Marketing

Painting Bottled Water Green

Glass of water"Suppose, for example, that you own a company that sells bottled water," which is "shipped, in its little plastic bottles, ten thousand miles from the bottling plant to the consumer," writes Steve Burns. "Could you possibly 'brand' such a product as eco-friendly?" If the company is FIJI Water, you'll try.

No

New Kids' Book on Plastic Surgery Skirts Breasts

How does a mother explain to her children why she's having a breast augmentation, a tummy tuck or a nose job? Help is on the way -- a new book for kids about plastic surgery, My Beautiful Mommy. The story features a handsome, musclebound, superhero-type male doctor and a Mommy who says that as she got older, she couldn't fit into her clothes any more. Mom explains to her child that the doctor is going to help her fix all that. Mom comes home after surgery looking slightly bruised and bandaged, but with fuller, higher breasts.

No

Auto Racing for Clean Air?

Nuclear Energy Institute coasterSwiss auto racer Simona De Silvestro isn't only "the second woman in the 34-year history of the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda to win a race with her victory in the Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Challenge of Long Beach." Believe it or not, there's another sponsor involved -- the U.S.

No

Finally, Advertisers Have More Say

NBC Universal and Omnicom's Media Group Digital are partnering to create online videos "that help advertisers sell their products." The first "Digital Studio" programs will include "a science-fiction series starring Rosario Dawson called 'Gemini Division' and a quirky comedy about a college-aged zombie called 'Woke Up Dead,'" reports AP.

No

More Heart Attacks for Merck

Prescription pillsTwo studies of internal Merck documents concluded that the pharmaceutical company had "violated scientific-publishing ethics by ghostwriting dozens of academic articles, and minimized the impact of patient deaths in its analyses of some human trials." The internal documents surfaced during l

No

The Pro-Junk Mail Lobby: Fighting to Sustain the Unsustainable?

Junk MailJunk mail kills trees, clogs mailboxes, packs landfills, wastes natural resources, and everyone would be glad to be rid of it. Right?

Well, maybe not.

Whether out of environmental concern or sheer annoyance, legislated efforts to reduce junk mail are on the rise, but companies that have vested interests in its continuance have started organizing to save it--in a big way. Of course, they don't call it junk mail. Their preferred euphemisms are "advertising mail," "direct mail" or even "standard mail."

New Participatory Project: Maximum Weirdness: Tobacco Industry Brainstorming Documents

brainstormA rock cocaine cigarette filter? A cigarette that delivers birth control and sexual stimulant drugs to the smoker at the same time? A geriatric brand? All of these are actual ideas for new products and promotions that were recorded at cigarette company "brainstorming" meetings.

Yes

Medialink's 'Fake News' Financial Woes

The giant of the fake news business, Medialink Worldwide, has fallen out of favor with investors. In the last year the company's share price has plummeted from $5.81 to its current level around the $1.70 mark. In its latest annual report, the company glumly states that sales in 2007 in the U.S.

No

Pages

Subscribe to Marketing