Nestle’s Purina PetCare Company has filed a lawsuit against The Blue Buffalo Company for false advertising, commercial disparagement and unjust enrichment. Purina's complaint follows a March ruling by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which found that Blue Buffalo engaged in misleading advertising practices.
Hey, fellow morons. Just wanted to let you know the marketers are on to us. "People want to want things. Consumers need you to go," says the Canadian Marketing Association's invitation to its 2014 national convention. As an added bonus, Toronto agency Cundari created some short, bad-on-purpose musical skits (see below) celebrating idiot consumers and their search for the meaning of life through brands.
Thanks to improved results in North America and strong performance in high-growth countries, Havas said first-quarter revenue rose to $542 million, with a 3 percent increase in organic growth. That compares to the year-earlier quarter when Havas reported flat revenue of $504 million and a decline in organic growth of 0.9 percent. Havas also said the current first quarter was helped by stabilizing performance in Europe, particularly in the U.K.
Attractive models are great at being sexy in commercials—until the dialogue on the cue cards starts getting super weird and unsexy. Have a look at this video without spoilers, then scroll down for more on the campaign. Spoilers below... Creative studio and production company Big Block Live created the video as a Mothers' Day campaign for Save the Children, which is on a roll lately with some great viral PSAs. Josh Ruben and Vincent Peone (Josh + Vince) directed the spot, having connected with Save the Children more than a year ago.
You're walking down the street and you see a giant 3D mouth singing opera. Maybe you see an enormous, realistic rugby player taking a shower. Perhaps a gigantic Marilyn Monroe dress blowing in the breeze grabs your attention on your way to a bus stop that plays disco music if you touch the weird medallion-adorned hairy chest of a swarthy dude. Well, if you're in France and you encounter any of these scenarios, you've probably come across the latest outdoor campaign from SNCF French Railways and agency TBWA\Paris.
To highlight the global tragedy of children being sold into prostitution and hard labor, agency kbs+ has released three new spots for World Vision Canada's No Child For Sale initiative. Each spot starts with a beautiful childhood scene and ends with the stark reality of life for a child slave. The videos are beautiful, moving, and completely heart-wrenching. The "Bedtime" spot depicts lovely scenes of children falling asleep and being tucked in bed, and ends with a painful shot of a young child lying on a bed under the gaze of a pedophile customer.
IFC is changing ... sort of. "It's a refresh," says Kevin Vitale, marketing vp of creative and brand strategy. "It's more of a facelift." As part of that facelift, the cable channel is changing its corporate logo (its new image is "a stamp") and there no more Independent Film Channel, as of last year—just three letters "that don't stand for anything but mean so much," Vitale jokes. Still, film is a major part of the company's DNA, and so it's also making channel-approporiate trailers for quite a few of its most popular offerings. Adweek responsive video player used on /video.
It’s no secret that the HBO’s series Game of Thrones is absolutely crushing its Sunday night competition, summoning an ever-growing army of loyal viewers in the coveted 18–49 demo. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also one of the most-discussed series on social media, per Nielsen social. Given that evidence, Game of Thrones offers tremendous advertising appeal. But HBO’s ad-free subscription model has long kept brands from directly reaching a show’s audience.
Unload Your 401(k), a powerful three-minute film from Grey New York, takes aim at a new target in the debate over guns in America: the pocketbooks of firearms companies. The video supports UnloadYour401K.com, a site where consumers can find out if their retirement portfolios include gun manufacturers. A coalition of 20 organizations, led by Campaign to Unload and States United to Prevent Gun Violence, is behind the initiative. The film doesn't waste time trying to persuade gun rights advocates.
Look out, Flo. There's a new babe in town. Actually, make that baby. Progressive Insurance is changing things up with a new campaign from Arnold Worldwide featuring a wise-cracking man-child character and a new delivery platform—Facebook Premium Video Ads. The "Baby Man" campaign features just that—a grown man who acts like a baby. He's carried around his office in a baby carrier, slugs juice from a sippy cup and cracks jokes at his colleagues' expense.
