Oh. for the love of Clio, The Donny is finally back. Or, at least his agency has caught a break and has, perhaps, put plug in the wound through which clients where hemorrhaging. Last week, Deutsch won a branding assignment from Babies "R" Us after a two month review. While this is tremendous news for the agency, we have to wonder what it was like, during the review, for both Deutsch and Babies "R" Us management to see repeated stories about Deutsch's latest account loss. It had to hurt. We love a comeback. Now, can we just file away that picture of Donny in a Speedo forever and quit making fun of the guy. I mean what advertising news website would ever stoop to such trashy, tabloid-like behavior?
Making it clear Monster, unsurprisingly, was already speaking to other agencies prior to its dumping Deutsch, the job site has, two weeks after dropping Deutsch, launched a new campaign created by Boston-based Brand Content which had, earlier, done project work for Monster. The campaign will consist of television commercials, and new website features.
Brand Content was formed by Doug Gladstone who previously worked with Monster while at other agencies. Like PictureTel (now part of Polycom), Monster's one of those Boston-based accounts that, if you've worked at an area agency, you've worked on Monster. We did our stint on the account too.
Wax Brand has capitalized on MTV Real World: Philadelphia dude Landon's famous bulge in a homoerotic ad campaign complete with tighty whitey guy-guy-girl threesome. The guys can have each other. I'll take the girl. Predictably, this image has been removed from Wax Brand's site. Another pic here.
Nikolai Borg, born in 1919, claims he developed of the Volkswagen logo in June 1939 under the direction of Nazi engineer Fritz Todt. Borg does not want money but simply acknowledgment from VW. VW is denying Borg's involvement and claims the logo was submitted to the Third Reich patent office for copyright in 1938. VW also denied Todt ran the "Volswagen" project which was part of a larger Nazi "Kraft durch Freude" project which was a propaganda recruitment campaign. One of the primary aspects of the KdF program is said to have been the encouragement of people to buy the "people's car" or "Volkswagen."
The outer ring of the VW logo was a cog, not the current circle. That was later change by the British after WWII. The logo for the DAF, parent to KdF and a Nazi trade union, was a swastika surrounded by a cog. Whether Borg's claim is true or not, Volkswagen, though it needed really worry at this point, is distancing itself from the situation. Borg will present his case July 6.
Brenner Thomas succumbed not yet aware of the Axe ad campaign messaging, went out and bought some of the company's shower gel then, checking the campaign out, commented on heavy intertwining of sex to sell the product, writing, "As I've said before, male showering is marketed as a requirement for meeting the standards of the other, cleaner sex. But Axe takes this a step further. Attractiveness isn't the end goal of showering here; sex is. The Axe website makes their intentions clearer than a horny freshman at a sorority party. The splash page features suggestive images of a shower's ceiling lined with mirrors, and bathroom with towels engraved with "His," "Hers," "Her Roomate's," "Her Sister's." You can just see the famous jocks of Heathers punching it in. Even the loading icon is horny. It reads "Your Mojo is Loading." And I guess that's what Axe really is, a mojo-enhancing lube for heterosexual sex.
Putting professional models out of work left and right are Hollywood actresses scooped up by fashion brands gloming a trend to hawk their latest smells/lotions/clothing. Today. it's Gwyneth Paltrow's turn. She's signed a mulit-year deal with Estee Lauder to be the brand's face for its line of pleasures fragrances and makeup. Ads featuring Paltrow will debut during the 2005 holiday season.
Paltrow, 32, follows Elizabeth Hurley, Liya Kebede and Carolyn Murphy as the brand's makeup, skincare and fragrance celebu-spokesmodels. Estee Lauder execs gushed predictably sachrin sweet praise on Paltrow's iconic stature which we'll spare you from but if you want the full on corporate blather, you'll find it all in the company's press release.
 Don't Steal Our Shirts According to clothing company Crown Farmer, the Urban Outfitter chain has "stolen" two of the company's designs, cut them up, placed red x's over them, affixed them to the backs of vintage blazers and is, apparently, marketing them without Crown Farmer's permission. The two t-shirt designs say "the stuff you huff" and "take pills and chill"
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Last Friday it was reported Tokyo Disney developer Oriental Land Co. had been outsourcing the resort's cleaning to Chuo Kohatsu, a company said to have ties to the Japanese mafia or Yakuza. The cleaning contract was signed in 1984 with a Kohatsu executive whose older brother, Saburo Shiga, is now said to be part of rightist group Zen Nippon Aikokusha Dantai Kaigi. Oriental Land President Toshio Kagami apologized and said the company will not renew its contract with Kohatsu.
While Abercrombie & Fitch will explain it away as some sort of reverse psychology, others think the new alcohol themed t-shirts promote underage drinking. With slogans like "Sotally Tober," "If you can read this, you need another cocktail" and "Bad girls chug. Good girls drink quickly," there's no hiding the message. However, no kid is going to wear a shirt that says, "Gee, drinking is really bad. You shouldn't do it." At least these shirts might spark discussion about drinking and older folks ought to realize most kids aren't stupid enough to think A & F would promote drinking any more than they would promote Nazism.
While we don't pretend to be a medical expert, we've certainly heard sugar has a little something to do with a disease called Diabetes. Well, after sugary soft drink marketer Cadbury Schweppes entered into a three-year, multi-million dollar alliance, American Diabetes Association Chief Scientific and Medical Officer Richard Kahn seems to think otherwise and told Corporate Crime Reporter, in an interview, "What is the evidence that sugar itself has anything to do with diabetes? There is no evidence."
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