Advertising

Military Recruitment Ads Focus On Parents

The U.S. Department of Defense has launched a new $1.7 million ad campaign designed to convince parents and other adults to encourage young people to join the military. The Washington Times reports that campaign features five successful veterans, highlighting "qualities such as commitment and perseverance" that the vets have gained from service. "We focus on the more emotional aspects the military has to offer," George Rogers, vice president of the agency that created the ads, told the Times.

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Bamboozled By Ads

"Are Americans more vulnerable to advertisements, and perhaps less skeptical about them, than, say, Europeans?" TomPaine.com's Sharon Basco asked Jean Kilbourne, author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. "The only reason that Americans might be more vulnerable than people from other countries is that we believe we're not vulnerable," Kilbourne said. "There's such a widespread belief in America that we're not influenced by anything really, that you know, we're not culturally conditioned.

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Chemical Industry To Spend $50 Million For Better Image

"Chemical industry trade association the American Chemistry Council said it selected WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, New York, and its public relations unit Ogilvy PR for its $50 million advertising account," Advertising Age writes. "The trade group is looking to its agency to develop a more positive image for the chemical industry, which is battling negative views that have been stoked in part by war talk of chemical weapons and bioterrorism. The council wants the ad campaign to improve the public's perception of the contribution of chemicals to improve consumers everyday lives."

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War: Not So Good For PR & US Brands, But TV Ads OK

"Following a disastrous 2002 for the public relations industry, the war in Iraq now threatens to blight 2003," Advertising Age writes. "The most immediate problem for PR agencies is the shrinking news hole -- a vital element of campaigns -- now that it appears the war will go on for longer than some expected." Bad news for PR, but advertisers need not worry. "A majority of U.S.

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TV Networks Continue to Ban Ads for Peace

"MTV has refused to accept a commercial opposing a war in
Iraq, citing a policy against advocacy spots that it says
protects the channel from having to run ads from any
cash-rich interest group whose cause may be loathsome. ... 'It is irresponsible for news organizations not to accept
ads that are controversial on serious issues, assuming they
are not scurrilous or in bad taste,' said Alex Jones,
director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press,
Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. 'In the world we

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The Good Side of War

"Just as the advertising industry picks up the pieces from a crushing slump, the drumbeat of war is threatening to spoil the recovery," write Merissa Marr and Adam Pasick. "Advertisers are nervously reviewing their campaigns as a U.S.-led conflict in Iraq looms ... reporting a reluctance among some marketers to spend money on new campaigns and launch new products. ... In the last Gulf war in 1991, advertising spending almost entirely dried up for two months.

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Program As Advertisement: Somebody Has to Pay for TV

"A leading television producer and two major advertisers
have joined forces to present a live variety show with no
commercial interruptions. Instead, the advertising messages
will be incorporated into the show. The advertisers, which so far include Pepsi and Nokia
phones, are buying six hours of air time to create what the
program's producer, Michael Davies, called 'a contemporary,
hip Ed Sullivan show' for the youth-oriented WB Network,
part of AOL Time Warner. ... Although the network

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Just Say No to S.U.V.s

"This is George," a girl's voice says. "This is the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. "These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The picture switches to a scene of armed terrorists in a desert. "And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his S.U.V." The ads, modeled after the Drug Council's TV commercials alleging that drug users support terrorism, are the brainchild of author and columnist Arianna Huffington.

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