishiu's) Gen Y target audience. An audience that is extremely adverse to traditional marketing methodologies."
In preparing the campaign, Webber has announced the addition of Emmy-Award winning Producer John Feist to DoubleThink. Feist, who produced Survivor, Restaurant and Casino will serve as executive producer on the branded entertainment elements of the mystery-shrouded campaign. Commenting on his decision to join DoubleThink, Feist said, "When I saw the scope of what Harry Webber's group had created for the launch of the 2006 Eclipse, I had to be involved. This campaign leaves cutting-edge in the dust."
Webber's DoubleThink previously created an ad hoc campaign for Coke with the tagline "A Cool American" which caught the eye of Coke execs but, ultimately, did not go any further. This time, Webber is looking to gain more ground with a campaign that doesn't just speak to but lives and breathes the language of the Mitsubishi Eclipse target audience.
.  Following the launch of the GM SmallBlock weblog, as expected, GM has launched another weblog. This one, called FastLane Blog, will feature the writings of GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and other GM corporate management. In Lutz's first post, he discusses the success of Saturn and GM's plans to refresh the aging lineup with new products. One of the new vehicles is a convertible called SKY.
GM is the first large scale company to bring the human voice of its corporate executives to the public in the weblog format. While we don't expect to hear about about Bob's Saturday afternoon barbecues or his favorite movie, we can, perhaps, catch a glimpse of into one of human beings behind the coprporate monolith.
Having worked through and contributed to the insanity of dot com era inspired brand naming, we're pleased to see an end to ridiculously idiotic sounding corporate names created though marathon, caffeine-induced brainstorming sessions supported by lengthy PowerPoint presentations so fluffy, not even the most verbally diarrhetic account manager, skilled in the art of brand puffery, could pass off as strategically sound. Writing in business 2.0, Alex Frankel walks us though how we got to that level of insanity, why naming trends change all the time and why we're back to a more common sense-based approach to naming.
If FlapMedia has its way, we won't be seeing the usual silver silhouetted busty babe, or other such low brow imagery, on mud flaps of passing trucks much longer. FlapMedia has introduced flapvertising and signed Wyoming State Tourism as its first client.
"We thought FlapMedia was a terrific idea and wanted to be the first to put our brand on the road," says Diane Shober, Wyoming state tourism director. "I knew we'd made a good choice when a friend from Chicago told me he'd seen a great ad for Wyoming on the mud flaps of a truck driving down I-55 near I-294." Friend-based media research. That's a new one on us. FlapMedia has, however, done its homework and claimed its medium effective by hiring Harris Interactive which found flapvertising to have the highest recall compared to other forms of out of home media. It's truck flaps are priced under one dollar per thousand.
Like the band geek who lost the girl to the quarterback, Boston Herald Publisher is crying over Boston Globe parent company The New York Times purchase of the METRO, of which Boston METRO is a part, claiming it gives the Boston Globe an illegal circulation advantage.
Not missing a chance to slap broadsheet Boston Globe, Purcell said, "We are intrigued that the Boston Globe has finally recognized the merits of tabloid newspapers, but the fact is this deal is aimed directly at the Herald."
While Purcell might be crying, he has good reason. The combined circulation of the Boston Globe (450,000 daily) and the Boston METRO (180,000) is 39 percent higher than allowed by Justice Department rules.
Globe Publisher Richard Gilman brushes off Purcell saying, "The Metro is a single free newspaper in the Boston media market, which has 18 paid daily newspapers. In addition, there are a considerable number of free weekly newspapers, including the many owned by Herald Media Co."
We love a good 'ol smack down among publishers.
Purely to offset the the roadblock of the female form here on Adrants, we are pleased to announce, as well as provide hunk imagery, People en Espanol has raised its rate base from 425,000 to 450,000 with its February issue making it the number one Hispanic magazine in America. Both its ad pages and newsstand sales are up dramatically. See. We're not completely one-sided.
The AdBumb Newsletter, loved by some, maligned by others, has relaunched with a new design and the hiring of Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Hines.
Founded in 2001 and with a claimed circulation of 25,000, AdBumb covers new media for publishers and sales organizations. For those who fall into the "maligned by others" category, Hines has, admittedly, made a vast improvement to the quality of the editorial. Though, we're still not to happy about those massive 700 X 700 ads.
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