Stop Oil Speculation Now is a PR campaign backed by the airlines. It's designed to create sympathy for their plight (and deflect blame) as they attempt to cope with sky hugh fuel costs. According to Ad Age, the campaign is working. Nearly 1 million messages were sent by airline customers to Congress in the first two days of the campaign. The goal of the campaign is to pressure Congress to regulate gas prices. …
More Obamarketing
I've written before about Barack Obama's sophisticated marketing machine. Today's Salon reveals even more: Now Obama's campaign is aiming to be ahead of even the GOP's standard in applying sophisticated data mining techniques across the board, supported by all the traditional canvassing, door-knocking and other work it's been doing. The campaign is collecting some of the most helpful data on its own. For example, …
P&G CMO Steps Down
Jim Stengel, P&G's Chief Marketing Officer since 2001, is stepping down, to be replaced by Marc Pritchard, former head of P&G's cosmetics business. Stengel's worked for P&G for 25 years. Ad Age reports that his last day will be Oct. 31. Why's he leaving? Was he pushed out? He's only 53 and, according to AdWeek, he's got big plans for the future: [A] P&G rep [said]...Stengel was simply ready to move on. "Jim feels …
Suzuki Has A New Ad Agency!
I hope this means they're getting rid of their tagline with the exclamation point! Here's the story from Ad Age! American Suzuki Corp. has handed its $100 million-plus auto account to independent Siltanen & Partners Advertising, Marina del Rey, Calif., just three months after bringing on the shop to handle two projects. Congrats, Siltanen! But in all semi-seriousness, I hope they don't dig up Baby Bob again! …
Have A Drink with Mother Freedom
Phil McClary, a musician from Smithton, MO near St Louis, asks A-B to reconsider. According to The Guradian, McClary performed his work to a warm reception at an anti-InBev rally over the weekend. He told his local paper: "I have had numerous emails from people who worked at AB telling me the song really summed up what they were feeling." …
The Right Spin
Karen Hughes can sell. In fact, she can even polish a turd, and that's not something many people in this business have the stomach for. According to The New York Times, Hughes is now with Burson-Marsteller and ready to pitch in. Here's a small slice of her email introduction to the Burson crew: I’ve always considered myself an advocate for the people I’ve advised, and I’m looking forward to advocating on behalf of …
To Regulate Or Not To Regulate Online Advertising
How did we end up in a world where private companies want more regulation and the government wants less? If I understand this New York Times article correctly, that's what's happening: The Senate Commerce Committee began Wednesday to look at how online companies collect and use data about Internet users for advertising, and was told by several big Internet companies that it needs to pass a new law to enforce privacy …
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Real Mad Man Looks Back
Designer William Drenttel, a founding editor at Design Observer, discusses his pre-design background as a "Mad Man." When I started at Compton, account executives on Procter & Gamble generally had MBAs from Penn, Columbia or Dartmouth. We were white and generally male. We bought our (white) shirts at one of three places: Brooks Brothers, J.Press ("of New Haven"), or Paul Stuart. There were no other acceptable …