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Churchill bereft after speeding offences put Martin Clunes on his bike
It says something for Martin Clunes that we will miss him co-fronting those Churchill insurance commercials. The actor, goofier and more touchy-feely in real life than his dour Doc Martin persona...
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Wonga scores own goal with social media subterfuge
Sally Bercow and Alan Davies – who you may recall were a little too keen to blacken the name of Lord McAlpine – are not the only prominent twitterati caught abusing social media recently. Wonga, the...
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How long before Leveson is kicked into the long grass?
LOL – now he knows what it means – must have been David Cameron’s reaction after reading Lord Leveson’s report on the culture, practice and ethics of the UK press. First came an audible sigh of relief...
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Zombie epidemic infects adland
I’m deeply indebted to the international Epica creative advertising awards – on which I served as a juror – for giving me nightmares. Every year, the awards betray certain cultural themes – performing...
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Greed not marketing to blame for lack of trust in banks
My eye recently alighted upon the following headline in Marketing magazine: “Marketing ‘to blame’ for lack of trust in banks”. The article went on to say: “Senior banking executives have argued that...
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Witch-hunt against corporate tax dodgers can damage jobs, as well as brands
There’s a grave danger that the witch-hunt against global brands who fail to pay their “fair share” of UK corporation tax will boomerang on the political class that has instigated it. Google, Amazon...
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Sodastream ad controversy bubbles on
Whatever are the people at Sodastream complaining about? Having their ad pulled from television by the donkeys at Clearcast, the TV advertising vetting service, is a gift. It’s the sort of thing Rupert...
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Tim Mason – end of the road for the other half of the Tesco dynamic duo
Chief executive Philip Clarke’s ruthless dispatch of his number two, Tim Mason, is a final reminder – if any were needed – that the past is another country, so far as Tesco is concerned. They did...
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The Epica Awards: Whatever happened to the 30-second ad?
You don’t have to look far for this year’s Big Theme in the Epica creative advertising awards. After 25 years as a Eurocentric awards scheme, with a nod now and then to the wider EMEA hinterland, Epica...
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Max, Dan, Jerry – 2012′s out-performers
League tables of achievement are as commonplace as turkeys right now. Why burden you with another one? Well, I’ve been asked to – by the good folk at More About Advertising. So: Ad of the Year. Yes, I...
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Brand makeover fails to paper over the cracks in ITV’s strategy
It has been compared to bottoms – and also the most fiendishly complicated sex toy yet devised by Ann Summers. Yes, the new ITV logo, spearheading the TV station’s most ambitious rebrand in 11 years,...
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Horse meat scandal puts grocers through the mincer
Until a couple of days ago, few outside the food retail and logistics business would ever have heard of Silvercrest. Now it has achieved household notoriety as the weak-link in the food chain that has...
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Cameron The Brand Slayer
If it weren’t for the fact David Cameron watches so little television, I would be forced to conclude he has been modelling his recent behaviour on Borg, the Viking Himbo now fronting Tesco’s...
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Will VW Get Happy blowing $10m on a Super Bowl ad?
Roll up, roll up, for the most expensive ad in the world. Volkswagen is about to spend $10m on a single, minute-long air-time execution. Why so pricey? Well, it’s not production values that make it so...
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Neogama loses Bradesco, Omo to Interpublic – and 40% of its revenue
Not all fairy tales have a happy ending. One such is the marriage of convenience between Brazilian hotshop Neogama, its micro-network affiliate BBH and Publicis Groupe. Readers of this blog will recall...
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Brands put the “r” into bands
Leonardo da Vinci was dependent on the Duke of Milan, Cesare Borgia and the King of France; Wolfgang Mozart, the Archbishop of Salzburg – while the aristocratic Esterhazys supported Joseph Haydn....
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Ryanair’s two-fingered salute to social media
I was amused to read that the incoming head of comms at Ryanair (forgive the oxymoron) has “deliberately” ruled out a social media strategy. New boy Robin Kiely tells us – apparently without irony –...
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Richard III gets a brand makeover
Richard III, the marketing angle? Incredible as it may seem, there is one – and Mediapost claims to have detected it. The spectacular discovery of the last Plantagenet monarch’s remains under a...
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Supermarkets should remember the consequences of the Perrier scandal
During the early part of 1990, health officials in North Carolina, USA, made an alarming discovery. Some Perrier bottled mineral water, whose purity was so legendary they had used it to benchmark other...
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Aren’t some Outdoor Plus shareholders compromised by a conflict of interest?
There’s a lot going on under the radar in OOH – or posters, as we anciently called it. And I’m not simply talking of Omnicom’s Eric Newnham-fronted effort to crash the charmed circle of UK specialist...
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