Meet Domestic Abuse Barbie, a doll that will not be modeling for Sports Illustrated or appearing in toy stores anytime soon.
CeeLo Green may be flaking on The Voice, but a new sponsorship deal ensures that fans of NBC’s musical competition series won’t be left scratching their heads.
Papa John's has completed its search for a new lead creative agency. Grey has landed the business, beating back competition from BBDO, Arnold and Doner, the pizza chain has confirmed. The brand's annual media spending totals about $120 million. The new agency succeeds Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which did not defend. Zimmerman, however, continues to plan and buy all media for Papa John's and create franchisee and co-operative advertising. Neither of those assignments were in play.
Procter & Gamble's "Tough Love" ad, which celebrates the pride and determination of athletes and their moms ahead of next month's Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, manages to play on the heartstrings without hitting a saccharin note. Not long ago, images of kids without limbs struggling to excel in sports would have been viewed as appropriate for fund-raising PSAs but too downbeat for other types of advertising. It's a mark of how far we've come that such visuals are now seen as inspiring and triumphant.
Of all the attempts at making inspirational Olympic ads this year, one of the most successful and unexpected came in the closing moments. CoverGirl's "#GirlsCan" spot, by Grey in New York, brings together some of today's most influential women. And instead of simply celebrating their beauty, the Procter & Gamble brand creates a candid and compelling rallying cry for female empowerment.
Here's your clever media placement of the day: M&C Saatchi in Stockholm has advertised LG's OLED-TV, which is 4 millimeters thick, on the spine of electronics magazine Lyd & Bilde (Sound & Image), which is also 4 millimeters thick. Throw in a double-sided arrow, a line of copy and the LG logo, and you're done.
Today's marketers think a lot about producing great content for their audiences. But anyone who has done this successfully knows there's more to launching and sustaining a content program than turning out engaging articles, videos and social posts—as if that weren’t challenging enough on its own. To run content campaigns that move the needle, marketers have to know what data to rely on for their key performance indicators (KPIs), and what data to ignore.
After a four-month review Tiffany & Co. has a new global creative partner: Ogilvy & Mather. The WPP agency will service the business out of New York and Paris. The assignment covers print, digital, video and out-of-home. Tiffany has primarily been handling the business through its internal marketing communications group. Agencies vying for the business included Grey, Sid Lee and M&C Saatchi with the review coming down to finalists O&M, BBDO, N.Y. and TBWA Paris, sources said.
Don't have time to watch Wolf of Wall Street or any of the other Best Picture contenders?
Is JCPenney drunk tweeting the Super Bowl? Is Sports Illustrated putting Barbie on the cover of its Swimsuit Issue? Does Groupon really think Alexander Hamilton was president? When each of these questions flared up recently, the answer was always the same: no, not really.
