Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Pharmaceutical advertising has exploded over the past decade to become the 10th-largest advertising category in the U.S. ... Last year, expenditures for prescription-drug ads jumped 24% to $3.21 billion." After Merck recalled its arthritis and pain medicine Vioxx, direct-to-consumer drug advertising is facing renewed scrutiny.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"WPP Group's agreement to buy Grey Global Group solidifies ad industry power in the hands of four big firms," reports the Wall Street Journal. "The takeover also will give WPP access to Grey's long relationships with such clients as Procter & Gamble, one of the world's biggest advertising spenders. ... During the past decade, ad holding companies rushed to gobble up agencies to serve more clients. ...
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"If you're some group with an agenda, an ax to grind or an issue to promote, now's the time," said the Campaign Media Analysis Group's president. "Political advertising by smaller groups, and individuals in some cases, is popping up across the country," reports Associated Press, "on top of the millions of dollars that larger, partisan groups have spent" on ads.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Stephan Savoia glowed about the picture he would take at the end of the Republican National Convention," writes Karen Brown Dunlap. "He planned it hours before the President's speech by suspending a camera high in Madison Square Garden for the right angle. He imagined the beauty of the moment, but he also growled in anger. 'The picture will be exactly what the White House wanted,' he said. It would show President George W.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Continuing a twenty-year trend that has seen advertising expenses skyrocket as traditional political party organizing has fallen by the wayside, the total for political ads this election year is estimated by most industry analysts at over $1.5 billion, $400 million of which will be spent by the presidential campaigns," report Sakura Saunders and Ben Clarke. "Over the last 24 years, broadcast TV advertising alone has increased from $90 million to over a $1 billion.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"An event once notable for celebrating the spirit of amateurism has achieved an almost unimaginable level of crass commercialism," writes PR commentator Paul Holmes. The Olympics' organizers "are clamping down on anything that might allow TV audiences a glimpse of a non-sponsor's logo. People carrying bottles of Pepsi (or any bottled water not made by Coca-Cola) will have them confiscated ...
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Business Software Alliance's "copyright-crusading cartoon ferret" appears in "marketing campaigns to teach kids to be good cybercitizens," and its "antipiracy comic book and teacher's guide" is mailed to grade-school classrooms.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Democratic 527 group America Coming Together "is deploying thousands of supporters with PalmOne hand-helds to battleground states to play electronic ads individually for voters." The 15 state, $125 million get-out-the-vote effort's "canvassers were already using 2,000 Palms to track voters. ... [An] advertising consultant ...
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Remember how the broadcast networks explained that they would cover only three hours of each of the four-day Democratic and Republican conventions because they are nothing more than infomercials?" asks Lisa de Moraes. Well, ABC and CBS will run "infomercials for products in which the networks have a financial interest" on their Friday newsmagazines. ABC will feature Victoria Gotti, of "Growing Up Gotti" on A&E, owned in part by ABC.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
The U.S. Army's $200 million advertising account is in review. According to the trade journal Advertising Age, the five-year-old "Army of One" tagline may be "out of touch" with the reality of war. The Army will use its ad campaign as its most public face as it tries to recruit 80,000 new soldiers next year. But the Army has to be "careful," Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist and author of Generation Kill. Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War, told Advertising Age.
Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)
520 University Ave, Ste 305 • Madison, WI 53703 • (608) 260-9713
CMD is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit.
© 1993-2024